How To Write A UNICEF Report
Dear Everyone,
Thank for all your thoughts, and for those of you who sent messages, double thanks. Writing little notes like that takes 5 minutes for you but it's life-giving for me to get them. To those of you that did write, I will make sure to respond personally soon.I'm afraid I don't have many long descriptive tales of my adventures this time. I'm waiting for a breather. This week has been like an avalanche. The head of office left two days ago for a month long holiday in the states. Norman (the other American) and I are trying to figure out how this place runs. Especially hard is the fact that our role as ex-pats is strange: we are looked at as though we have authority but it's no secret that our knowledge of how anything works is slim. It must be hard for some of thenational staff who are men in their 50's with engineering degrees and lots of experience to have to deal with greenhorns who know nothing but must be respected because we're ex-pat NGO staff.My own particular demon right now is the fact that I've been left with the responsibility to write a final report to UNICEF on a project that I know next to nothing about. Once I get the info on it - always a lengthy process here - I have to either figure out or come up with a format for the report, but I'm mostly guessing at this point. Then there is the small issue of the beneficiary list, on which all 2400 names are in Persian and must be translated to English and entered into the computer, but our data entry person does about 100 names a day, and the whole thing is due in three.He'd entered about 300 names so far but the disc he was saving on bugged out and we lost them and had to start again. Want something to pray about?As for my situation, which I wrote about last time, it has been settled. I will go to Faizabad, as planned, within the next two weeks, as soon as the replacement head of office arrives and gets settled. I feel peaceful about the decision, and I'm excited to go. thanks for remembering me in this.I will try to compose a more pithy letter next time. From what I've heard, the last one was well-liked and will be hard to top. Not that it's a competition, because I'm the only contestant. Hey I've an idea. Some of YOU could write ME about what YOU'RE doing.
Love you all,
rjs
Thank for all your thoughts, and for those of you who sent messages, double thanks. Writing little notes like that takes 5 minutes for you but it's life-giving for me to get them. To those of you that did write, I will make sure to respond personally soon.I'm afraid I don't have many long descriptive tales of my adventures this time. I'm waiting for a breather. This week has been like an avalanche. The head of office left two days ago for a month long holiday in the states. Norman (the other American) and I are trying to figure out how this place runs. Especially hard is the fact that our role as ex-pats is strange: we are looked at as though we have authority but it's no secret that our knowledge of how anything works is slim. It must be hard for some of thenational staff who are men in their 50's with engineering degrees and lots of experience to have to deal with greenhorns who know nothing but must be respected because we're ex-pat NGO staff.My own particular demon right now is the fact that I've been left with the responsibility to write a final report to UNICEF on a project that I know next to nothing about. Once I get the info on it - always a lengthy process here - I have to either figure out or come up with a format for the report, but I'm mostly guessing at this point. Then there is the small issue of the beneficiary list, on which all 2400 names are in Persian and must be translated to English and entered into the computer, but our data entry person does about 100 names a day, and the whole thing is due in three.He'd entered about 300 names so far but the disc he was saving on bugged out and we lost them and had to start again. Want something to pray about?As for my situation, which I wrote about last time, it has been settled. I will go to Faizabad, as planned, within the next two weeks, as soon as the replacement head of office arrives and gets settled. I feel peaceful about the decision, and I'm excited to go. thanks for remembering me in this.I will try to compose a more pithy letter next time. From what I've heard, the last one was well-liked and will be hard to top. Not that it's a competition, because I'm the only contestant. Hey I've an idea. Some of YOU could write ME about what YOU'RE doing.
Love you all,
rjs
posted by rjs | 3:57 PM
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