The Things You Learn Working at USAID
I’ve mentioned how this job has been an incredible learning opportunity. In addition to furthering my knowledge and experience in land tenure issues and rule of law in developing countries, not to mention USAID processes that definitely increase my value on the job market, I’ve recently taken on enormous additional tasks that have broadened my management skills and technical exposure to areas I’d never thought much about. It really hit me a couple of weeks ago when a colleague was commenting on how her Liberian counterpart was complaining that he didn’t even know what all the different folks in his department were supposed to be doing or who they reported to. Next thing I realized, I was spouting off about what he needs to do is bring in someone to do an organogram of the department and another for the needs of the department, develop terms of reference and align . . . . Wow. Somehow, in a matter of weeks I’d picked up a whole new vocabulary and way to understand institutional effectiveness. And it’s not all process stuff. Today I had the first of my one-on-one meetings with staff as the acting team leader (of the second largest Democracy and Governance portfolio in Africa I might add). I found myself talking about how to move forward on project design on elections issues - something I am no expert in. Discussions later in the day involved concessions-community conflicts, public financial management and accounting/auditing processes, civil society organizational development, development of a new strategic plan for the Liberian Supreme Court, and closing out a legislative strengthening program. It really has been quite the ride. And then every once in a while, something pops up that just blows your mind.
I’ve never been much of a trivia kind of guy, but I now know the answer to something seemingly nonsensical that I am absolutely convinced will someday be the right answer to a trivia question.
So, yesterday I walked around the building to the fourth floor kitchenette heat up my lunch. Last Friday the farmer’s market had some great eggplant, the store had some cottage cheese (no ricotta, so cottage cheese would have to do) my freezer had mushrooms and yellow peppers and my fridge had mozzarella, parmesan and padano cheese, so I made a great eggplant lasagna. As I was heating my lasagna in the microwave, I walked around a bit, past a couple of boxes stacked up against the wall, to read the headlines on a couple of newspapers. One was talking about ammunition stashes throughout the country that the military is finding - Bullets Flood Liberia - or something like that was the headline. Another was War Criminals Deforesting Liberia - an article about how people involved in logging during the Taylor era were now, illegally, back in the timber business in Liberia. After a couple of minutes I went to stir up my lasagna so that it would cook evenly.
Stepping back out into the hall I glanced over at the boxes. The short side of the box had the following:
Brand: NO LOGO
Lot No. 11N2193
Expiration Date: 06/2016
And a USAID/Liberia bumper sticker below that (I think I’ve included a picture of one previously on the blog).
So as I walk back towards the papers I read the side of the box:
Brand: NO LOGO
Lot No. 11N2193
Expiration Date: 06/2016
Contents: 3000 Condoms
Size: Standard 53 mm
Weight . . .
So guess how much 3,000 condoms weigh?
. . .
. . .
. . .
. . .
. . .
11 kilograms.
The things you learn working at USAID.