There are a few things I forgot that I wanted to mention about the sensibilisations and life in general that are a bit more lighthearted than my previous entry.
1.) My contact at the Ministry of Health (MOH), the 70 year old with no teeth? I observed his training on Tuesday from the beginning. Before he started he said something to me, but because I can't understand him and he didn't seem angry, I did my classic smile and nod. The next thing I knew he was making all of the volunteers stand up and sing a few different songs before he started the training (I imagine one was the national anthem, but I don't actually know). Then he asked someone to lead a prayer and some girl just spontaneously started leading one. Apparently this is somewhat normal, because I observed a different training today with a different trainer and he did the same thing. And, almost as though they planned it ahead of time, one girl immediately started saying a prayer (for the training) almost immediately after he asked someone to do it. Reminds me of the game where you have a group of people try and count as high as they can go with only one person saying a number at a time and without looking at each other, but with no predefined order to anything.
2.) My organisation employs about 8 or so different local chauffeurs. A few of them are these young guys who are just too cool for school. All they listen to is hip hop, rap, and r&b, despite not really knowing what any of the songs mean. They wear their chains and sunglasses and are basically the epitome of cool. In their minds. And that means I'm usually subjected to their music, too. Today I was in the car alone with one of the chauffeurs who thinks he's the coolest of the bunch. In the CD player he had his own mix he created. On it were such classics as "Lady in Red," by Chris DeBurgh, "Unbreak My Heart," by Toni Braxton, "Because You Loved Me," by Celine Dion, and "I'll Make Love to You" by Boyz II Men. The one that really made my heart ache and think of my college roommates, though, was "Show Me the Meaning of Being Lonely" by the Backstreet Boys. I mean, basically whenever I hear anything by the Backstreet Boys it makes me think my college roommates. I should probably be embarrassed about that. So now you have to picture me and the too cool for school chauffeur belting out, together, Backstreet Boys lyrics in the middle of Port au Prince. It was awesome. On the 4th round of that CD it stopped being so awesome, and I now can't get the words out of my head despite, before today, not having even thought about that song for years.
3.) On Monday I somehow managed to catch a glimpse of all three trainings that were happening at the same time in different places. The last one I went to wasn't a disaster, per se, but it was incredibly chaotic and my staff member had zero control of the room. It was very hectic and stressful for my control-freak self, so when we finally finished cleaning the room and packing up the car I was really relieved and psyched to see that it was only 4:15. I knew that meant that at the latest I should be back home around 6 and that I didn't have much work to do that night so I could maybe even relax. So imagine how excited I was when we hadn't even left town yet before we were sitting in standstill traffic. Oh, also keep in mind that I hadn't eaten anything since breakfast at 6:30am. The traffic continued, so once we finally made it to a grocery store type place I bought a bag of doritos, a packet of m&ms, and a can of sprite. Dinner of champions. Once we were back in the car we were still in traffic. At some point we started off-roading and I thought we were taking a short cut. And then the driver turns to me and says he's not feeling well and that we have to pass by his house first. He was very apologetic, but it was quite clear to me he needed to use the bathroom, um, urgently. It was 6:00 by the time we arrived at his house, and he does not live close to the office. Inside I was not happy about it, but on the outside I was sympathetic since I'm not completely heartless. When we got to his house he asked me if I wanted to come in and meet his wife, who is 6 months pregnant. I couldn't say no, so I got out of the car and went inside with him. Well, it turns out she was absolutely lovely and we got on really well. They wanted to show me their wedding video, so all of a sudden I was roped into a half hour, slow-mo version of the highlights of their wedding, cheesy music and all. While watching the video they asked me if I wanted some "rice," and I said sure, not really knowing what I was getting myself into. His wife brought me some delicious fresh juice with ice in it (Haitians are very particular about drinking cold beverages) and we continued to watch their wedding video through to the end. They were clearly really happy that I had watched their video and wanted to know what I thought of their wedding, etc. Despite being exhausted, filthy, and hungry when we showed up and me being in a big rush to get home, I actually really enjoyed meeting his wife and knowing that it was important to him that I did. Two nights later she met him here at the office after work and he made sure to tell me she was outside and wanted to know if I wanted to go say hi to her. I said of course, so I went outside and we chatted for a bit while she waited for him to finish his paperwork. She's really, really great. Now me and the driver have totally bonded and he really likes me, which is an improvement from before when I was pretty sure he didn't like me. And, oddly enough, the next day another driver who I wasn't sure liked me either decided to have a big D&M (that's deep and meaningful, for those of you who don't speak Australian) with me in the car. We talked about American music (of course), but also about his parents being political refugees (is that how you say it in English?) in Canada because of their involvement with the last government, who should be the next Haitian president, etc. It was really, really interesting. Bonding with two drivers in one week! Awesome!
