Reminders

Sometimes I forget about what it is I’m actually doing and how my “position” appears from the outside.  No, it’s not like I forget that I’m in Liberia and not home in Oregon, but generally, day to day I’m just doing my job trying to do the best I can to complete the tasks at hand.  Some of them relate to the project I’m working on, others relate to projects I’m developing and others relate to the normal planning and reporting cycles that are typical of any government agency.  In many respects, I’m just like any other information worker and, despite the fact I occasionally get out, most of my life is spent in a cubicle that resembles cubicles the world over, doing a lot of reading, thinking and writing (way too much of it in response to e-mail) to keep things moving along.  

And then there are the occasional reminders that I’m not just some cubicle rat.  Reminders hit me three ways this week.

As I was walking to work on Monday morning, I was thinking about how it looked like my week was going to be pretty open, which was good, because I’d run into my boss during the weekend and she had asked me to think about something regarding some project planning we’re doing.  And of course, if we followed through on the idea, it would mean additional work for me to be completed by the time I leave on vacation in a couple of weeks.  But it was going to be a no-big-deal week, which is good, because I’m really looking forward to (and need) a good vacation.

So when I got to work, a found several e-mails in my in-box that informed me that I was to accompany the US Ambassador in a couple of days, and reminding me that I was supposed to participate with a Staff Delegation (US Senate) later in the week.  I set those thought aside to start doing some real thinking about my meeting later in the morning about rule of law projects.  The end result of my creative thinking exercise is that I created more work for myself.  Not only did I nurture the seed planted in my head by my boss, I planted and nurtured another seed regarding yet another project we’ve been developing.  Which gets to my reminders for the week.

I am at the forefront of U.S. international development planning and implementation for rule of law and land tenure and property rights in Liberia.  I am making key decisions - in conjunction with others - about how to spend serious amounts of money.  U.S. taxpayers’ money.  I’m talking in the neighborhood of $40 million over the next five years.  And as those 5 years develop, I’ll be planning (if I’m around) on how to spend another $20-25 million.  So when I think about projects, I have to think about what will be effective for Liberia and what will be a good use of our money.  Because it’s a lot of money.

I am a diplomat in all but formal title.  Since I am here under a personal services contract I am not a Diplomat (with a capital “D”), but I’m filling a USAID foreign service officer’s spot and performing almost all of the duties expected of a diplomat.  For example, on Tuesday morning I ended my one-week tour as the U.S. Embassy Monrovia Duty Officer.  Which meant that, if a US citizen had gotten into trouble (i.e. jailed) or had the unfortunate luck to die in Liberia, it was the phone that I was carrying that would have rung.  And I would have been the one to make an unfortunate call to the US to explain to the next of kin that . . . you get my point.  The phone rang more often than I liked, mostly wrong numbers, but there was one real call that fortunately was not a true emergency, but I helped the person anyway.  Later in the week, as the e-mail notification informed me, I accompanied the U.S. Ambassador as a technical advisor (along with an official Foreign Service Officer from the State Dept.) on a call to the European Union Ambassador to discuss political strategy on a joint response to an issue that has arisen here in Liberia.  I am asked to fill real roles here.

Last, I represent USAID to Liberians and Americans alike.  There was a small staff delegation here for a couple of days and yesterday I accompanied them to CNDRA, Liberia’s Center for National Documents and Records/Archives, where property deeds and other records are kept (MCC is providing some land administration support there).  On the way there and back I explained USAID’s land projects and strategy to the delegation members, and while at CNDRA, I explained USAID’s land projects and strategy to key Liberians and how the work at CNDRA works in conjunction with those projects.  In many ways, I’m (and people like me) are the link between Washington DC and countries we’re helping with international aid.  

So while sometimes it’s easy to get so focused into what I’m doing that I forget the big picture and fall into thinking what I’m doing is no big deal, weeks like this one pop up and remind me that, in many ways, it is a big deal.  Gulp!