My "Grown-Up" Job

"No one can claim to be educated who does not have the willingness and the desire, as well as the intellectual ability, to contribute towards making the world a better place" -Lord Baden-Powell

So today was my first real day at work... what a day!

I'm trying to get in the habit of being up before I need to in the mornings so that I'm not stressed and rushed. So I got out of bed at 530, and picked up at 710. We didn't get to work until 830. I went and sat at my desk, unpacked my computer, and had no idea what to do... Friday all I did was get a tour of the office, so I had absolutely no work I should be doing this morning, or even could be doing...

I spent a few hours emailing and trying to upload some pictures (no success, due to the slowest wireless in the world here!). Finally at 10, they let me know I'd be having a meeting at 11. So I killed another hour playing solitare and then showed up in the boardroom at exactly 11. Sure enough, no one else showed up until about 1115.. a definate culture difference...they are way more laid back here. Everyone is on Kenyan time but me! haha!

The meeting was so neat...It was Jacques (the acting regional director/my supervisor), Euloge (communications manager), Jonathan (youth program director), Pauline (???) and Anne (administrative assistant) and I. We sat down and developed my work plan for the semester. They each spent some time telling me about the projects they are working on, and then we worked out what projects I would be working on... The meeting took about 2 hours...

Then it was time for lunch. Since the office is basically isolated in the middle of the jungle, they provide lunch every day. They told me at the meeting that if I really couldn't eat what they provided, I was welcome to bring my own food, but it was seriously so delicious!! We had like a beef/carrot stew and mashed potatoes, it was amazing!!! This may be in large part due to the fact that I ate breakfast at 630, and lunch was at 1, so I was SO hungry, I polished off my plate in minutes.

After lunch, I headed to my desk and spent the next 4 hours pouring over hundreds and hundreds of pages of really boring, complicated documents. We left work at 515, I wasn't home until 6... So basically I'll be doing 11 hour work day from Monday - Thursday, then working all day at the orphanage Fridays and Saturdays, then spending Sundays doing all the course work thats required for the internship! Haha, so much for summer vacation!

Here's a bit of info about the organization, and then the lowdown on what I'll be doing:

60% of Africa's population is below the age of 25 years. This very large group of young people is daily confronted by almost insurmountable challenges of poverty, unemployment, hunger and malnutrition, diseases - especially HIV/AIDS, as well as crime and civil strife. Scouting is the largest youth organization in Africa, and in many places it is the only youth organization. Scouting does not promise a quick cure to these problems, but it is making a significant contribution to the development of society through the education of young people. In many countries, 5 to 20% of youth are Scouts. In most countries of Africa fewer than 1% are Scouts. The opportunity is simply not available. Experience shows that Scouting is attractive to young people when it is offered to them, yet Scouting remains largely inaccessible to many due to constraints of terrain, distance, weak infrastructure within a country, and general inadequacy of resources, both human and financial. We believe that this potential can only be unlocked by developing the human resources of the continent, particularly its youth. Scouting uses its particular educational method which makes each individual the principal agent in his or her own personal development in order to produce individuals who become autonomous, supportive, responsible and committed, and are prepared to play an active and constructive role in society. (http://scout.org/en/around_the_world/africa/about_scouting/africa_10_year_plan)

In 2001, the Africa Regional Office created a 10 Year Plan of goals that they wanted to accomplish. They has a meeting this April to discuss how far they had come, and what they could still realistically accomplish in the next 2 1/2 years. One of my jobs will be to help decide what can still be implemented, namely special projects regarding awareness of environmental issues and the HIV/AIDS crisis...

I will also be creating a database that contains all of the current partners/sponsors, and well as trying to identify new sponsors. Apparently there are groups with money to give away, its just a matter of finding them and jumping through the hoops of showing that your NGO (non-governmental organization) meets the criteria in order to get the funding.

Thirdly, I will reviewing a proposal on "Connecting Africa's Youth for Change" that never got finished back in 2004. I need to decide if it is still a viable project, and if it is, making the changes to the proposal to make it current and relevant, and then making it marketable to sponsors.

Lastly, the office is supposed to create a triennial report (one every three years) about the progress they are making. There was one made for 2001-2004, but the report was never written for 2005-2008. They want me to create a basic layout and format for that report, and then be in charge of talking to each department and getting the information required to at least have a solid draft done by the time I leave.

So yeah. That's how I'll be spending my summer. I have a stack of documents and books about a mile high that I have to get through to give me the background information required to be able to start all of these projects. I'm really excited about it though!

This is like a "grown-up job". I have desk with my own phone and extention number, and I have an official email address ( dbullied@scout.org if you feel like emailing me at my official email address just to brighten my workday! haha). Everyone is dressed in suits, and we get coffee breaks and lunch breaks...it so different from waitressing, thats for sure!!!

They also told me that they feel bad that all I'm doing is office work, so at least once a month, they'll try and get me out of the office doing something fun in the field, which is awesome! Honestly, they are the nicest people. They went on and on in the meeting about how they know I am a far way away from home, but that they want the office to feel like my home away from home. Everyone I've met here is so kind, and genuinely gracious and welcoming, I can't believe it! I've received emails from all of the really important heads of the offices around Africa, all welcoming me to the organization and letting me know they'd be happy to help if I need anything. The amount of support is astounding!

I'm a little overwhelmed with the amount of work I'm up against, but I work best under pressure, and I am seriously so excited to sink my teeth into this material and do some awesome work!

-Delaney xo