The Meeting That Could Have Been an Email

The meeting was scheduled for 10:00 a.m.

Which, in Ghana time, meant emotionally 10:00 but physically anytime between 10:37 and lunchtime.

I arrived early because I still had hope.

The room was empty.

The chairs were arranged neatly, like they were also waiting.

The AC was on, aggressively cold, as if it had personal issues.

At 10:15, one person arrived.

We greeted each other with that look that says, “So you too?”

By 10:30, more people trickled in—slowly, confidently, unapologetically.

Someone asked, “Has the meeting started?”

We laughed. Bitterly.

At 10:45, the meeting finally began.

The first 15 minutes were spent greeting everyone again.

Then another 10 minutes discussing traffic.

Then someone said, “Before we start…”

We never truly recovered from that sentence.

Slides were opened.

They froze.

They were reopened.

We waited.

Finally, the presentation began.

The topic?

Something that could be summarized in three bullet points.

Instead, we got:

A long backstory

Examples from 2014

A motivational speech nobody requested

Someone asked a question that had already been answered on slide two.

The presenter answered it again. Slowly.

At some point, hunger entered the meeting.

Phones came out.

Pens stopped moving.

One person nodded so hard they almost convinced us they were listening.

Then the sentence that broke us all:

“So in summary…”

We leaned forward.

But the summary was another explanation.

With examples.

When the meeting finally ended, it was past noon.

We walked out changed people.

Later that evening, an email arrived.

It summarized everything.

Three bullet points.

I stared at my screen.

The meeting could have been an email.

But instead, it was an experience.