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Activity Update
The ball is now rolling and I'm trying to keep up. Our trainings started this week. Three days in a row with three different trainings in three different places with three different trainers all at the same time. Terrible idea and I will never do it again. Turns out I can't be in three places at once. Who knew? There was some serious regulating that had to go on in almost every zone. Not easy with terrible cell phone reception, crappy French, lots of rain, and a generator running right next to you. Of course the ministry of health didn't do their job properly and somehow my organisation, once again, got blamed for it by the MOH. Beyond annoying. But I'm starting to realise that my crappy French might be a blessing in disguise, because if I had the French abilities to really tell the MOH what I think of them, I probably would. Instead I'm forced to keep quiet, which is probably better. Always a silver lining...
One of the trainings that was supposed to start yesterday had 4 of the 29 volunteers show up. Yikes. Turns out no one informed them as to when the training was actually happening. And despite that very clearly being the responsibility of the MOH, my organsation was blamed. So I had to scramble around (on the phone, next to the generator in the pouring rain) to try and fix this situation an hour away. We ended up pushing back the trainings for that particular zone one day, meaning they get one day less of sensibilisations than the other zones, but oh well. Better than having that zone on a different schedule than the 5 others for the rest of the campaign.
I already know about a million things I would differently if I had to do this all over again. And the actual activity itself hasn't even started yet. Talk about hindsight being 20/20. Yikes. I almost want a chance to do a redo, and yet the thought of doing this all over again makes me want to throw up. I've determined that it is not sustainable for me to get up at 5:45 every morning, no matter how early I go to bed. It's sad that my current 13 - 15 hour days make me long for me 10 - 11 hour days. Booo.
Anyway. The first day of sensibilisations starts tomorrow. Now that I've just finished regulating the problems of the trainings I'm sure I will have a whole new load of problems for the sensibilisations. And then on Monday (after only having one day off over the weekend. When did I decide working on Sat was a good idea?) I will have a whole new batch of problems with the actual larviciding. Good times, good times. I'm already trying to plan a vacation for as immediately after the campaign as possible, because I am definitely going to need it.
Ok, sorry this post is a bit negative, but I'm very tired and need to get up at 5:45 tomorrow, so need to go to bed now! Just wanted to write a quick update while I had a moment. Write me some comments to look forward to (Jo, I already know I can count on you :-))!
One of the trainings that was supposed to start yesterday had 4 of the 29 volunteers show up. Yikes. Turns out no one informed them as to when the training was actually happening. And despite that very clearly being the responsibility of the MOH, my organsation was blamed. So I had to scramble around (on the phone, next to the generator in the pouring rain) to try and fix this situation an hour away. We ended up pushing back the trainings for that particular zone one day, meaning they get one day less of sensibilisations than the other zones, but oh well. Better than having that zone on a different schedule than the 5 others for the rest of the campaign.
I already know about a million things I would differently if I had to do this all over again. And the actual activity itself hasn't even started yet. Talk about hindsight being 20/20. Yikes. I almost want a chance to do a redo, and yet the thought of doing this all over again makes me want to throw up. I've determined that it is not sustainable for me to get up at 5:45 every morning, no matter how early I go to bed. It's sad that my current 13 - 15 hour days make me long for me 10 - 11 hour days. Booo.
Anyway. The first day of sensibilisations starts tomorrow. Now that I've just finished regulating the problems of the trainings I'm sure I will have a whole new load of problems for the sensibilisations. And then on Monday (after only having one day off over the weekend. When did I decide working on Sat was a good idea?) I will have a whole new batch of problems with the actual larviciding. Good times, good times. I'm already trying to plan a vacation for as immediately after the campaign as possible, because I am definitely going to need it.
Ok, sorry this post is a bit negative, but I'm very tired and need to get up at 5:45 tomorrow, so need to go to bed now! Just wanted to write a quick update while I had a moment. Write me some comments to look forward to (Jo, I already know I can count on you :-))!
