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I swear I work too...
Entry 16 of 41 | show all | print this entry |
So I realized that the blogs I've been posting haven't had too much to do with my job, and what I do as an Environmental NGO Facilitor. Well, I really, truly do work... a lot.
In fact the last several weeks have been an absolute blur. Ecoclub wanted to submit a grant to the European Commission to introduce green tourism into the Ostroh region (the town where our work camp was held in August). It was a great idea and Tolik and Andriy headed up the project. We were informed of the competition just over six weeks ago, so although not a lot of time for this sort of comprehensive grant, it was enough to write it, as long as you were working diligently on it.
In addition to this grant project, Regine and I were working on compiling data for the three-month survey we had conducted of our group 24 members. It may seem like a simple thing, but nothing in Ukraine is simple. We had to coordinate the efforts of the six of us VAC (volunteer advisory committee) members, Regine designed a super spreadsheet, and then we had to analyze all the data that we had accumulated. I believe in the end if we had printed out all our analysis, it would have been close to 300 pages. Last week was the VAC meeting in Kyiv so we all met there and presented the results to our Country Director, Karl Beck. The meeting lasted, oh, about 5 hours... and between that and the actually VAC meeting the next day, and preparation for the presentation, I got the worst migraine ever. Thankfully I happen to be near the Peace Corps office where they store medicines for all the volunteers, and have a dark room or two, so they helped me out with a bed and a seriously needed dose of Imitrex.
In all the survey was a good experience. I don't think I would have been able to do it without Regine's help. She's an Excel whiz, and without that spreadsheet it would have been an unorganized project.
Now, back to the grant process. I had asked my coworkers to supply me with their Ukrainian version of the grant in a timely manner, as the EC grant needed to be submitted both in Ukrainian and in English. I got the first part of it just over a week ago, which took me two days to properly translate. On top of that I also had to translate the organizational statute - another two days. Anyway, while I was in Kyiv the boys sent me what I thought was the last part of the grant that I need to translate. I came back to Rivne and worked on the translation on Saturday and then on Sunday. However, when I got to the office on Sunday no one was there. This worried me a little. I called Tolik and Andriy and they told me they'd be there by 1. This was true. However, we didn't leave until 6:45am the next morning!!!
It turns out they hadn't finished writing certain portions of the grant, nor had they located all necessary additions needed to submit it to the European Commission. I still gave them the benefit of the doubt until 5am when I asked where the Ukrainian version was? In retrospect I think I should have stayed in my little "we're going to pull this thing off" bubble, but I didn't. The boys hadn't been updating the Ukrainian version with the highlighted changes that I'd been giving them over the course of the two weeks they'd actually worked on the project. For some unknown reason to me, they seemed to think only an English version was necessary for proper submission. Oops. Well, Ecoclub did submit the grant(over 20 pages long), however, sans Ukrainian. And so I laid down in my bed yesterday about 7:10 with a huge amount of disappointment. I wonder still if the boys realized how poorly they had planned out this grant, and how sad I am that it wasn't submitted in a proper way. I stood back, like a good PCV, and directed them with ideas that I felt were important. I kept reminding them of the time left to the application deadline. I don't think there is much more I could have done. When I told my PC regional manager about this little incident he swore for the first time in front of me. He actually used "f...". He'd helped me with the translation while I was in Kyiv and had seen the merit of the project. I think his reaction made it a little worse to take... sure there's still a chance that the EC will look it over, but when I asked Andriy today to call them and confirm that they had all necessary materials from our grant he didn't have the time to do it. Tolik hasn't been in the office yet today and by the time he does get here the workday will almost be over. My hands are tied and still I feel totally deflated.
Besides this grant there has been a lot of interested work at my site lately. Last week we met with the UNDP Director of Sustainable Programs in the former CIS Countries. It seems the UNDP and the EU are picking a site in Ukraine to develop certain neighborhoods. One of these sites may end up Rivne, and therefore could mean the development of some interested and much needed relationships between Ecoclub and the outside world. For now it's still in the beginning stages, but if Rivne is in fact chosen as one of the sites for development Ecoclub, as one of the few NGOs in this regions will be closely involved with the project.
I also had a meeting a few weeks ago with an American who had travelled to Rivne to discuss water and waste water issues of the city. It turns out some very clever local engineers have come up with a super-efficient way to treat Rivne's water. However, because of the state of the water treatment plant, the lack of money to improve, and finally the lack of initiative, nothing is being done about this issue. Ned, the guy I spoke with has been looking for partners in the San Francisco area, where he's from, and also partners in the Rivne area. This may end up being another project that Ecoclub, that an environmental NGO could potentially get involved in. Honestly it sounds interesting, and I asked Ned to send me more information and an overall project proposal so I can a better idea and also something concrete to present to my coworkers.
So there you have it, a short overview of some of the things I've been doing at my job. Sometimes it's really great and other times not so much. However, when I talk to my friends about there site, or talk to people about my own is when I truly realize how lucky I am. I have at Ecoclub a seemingly unlimited amount of support. The people I work with are fantastic and full of great ideas. Sure, there are days when I really want to kill them or when I truly have to ask myself how is it possible that a whole country lacks logic? But mostly I get up, look around, and realize how awesome it is that I'm here.
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