My Assignment

A while back, quite a while, in fact, I mentioned that I would be posting the details of my assignment on the blog. Having now failed to do so for some time, the below is my official assignment as delivered by the Peace Corps:

Volunteers in our Community Health and Economic Development Program work with a variety of host organizations in Uganda. Governmental institutions and local and international organizations request Water and Sanitation Volunteers to assist them with developing and implementing programs with the goal of improving community water, sanitation, and hygiene conditions through the use of low cost, locally acceptable solutions, and community education and training. Many Water and Sanitation Volunteers also work with host organizations in addressing other health issues, and some work on issues related to irrigation and crop production. Depending on your specific experience and training, interests, and the unique needs of the organization to which you are assigned to work, you may be asked to assist with activities such as:

• Working with communities to develop, improve, maintain, and protect water sources.
• Assisting communities in identifying and addressing hygiene and sanitation issues through latrine projects, waste collection and disposal, and environmental clean-up activities.
• Reduction of malaria transmission through education and elimination of environmental factors contributing to mosquito breeding.
• Water, sanitation, and hygiene education in secondary and primary schools and the creation of school health clubs.
• Working with organizational administrators to improve their management skills by developing systems for planning, funding, designing, managing, and evaluating community health and development projects.
• Training community members on adopting, creating, and using improved and appropriate low cost technologies for gardening, cooking, and agricultural production.
• Training trainers from government and community-based organizations (CBOs) to improve their skills to plan and implement participatory educational programs for community groups.
• Working with communities to identify their resources and develop and manage appropriate community development activities.
• Working with OVC and PLWHA to develop income-generating activities to allow them to pay school fees, buy more nutritious food, and generally improve their living standards and mitigate the impact of disease and poverty.
• Assisting your organization and community partners in linking beneficiaries to other organizations and partners in an effort to provide comprehensive services.
• Educating youth and adults on HIV/AIDS prevention, care, and support, including life skills education for youth.

80 Pounds: Part 2

The Peace Corps has very strict luggage requirements for travel to your host country. The authorized baggage allowance is two checked pieces not to exceed 107 inches (length + width + height) and the carry-on bag with dimensions of no more than 45 inches. Checked baggage should not exceed 80 pounds total with a maximum weight allowance of 50 pounds for any one bag. This is part 2 of a series to document what I am taking with me.

Luggage

GI Style Canvas Duffle Bag (Black) - 3 lbs

Small Duffle (secondary bag) - 2.2 lbs

Toiletries

Deodorant - 0.25 lbs

Shampoo - 0.5 lbs

Toothbrush/Paste - 0.25

Hairbrush - 0.25 (odd because i dont brush my hair here)

Nail Clipper - 0.1 lbs

Hair Cutting Scissors - 0.1 lbs

Sewing Kit - 0.1 lbs

Palm Sized Travel Mirror - 0.1 lbs

Chapstick - 0.1 lbs

Books

New American Translation Bible - 1.8 lbs

Personalized New Testament - 0.6 lbs

Catch 22 - 1 lbs

Lord of The Rings - 2.7 lbs

Pocked English Dictionary - 0.5 lbs

Total Weight of Luggage - 5.2 lbs

Total Weight of Toiletries - 1.75 lbs

Total Weight of Books - 6.6 lbs

Total Weight from Previous Entries - 24.133

Total Weight Thus Far - 37.683 lbs

Back in 2009: Part 4

When I called my recruiter in late July, I was pleasantly surprised to hear that there was an engineering position available in Africa that had no language requirements departing in August of 2010. The registration window would open the morning of the first Monday in August. Late in the day the upcoming Monday I received a call that I had been nominated for one of four slots for that position. That day I sent an email to everyone who had written me a letter of recommendation explaining the post nomination review process.

Not long after being nominated we had a call in at work for my entire department. At the end of the call in it was announced that our department head would be moving to a new position and that the new department head would be assuming his responsibilities soon. This was disappointing. I didn't have any history with the new head. Regardless, now that I was nominated, I scheduled some face time with him on my next visit home.

A short while after being nominated I received my medical and dental packages. I scheduled visits with both my doctor and dentist in Columbia for late September. I had told my doctor I needed some paper work filled out for an overseas program, not realizing the extent of the paper work. He hadn't really scheduled the time the paper work would take but accommodated me anyway. I got a shot, blood test, urine test, other tests, full physical, history review and was set. I left my doctor a stamped envelope to send my paper work to me. The dental exam went off without a hitch. My dental hygienist laughed at all the stuff the package required, saying she hadn't done any of it since school. It felt good to be getting all this done so quickly.

I traveled up to Greenville for a day to meet with my new department head. We didn't know one another and he was new in the job. I never planned on it being that in depth a meeting, just a chance to let him know what I was up to. He was surprised, fun to talk with, a good guy, but with no prior history wasn't going to venture too far into my personal decisions. I was happy with the way the meeting went and soon was headed back to Texas. I did ask that we continue not to publicize my candidacy. Only 50% of nominated persons are actually placed in country, and so I didn't want things to fall apart and then have to explain to everyone when they saw me in a year why I wasn't in Africa. Only a few people at my company knew, and only my closest friends and family in Columbia.

When I arrived back in Texas, I was asked to join a colleague in a conference room upon arriving at work my first morning back. He had been at the site temporarily providing a little oversight as we get started. His function was similar to mine, and even though I was the project "lead," he was much more experienced than myself. He informed he would be staying on the project. He explained that it was not because I couldn't do the job, and that the decision was not intended to reflect poorly on me. His explanation was that he was sticking around because there weren't a lot of jobs in the economy and he needed to be somewhere. As logical as all that was I took it as a clear sign that some people in my company weren't confident I could do the job, and despite intents it did reflect poorly on me. More importantly, it was a sign that there were not going to be real opportunities in my company anytime soon. We were already overstaffed and now I was splitting my job responsibilities with someone who had been with the company 5x as long as I had. I had already believed it, this was just greater confirmation, that the experience I would gain by going to Africa would be more valuable to my company than if I stayed and worked for them.