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
This Would Be Funny If It Wasn't My Life
Once again I find myself in a developing country in a situation that, if it were fictional, would be quite comical because of its ridiculousness. Two weeks ago I gained a team of six Haitian staff members. The hiring process was really painful; I think we did over 15 interviews and in the end didn't even have much choice in who we picked because the people we liked best were way out of our price range. So many of my six new staff members have never had a real job before, never mind managed teams of volunteers and senior members of the Haitian ministry of health. Which is exactly what they're going to have to do during this campaign. So literally on day two of their employment I assigned them to one of the six zones where we're doing the larviciding campaign, and on day three I sent them all to their zones to begin mapping and planning.
At the same time, we are supposed to be working "hand in hand" with the Ministry of Health on this project. Our contact there is a doctor who is approximately 70 years old, has very few teeth left, smokes probably a pack a day, and is next to impossible to understand (because, I suspect, of his lack of teeth). I've even watched a Haitian on the phone with him trying to understand him and failing. That made me feel a bit better. So I literally have to bring someone with me to meetings with him so they can attempt to translate for me. He, of course, thinks I'm a complete idiot because I need to someone to translate his French into French. He therefore talks to me like I'm five years old, which I resent, and then resent even more because I still can't understand him. He, in turns, yells at me for not doing things I never understood in the first place, but never admits to making any mistakes himself. Meanwhile there is information I've been asking from him for 3 weeks now that he promises "the next day" after every meeting and is never actually ready the next day.
None of this is surprising, but since this is not Peace Corps I actually have deadlines, and that's where the problem comes in. I've pushed this campaign back as many times as possible and now literally cannot push it back anymore. That means that as of Monday we're starting our trainings, then we have three days of "sensibilisations" in the communities, and then we have ten days of the actual activity. And then it's all over. AAAHHHH!!! So much needs to come together before all of this that probably won't. My team was in the office today and I had individual meetings with them each to see how things were progressing in their zones. It was utterly frightening the lack of work in some of them. Maybe it's a good thing that this job is in French because, as my family knows from observation, I can be a lot meaner in French. There was one guy in particular to whom I basically had to read the riot act. It's difficult, though, because I really can't afford to fire anyone, so I just have to put the fear of god in them and hope it works.
So anyway, the whole thing is quite frustrating because I HAVE to move ahead with this based on deadlines that were determined before I even arrived in the country. And everything definitely will not be at the level of readiness that I would prefer if I had all the time in the world. I told Justine today that three of the zones look pretty good, one looks ok, and two look horrible. How's a 50% success rate?
And on top of all of this, the trainings are being led by members of the Ministry of Health. And even if my life depended on it I don't think I could get them to all sit down together and actually plan a training. So instead they're all just winging it. Since we have three different trainings on the same day for three days in a row with three different trainers, god only knows which volunteers are going to get what information! I certainly won't! And that's not scary at all given that we're just teaching them how to put insecticide in people's water. O. M. G.
And if you could only hear me attempting to build morale and a sense of teamwork in my crappy French-with-only-three-tenses, nevermind trying to communicate over crappy mobile phone networks with my three tenses, you would understand just how funny/sad it is. Justine and I laugh a LOT, but mostly to keep ourselves from crying.
Also (it gets better). Justine and I hired an assistant who started the day before my new team. We were so excited about her and really fought for more money so we could hire her, etc, etc. She showed up the first day with her two cell phones (we gave her a third work phone) and proceeded to take personal phone calls about every 5 minutes. Whenever I saw her computer she was either chatting on yahoo messenger or facebooking. We would ask her to do simple tasks and she would leave (before the end of the work day) without having finished them or even having talked to us about them. We had a talk with her this past Monday night about our expectations and hoped things would improve (although we doubted it). Meanwhile I had told her last week that during the actual larviciding campaign she was going to have to cover for one of my staff members who was going to have to miss three days to take her nursing exams that only happen once a year. She said nothing at the time, but I could tell she wasn't happy. During the meeting I had today with her and that staff member she told me, in front of the staff member, how she could not cover for her while she was gone. I told her we would talk about it later and when we did, after much questioning and beating around the bush, she told me that it wasn't her job. When I asked her what she thought her job was she said "supervising the team." And I said yes and that this, too, was supervising. During lunch she wrote an email to Justine and copied me (why to Justine I don't know) telling us point blank that the job was beneath her position and that she can't cover for this staff member and that we'll have to find someone else to do it. I told her we would talk about this with Justine when Justine got back. Well, Justine got back after the assistant had to leave for a meeting I sent her to, so we were all waiting (HR included) for her to get back from the meeting so we could get her in line with how unacceptable all of this is. We waited, and waited, and waited and assumed there was loads of traffic (as there always is in PaP). Finally at 7:00 the driver came back - you guessed it - without the assistant. She had asked him to drop her off at her house (which isn't allowed before 8:30) and hadn't communicated anything to us about not coming.
