A great aunt of mine died recently. She was the mom of Sonia who also died recently. I have fond memories of that great aunt, Aunt Magnel. She gave me lots of food. I ate a lot of her cassava balls (we called puff), her dhal puri, her pholourie, and her icicles – all stuff she made to sell to school children. She was an excellent cook. RIP Aunt Magnel.

Aunt Magnel makes me think of those childhood days when I ate a lot (my tummy was full) and I was happy. I have since seen other days – days or times of want. This makes me think of New York.

When I was stranded in New York, I had no money. I could not buy food. I was hungry a lot. I even joined the bread line at a church organization (for the homeless) to get free food. It is the sort of thing you don’t want to talk about, but I think I should. Being stranded in New York was very difficult.

Even though it was difficult, I managed to get to places that could assist. I found creative ways to get food and complete assignments. I was lucky a few times. For example, I happened to see the Queen’s Library while riding a bus (it was at the end of the line). That library turned out to be an excellent resource.

I recall a bathroom incident in NY. I had an accident when the janitor would not allow me to use the bathroom because she was cleaning it. It turns out that I had a medical issue. I had surgery later that solved the problem.

Thankfully, the nightmare ended when my father managed to get in contact with me in NY. I got a new phone. I was on a flight to Guyana a few days later.

I am not complaining about the NY experience. It made me a lot stronger. It made me realize I can deal with difficult, very stressful situations that could easily drive a person crazy.

Moving on to other topics…..

I realize that I worked at another company that adopted the structural differentiation approach I wrote about in my paper yesterday – ICF/Lockheed Martin. I was a member of a team formed to work on a new, innovative solution that would replace the legacy application. The other team worked on maintaining the legacy application. It was a case of ambidexterity.

I was lucky be somehow involved in (a part of) ambidexterity to achieve exploration/innovation. It just worked out that way.