DEAR DIARY:THE FORTUNE/U.S STATE DEPARTMENT MENTORING PROGRAM III (Joel Osteen)

Hi,
These are the pictures from by visit with The Lakewood Church. It is
truly a massive auditorium. The service was charged with a lot of positive
energy.

His wife Victoria is particularly gorgeous.

I got a chance to take a picture with him and got his new book signed as
well. Almost lost my cool after i asked a friend to stand in line for me
so I could get the book, on my return the protocol guys said I could not
switch places. The policy didn’t make sense! At this point the queue had
already been closed.
Knowing me, I NO GREE! I waited patiently to say 'My name is Tara and
I came from Nigeria. Can I get a picture and could you sign my book?’ and
of we course with a warm smile, he said, ‘of course’. And viola! Here is
my JOEL OSTEEN's PICTURE WITH TARA.

 I will be in Dallas this Sunday. Hopefully, I will be getting you guys
some pictures from the Potter’s House and BISHOP JAKES AND TARA...
Every meal served in Houston is overly-over sized, it’s unbelievable!
Consistently, I can never finish my food with entrées, desserts et al.
(you are saying tell me something new).Well I hear everything in Texas is
generally bigger.

 On my way to work and being picked by a limooooooo! Exxon is taking good
care of me although I am getting tired of the long list of dinners in my
 honour.I want to scream:"o ti to ooooo!"

Will keep you posted on my exciting day at work.
Did I tell you that Isreal Houghton is the worship leader at Lakewood?
You may notice his face in some of the poor pictures! Enjoy!

Did I give you any gist of
my Saturday trips?

DEAR DIARY:THE FORTUNE/U.S STATE DEPARTMENT MENTORING PROGRAM II

I am presently with my mentoring company, Exxon Mobil in Houston.

I am truthfully having the time of my life here in Houston. Had dinner
with my mentor last night we connected so well, it just flowed (she made
me laugh so much i cried at some point).Although she is a chemical engineer
she could have been an artist or a history or Latin professor. She is
excitable for a 52year old woman, so as you can imagine, she is loads of
fun.

She took me to this HIP restaurant called Alex Bistro owned by a 30+guy,
where discussed and exchanged personal information about family.

Houston doesn’t come across as a city that is or was going through a
recession. There are gorgeous gated communities, which I guess were
previous Ranches. With the entrance of a lot of Oil companies into Houston
many of the Ranches have been redeveloped to provide accommodation for the
new settlers.

I started my day at Exxon with a 30-minute with The President/C.E.O of the
Exxon chemical company which is one of the 8-business unit of the Exxon
Group. Steve Pryor ,a 62 year old man, a biologist by training but was
significant in the recruitment and integration of the Hispanic and African
American into the Company, He was very sweet, and paid very rapt
attention to my plan while at Exxon and gave some fine advise.
Took his time to show the gift that was given to him by the African American community he had worked with as a manager: copy of the slave emancipation act handwritten by Abraham Lincoln. It was something he was so proud of!

After meeting with Steve Pryor, a photo session was organized on my behalf
by their public affairs department, BDA; the lady who was taking the
pictures had never seen the President before or my mentor, so I guess this
is a rare privilege that I have been given! Amen? And the people say…

My Second meeting was with the Most senior female executive at Exxon
Chemical Company, Lynn Lachenmyer. I Spent a little time with my mentor
after an orientation program on the business structure of Exxon and strong
relevance of its chemical company in our everyday lives. You won’t believe
that chemicals for everything that are used for creating plastics,
cling-films, sweet wrappers, makeup, tires, clothing, diapers ,e.t.c are
from Exxon Upstream-Downstream businesses.

I Joined other staff at a YMCA shelter which is one of the numerous C.S.R
projects that my mentor chairs within the organization. I had to make a
small speech about my experience so far, dine with them and went to
Margret's massive house where we chatted a bit more. Saw her two cats,
she told me about her lessons in life as a mum, wife and as a leader in a
previous joint venture she was a part of prior to her movement to Exxon.

Tired...will continue later. Need to a nap

XOXO

DEAR DIARY:THEFORTUNE/ U.S STATE DEPARTMENT MENTORING PROGRAM

Hey guys! Long time no hear,right?so sorry ...was with the mentorship program and all...

Adetoun(another Nigerian nominee for the US state department mentor ship program)and I arrived at the United States of America to a welcome by a cab driver assigned to us from vital voices after such a long and seemingly endless trip.Detoun and I had to pretend we were on the phone as the cab driver insisted on telling us about his experience at an Ibo village, where he had escorted his then girlfriend to her Father's funeral. We arrived at Hotel Palomar to a lovely sunny day and very contemporary room, changed clothes and went downstairs to meet all the mentees from the 32 countries: India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, China, Thailand, Palestinian territories ,Russia, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Uganda, Rwanda, Ghana, Tanzania, Argentina, Brazil and Haiti; All shining stars from their respective nations and doing incredible things for women empowerment.

We had a program introduction and review of program logistics. We had a
representative of the U.S state department, the President and CEO, Vital Voices and the Program coordinator.

I received a package from my mentoring company: a mobile phone, which was
special as no other mentee got one .We chatted, had dinner and went back to
our rooms to prepare for the next busy 4days of orientation.

Our orientation started with a State Department Leadership panel with
heavy tittles like the Assistant Secretary of state for verification,
compliance and implementation ,Director of Policy Planning, Ambassador at
large for global women¡¦s¡¦ issue; All women with qualifications and work
experience that would intimidate you to having goose bumps. They shared
their challenges as mothers and the changing conditions for women leaders
in the world today(no feminists in the room). When asked by one how they
balance work and family, she said, ¡¥you can¡¦t balance but keep joggling¡¦
Now, that for me, was an ¡¥Ahha!¡¦ moment. Interesting, ain't it?

Ann-Marie Slaughter particularly caught my attention with some of her
enlightening yet captivating views. They include:

„Ï 'WHEN YOU PUT FAMILY FIRST, WORK COMES TOGETHER¡¦

„Ï ¡¥REMEMBER YOUR TEAM MEMBERS ARE WHOLE PEOPLE WITH SPIRIT,SOUL AND
BODY,YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR CREATING AN ENABLING ENVIRONMENT; AT THE END
THEY ENABLE YOU AS YOU ENABLE THEM DO THEIR WORK¡¦

„ÏCreate a culture of the presumptive ¡¥Yes¡¦, Which she learnt as the
director of graduate and international legal studies at Harvard law school.
She served as a Dean at Princeton University. She talked about her model of
leadership, Ending with the phrase, ¡¥the people that work with us are whole
people¡¦ and ¡¥putting yourself forward and making yourself the candidate¡¦.

Now, how is that for a start? I would call it inspiring, remarkable and
unforgettable. What would you call it?

We visited with more powerful women, went for a lecture at the prestigious
Georgetown university, had Lunch at Nora's, the first organic restaurant in
America, which was started by a woman 32years ago, networked with more
powerful women and learnt more, visited the first house (sorry didn't bump
into is Michelle).Had more posh dinners, hopefully i will have added weight
on mu returnļ

The climax of the orientation program was the mentor and mentee dinner
organized by Fortune magazine and Fortunes Most Powerful Women's Summit at
the State department. Many of our mentors had never been to the state
department before that date, so it was a an opportunity that may never had
happened unless they had volunteered their time. Visited some Washington
Monuments took some more pictures...