Bohemian rhapsody was very much the mood on West 10th Street for the Annual Street Fair organized by the local neighborhood association to do replanting and helping social enterprises in the area. Josh hauled out the ugliest outdoor table I’d ever seen and we revamped it with white sheets on which we placed his collectible antique radios, typewriter, records and much more besides. I added my own clothes and accessories and presto! we were part of the Greenwich Village street community.

Once we were situated, Josh began playing his mandolin and his fiddle and I started to dance – then a little girl came and began dancing too and everyone smiled. We were getting to know our neighbors in the festive environs of a street fair – this one mixed with a continuous wash of tourists that flowed like a river down W10th and into Bleecker.

A little boy came up to our stand and pointed to the typewriter and asked ‘what is that?” a question asked by so many children during the day who have known nothing but a world of computers and the internet. Some even asked the same question of the radios. Conversely everyone had their own dreamy tale about typewriters and I could have debriefed that night by writing a book titled ‘Typewriter Stories’.

There’d been a very different vibe on the street where I worked during the week. On Tuesday night it was closed off completely and no-one could leave or enter due to President Obama making an appearance at the New York Public Library. Many of the streets in the city had been closed in light of the number of Presidents and Prime Ministers in town for the UN General Assembly and the Clinton Global Initiative Annual Meeting. My time at the CGI was brief, to see my (WWB) President facilitate a session on women’s economic empowerment, during a week of impressive speakers and topics. Some important women leaders were present in person or via satellite link. Aung Sang Syu Ki spoke eloquently of the hopes and determination of the people of Burma to realize a democratic nation, and of the need for other countries to maintain their support. Tunisia’s new Minister of Women’s Affairs spoke of the needs of her country as a result of Arab Spring, which began with a woman posting a YouTube video. The Tunisian Minister didn’t stay long – she left early because she felt the $700 a night for a room near the UN could be better spent on a rural project for women back home.

My President and I also had a breakfast meeting during the week with Australia’s new Global Ambassador for Women and Girls, Penny Williams. Her brief is to focus on addressing the high levels of domestic violence in the Asia Pacific region as well as leveraging opportunities for women’s civic and political leadership. This, of course is from a high-level policy perspective. I’d hope that Women’s World Banking might become one of the thought leaders that helps inform the policy work around women’s and girl’s economic empowerment and leadership,. We shared with the ambassador the importance of providing the necessary mentoring and security around initiatives to boost girls’ and women’s savings so that they don’t become an increased target for sexual abuse and violence as a result of people knowing that they have access to money and finance. This is especially the case for girls, who are more vulnerable when it comes from protecting themselves without the support to safeguard them.

We had a two day meeting with both our US and international Boards in the latter half of the week and I felt the responsibility of delivering on an ambitious development strategy to help secure funds for more of our programs to be initiated or extended to new countries next year. We’ve had great success in attracting funding over the last few months and I really hope we can sustain this – I don’t think I’ve ever worked so hard in my life to meet the expectations inherent in the role.

Tomorrow I attend the Global Girls and Education conference, hosted by the unique combination of Credit Suisse and Archbishop Desmond Tutu. The conference is designed to give girls the stage to speak about what kind of engagement they want with the wider world and what forms of leadership they intend to adopt. Giving women and girls a voice and platform from which to speak helps them radically re-imagine and change the world. And that’s the real purpose of the Op-Ed project. Then tomorrow night I go to this theatre fundraising gala event where I’m to be introduced to the woman in New York who is apparently a great connector and catalyst for sparking new projects and partnerships. The function is at the Plaza Hotel and tables of ten are $50,000 – (our host paid for it) – the Patron is Tom Hanks and the list of people attending reads like a whose who of American theatre.

At the end of the week I travel to Canada to take part in a Canadian Government/UN Women global conference on women and economic empowerment. The Conference will focus on ways of supporting economies to advance women’s empowerment, and on identifying the tools needed by women to participate in, and benefit from, gender-responsive inclusive growth and development. I’ve been asked to be a rapporteur for one of the sessions on women and jobs so I’m looking forward to the opportunity to be an active participant!

I’m aware of what a privilege it is to have these opportunities for global reach and impact in relation to my work with women and girls, and to be based in New York. And yet it doesn’t take much for me to feel emotional about what I’ve left behind, either from calls with family and friends or, in the last week, a wonderful video sent to me by Janice and Barry from my Piccadilly home. The video was of one of the dogs they were minding trying to get a statue of a man to play stick. It was both the image of the dog-play-stick-man and the visceral sound of their laughter that reminded me of my community at home, the community to whom I’ll return – and to whom I feel close when I pen these emails