*** Update *** I wrote all of the above yesterday. Today, after showing her that in her contact it says she has to cover for staff members in their absence and her still refusing to do it, we fired her. After ten days of work. That in and of itself was an experience. She made sure to insult me as much as possible during her firing, despite the fact that I wasn't the one telling her she was fired, and then proceeded to not accept the money for the days she had worked because she wanted to be paid for her entire contract. She wouldn't even take the letter that said her contract had been terminated and eventually just left to talk to her lawyer. She called this evening and is coming by tomorrow afternoon to get her letter. We're not sure if this also means she is accepting her money for the ten days she worked. This should be interesting! ***
The silver lining to this ridiculous project is that I've had the chance now to go out in the field with each new staff member and to see their zones a little bit. Yesterday I spent a few hours in one of the biggest camps that is right in front of the destroyed Palace of Justice. That was intense, but made me realise how much I miss being out and interacting with the population. I got to high five a lot of kids, a lot of people called me white and I didn't even get mad, and I got to see a little of life in the camps. So it was all good. Granted I almost had heat stroke by the end and don't remember the last time I sweat that much, but it was good all the same.
So tomorrow is my last chance to get all of the details in place for our trainings that start on Monday. And boy oh boy is that a scary thought! There is so much that needs to be done and so much I am relying on my staff members for, and that is also pretty scary. Please cross all of your fingers and toes for me because this project needs all of the help and luck I can get here. My life as I know it is basically over until the end of the first week of October, so I apologise if I'm totally MIA, which I probably will be. If I live to tell the tale I will eventually update, but probably not before I take a well deserved break.
Go go Gadget Larviciding!
At the same time, we are supposed to be working "hand in hand" with the Ministry of Health on this project. Our contact there is a doctor who is approximately 70 years old, has very few teeth left, smokes probably a pack a day, and is next to impossible to understand (because, I suspect, of his lack of teeth). I've even watched a Haitian on the phone with him trying to understand him and failing. That made me feel a bit better. So I literally have to bring someone with me to meetings with him so they can attempt to translate for me. He, of course, thinks I'm a complete idiot because I need to someone to translate his French into French. He therefore talks to me like I'm five years old, which I resent, and then resent even more because I still can't understand him. He, in turns, yells at me for not doing things I never understood in the first place, but never admits to making any mistakes himself. Meanwhile there is information I've been asking from him for 3 weeks now that he promises "the next day" after every meeting and is never actually ready the next day.
None of this is surprising, but since this is not Peace Corps I actually have deadlines, and that's where the problem comes in. I've pushed this campaign back as many times as possible and now literally cannot push it back anymore. That means that as of Monday we're starting our trainings, then we have three days of "sensibilisations" in the communities, and then we have ten days of the actual activity. And then it's all over. AAAHHHH!!! So much needs to come together before all of this that probably won't. My team was in the office today and I had individual meetings with them each to see how things were progressing in their zones. It was utterly frightening the lack of work in some of them. Maybe it's a good thing that this job is in French because, as my family knows from observation, I can be a lot meaner in French. There was one guy in particular to whom I basically had to read the riot act. It's difficult, though, because I really can't afford to fire anyone, so I just have to put the fear of god in them and hope it works.
So anyway, the whole thing is quite frustrating because I HAVE to move ahead with this based on deadlines that were determined before I even arrived in the country. And everything definitely will not be at the level of readiness that I would prefer if I had all the time in the world. I told Justine today that three of the zones look pretty good, one looks ok, and two look horrible. How's a 50% success rate?
