workin here in Gulu

Maybe it's about time I explained more of what I do over here in Africa. I'm sure most people have heard the boring spiel I always give ('I work for a US government contractor and manage 3 of our international programs. What I do isn't glamorous, but the projects are really cool.') - but here are some fun facts:
-USAID is a government agency paid for by your tax dollars. (thank you) It's not allowed to advertise in any way, which is why you may not have heard of it.
-My organization is a private, for-profit contractor for USAID - not an NGO.
-In Uganda, we are trying to help increase people's confidence in the Government of Uganda (with the underlying theory that this will help bring stability to the war-torn region of northern Uganda). To do this, we have various types of projects based on our funding: media, infrastructure rehabilitation, & reconciliation.

Those are the basics - the program out here does everything from rebuilding schools to installing new water pumps, to reburial ceremonies, to break dance competitions, to hiring war affected youth to build furniture for government offices. Everything we do is purposeful & strategic - including the way we award grants, the timing, the locations where we work. Because of the way the program is set up, we are able to implement projects a lot faster than most other contractors - which makes us the favorite of the politicians, the darling of the local media and the envy of other programs.

In a typical day, I get to the office by 8, and already have a stack of papers to sign. Every thing that comes to my desk is urgent and should have been signed yesterday. Most days I don't know where to begin (don't tell my team!). By nature of my position out here (Operations Coordinator), I get asked a lot of advice: this afternoon I had my door shut to conduct a phone interview for an hour and was interrupted 6 times.

On fun days I get to go on field visits - to see what we are actually accomplishing and monitor progress. Two weeks ago, I went to a small town 3 hours away in order to do an assessment of timber suppliers in the area. Please somebody go find my diploma in timber. I have no expertise here, but I went and gave the program spiel and talked about anti-corruption. This is the kind of thing that I love - I get to see the local towns, learn about a new area of procurement, and be a part of the action.

Tomorrow I'm going to visit our the site where we are filming a documentary of traditional Acholi dance, then in the afternoon I have to interview two candidates, and of course a thousand approvals to sign.

My favorite field memory is this time in January we had a drama competition, and my team asked me to pick out a nice prize for the winners: a bull. I trekked out to the town corral with one of my team (literally over a stream, through long grass, and across a field). Lydia showed me the bull she thought was best, and then we proceeded to rank the bulls based on health, age, fatness, ability to pull an ox plow, and beauty. Lydia kept telling me, 'Abigail - that is not a male,' but by the end I was an expert.

Of course there are also days like today when I feel beaten down - I know so little, I am not a part of this culture, I can't keep up with the workload... such is life. I have to pull myself out of the weeds to appreciate the big picture again. Like I said - not glamorous, but awesome results.

I'm really grateful to be a small part of what we are doing out here - every day I can go home and say, 'today, I made northern Uganda a better place.' cheesy, but actually true.