The Association of Female Executives of Trinidad and Tobago (AFETT) will host a luncheon and discussion on March 8 at the Port of Spain Ballroom at the Hyatt Regency, Wrightson Road, Port of Spain. Professor Rhoda Reddock will act as moderator in the discussion which will involve female Chiefs of Mission from Canada, the European Union and the US. In the lead up to March 8, which is International Women's Day, the Express will be running a series of interviews provided by AFETT which feature women of the Diplomatic corps.

When I look back at my life in the last ten, 20 years it feels bizarre, as if it had not been really me living it. Such was the richness and intensity of the experiences I went through. And it is not as if I was talking of years "lived dangerously" like in the movies…..I am talking about the enriching experiences one goes through when exposed to new people and cultures, to events and sometimes tragedies that directly touch on the fundamentals of human life, the core questions that each one of us sooner or later asks oneself……

I started off in a small Italian town of 50,000 inhabitants situated between Milan and the Lake of Como, very close to the border with Switzerland; close enough to cycle to Como and after a demanding uphill ride be rewarded by the spectacular panorama of the lake. I studied economics, focusing on development economics, thinking it would open the door of the world to me, and it actually did. It has not been always easy though. My family, in particular my parents, gave up on me (so to say) and on the idea that I would settle down and start a traditional family Italian-style, possibly living next door to them. Instead, they had to cope with a gypsy "child" (I was 24 by then) taking off to Peru to teach economics at the post graduate course at the Monterrico Oeste University, as part of an exchange programme.

My mentor professor at Bocconi University in Milan, also gave up on me when I told him that at the end of my assignment in Lima I had decided to take up an option with UNDP (United Nations Development Programme) in Bandung, Indonesia, instead of pursuing an academic carrier in Milan. Bandung is the city where the non aligned countries movement started! More modestly I was asked to be part of a development project to foster the use of appropriate technologies in rural areas.

I turned out to be the only expat working in a rural village close to Bandung, not the city itself, where nobody spoke English…let alone any other language. That was the real beginning of a firm commitment to a vagabond life that has been ping-ponging between Asia and Latin America (with brief casts in Europe, mostly Bruxelles, where the headquarters of the EU is located).

My life took a real turn when I passed the European Commission competition for officials to serve in European Delegations outside Europe, launched by the then Directorate General for Development. It was Europe! It was the opportunity for a firm believer in the European integration project like me, to give a little contribution to a big idea, to be part of it. And since then I have been serving as an official of the EU both at Headquarters and in EU Delegations. I spent almost five years in Argentina and more than three years in India, mostly in charge of implementing EU cooperation projects with those countries. Once back to Brussels in 2008, I was offered to be in charge of the humanitarian aid programme for the Occupied Palestinian Territories and, more recently, of the relations with Somalia at the European External Action Service.

All the mentioned assignments have enriched my personal and professional life tremendously. However, it is not all about oneself and the rewards one may get from one's undertakings. It is about values put to work and the feeling of fulfilment originating from the working at the best of one's capacity for the benefit of others and of a common good.

I arrived in Port of Spain as Charge d'Affaires of the EU Delegation on the January 3. Today I spoke to my parents (who are well in their late eighties) and for the very first time, we managed to see each other in a video call. My father, who was very moved by seeing me on the screen, could not even speak. When am I going back home? Soon, I thought. But not sure when, yet.