And on top of all of this, the trainings are being led by members of the Ministry of Health. And even if my life depended on it I don't think I could get them to all sit down together and actually plan a training. So instead they're all just winging it. Since we have three different trainings on the same day for three days in a row with three different trainers, god only knows which volunteers are going to get what information! I certainly won't! And that's not scary at all given that we're just teaching them how to put insecticide in people's water. O. M. G.
And if you could only hear me attempting to build morale and a sense of teamwork in my crappy French-with-only-three-tenses, nevermind trying to communicate over crappy mobile phone networks with my three tenses, you would understand just how funny/sad it is. Justine and I laugh a LOT, but mostly to keep ourselves from crying.
Also (it gets better). Justine and I hired an assistant who started the day before my new team. We were so excited about her and really fought for more money so we could hire her, etc, etc. She showed up the first day with her two cell phones (we gave her a third work phone) and proceeded to take personal phone calls about every 5 minutes. Whenever I saw her computer she was either chatting on yahoo messenger or facebooking. We would ask her to do simple tasks and she would leave (before the end of the work day) without having finished them or even having talked to us about them. We had a talk with her this past Monday night about our expectations and hoped things would improve (although we doubted it). Meanwhile I had told her last week that during the actual larviciding campaign she was going to have to cover for one of my staff members who was going to have to miss three days to take her nursing exams that only happen once a year. She said nothing at the time, but I could tell she wasn't happy. During the meeting I had today with her and that staff member she told me, in front of the staff member, how she could not cover for her while she was gone. I told her we would talk about it later and when we did, after much questioning and beating around the bush, she told me that it wasn't her job. When I asked her what she thought her job was she said "supervising the team." And I said yes and that this, too, was supervising. During lunch she wrote an email to Justine and copied me (why to Justine I don't know) telling us point blank that the job was beneath her position and that she can't cover for this staff member and that we'll have to find someone else to do it. I told her we would talk about this with Justine when Justine got back. Well, Justine got back after the assistant had to leave for a meeting I sent her to, so we were all waiting (HR included) for her to get back from the meeting so we could get her in line with how unacceptable all of this is. We waited, and waited, and waited and assumed there was loads of traffic (as there always is in PaP). Finally at 7:00 the driver came back - you guessed it - without the assistant. She had asked him to drop her off at her house (which isn't allowed before 8:30) and hadn't communicated anything to us about not coming.
*** Update *** I wrote all of the above yesterday. Today, after showing her that in her contact it says she has to cover for staff members in their absence and her still refusing to do it, we fired her. After ten days of work. That in and of itself was an experience. She made sure to insult me as much as possible during her firing, despite the fact that I wasn't the one telling her she was fired, and then proceeded to not accept the money for the days she had worked because she wanted to be paid for her entire contract. She wouldn't even take the letter that said her contract had been terminated and eventually just left to talk to her lawyer. She called this evening and is coming by tomorrow afternoon to get her letter. We're not sure if this also means she is accepting her money for the ten days she worked. This should be interesting! ***
The silver lining to this ridiculous project is that I've had the chance now to go out in the field with each new staff member and to see their zones a little bit. Yesterday I spent a few hours in one of the biggest camps that is right in front of the destroyed Palace of Justice. That was intense, but made me realise how much I miss being out and interacting with the population. I got to high five a lot of kids, a lot of people called me white and I didn't even get mad, and I got to see a little of life in the camps. So it was all good. Granted I almost had heat stroke by the end and don't remember the last time I sweat that much, but it was good all the same.
So tomorrow is my last chance to get all of the details in place for our trainings that start on Monday. And boy oh boy is that a scary thought! There is so much that needs to be done and so much I am relying on my staff members for, and that is also pretty scary. Please cross all of your fingers and toes for me because this project needs all of the help and luck I can get here. My life as I know it is basically over until the end of the first week of October, so I apologise if I'm totally MIA, which I probably will be. If I live to tell the tale I will eventually update, but probably not before I take a well deserved break.
Go go Gadget Larviciding!
Friday, September 03, 2010
Diff'rent Strokes
Did you know that the TV show "Diff'rent Strokes" also aired in France? And that the translation of "Whatchu talkin' 'bout, Willis?" was "Qu'est-ce tu me raconte, là?" Maybe only French nerds like me will appreciate just how funny that is. Or maybe I'm the only who thinks that's really funny.
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