Writing With Abandon

“Amy, Dev, Mer, can you hang back at the end of the call?” Rafa asked before the rest of the team jumped off. Our colleagues logged off and I settled into my chair.

“Amy, I asked you to stay back just for a minute to clarify one thing about L’s Ecuador itinerary,” Rafa started, with a smile. “So, the frog concert is not actually a concert. Like, there won’t be frogs coming out and singing to the students.”

I immediately started cracking up, remembering how Adam had looked so excited at our initial itinerary review about this curious concert activity.

“Yeah, I was wondering what that was when I was leading the pre-departure call!” Dev remarked.

“They might not even hear the frogs at all,” Rafa explained. “This is a sustainability-focused activity where they’ll learn about how the town has built out its economy to be environmentally friendly. But there will absolutely be no frogs singing or cracking or whatever it is they do.”

“Croaking,” I offered.

“Exactly. Yeah. So, just to set expectations for your call tomorrow.”

“No problem,” I laughed. “Let me adjust what it says there.”

I pulled up the itinerary document.

“I’m gonna put ‘concert’ in quotation marks. How does this sound? ‘Participate in a unique frog “concert,” amidst the backdrop of the frogs’ croaks’?”

“Ehh,” Rafa wavered, clearly doubtful that they might hear frogs at all.

“Okay, how about: ‘Participate in a unique frog “concert,” embracing the sustainability of the town of Mindo and keeping your ears peeled for the subtle croaks of the frogs in the forest.’”

“There you go,” Rafa replied.

We all laughed again.

“Thank you for that!” I said, then logged off, knowing I immediately had my slice for tomorrow.