Monday, August 26, 2013

The Typo

Recently, I had an interview for the Community Liaison Officer (CLO) position at the embassy. While it wasn't what I was expecting to do while I was here in Togo, it seemed to be a fun job, it would look better on my resume than my current job, and since it was part-time, it would allow me the flexibility to take short-term contract jobs with an international organization here in Lome (more on that later-- cross your fingers for me!). I dressed up fancy for the day, donning slacks and a button-down shirt, a slight deviation from the khakis I wear to move stuff around in the mailroom, and feigned ignorance when grilled by my co-workers about my "professional" appearance. Me? Never!

After the interview, which went quite well, I returned to my desk, where I got busy designing an invitation for a surprise going-away party for one of our friends. I got busy cutting and pasting and eventually sent out a pretty invitation to inform people that we were gonna get our party on!!


Moments after hitting the send button, Mr. Kate called me. There was a big, fat typo right in the middle of my invitation! I had misspelled surprise, a fourth grade spelling word, in the invitation. The invitation that had gone out to multiple members of the international expat community, including people who interviewed me, just hours after I had met with them to prove that I was good with community outreach and came across as professional. NAILED IT! 



A few days later, we had the party and it was great. During the party my supervisor came over to me, complimented me on my mustache and informed me that he was so impressed by my ability to make lip and word-bubble cut-outs, that he was going to hire me again, this time as the CLO. He must not have seen the typo.



We celebrated into the wee hours. By Monday morning, word had gotten out about my new job and as I walked past the CLO office I found this taped to the door:


2 things:
1) I'm really happy that someone else is as excited as I am!
2) Do I need to be self conscious about my jowls?




6 comments:

  1. congrats on getting the CLO gig! it's a fun job :) and don't worry, i've seen plenty of CLO-made publications with editing fails ;)

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  2. Will you be at the CLO training in Frankfurt? I just started as CLO down here in the DRC and would love to meet you and exchange CLO stories from Sub-Saharan Africa! Congratulations on the position and bonne chance with everything -- we've started a very busy, very holiday-heavy part of the year!

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    1. I will!! Yes-- I can't wait to hear about everything you're doing over there! And, yes, I admit, I feel a little overwhelmed starting right before the holidays. I guess I'll have to figure it out quickly! :)

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