Oops

Wow...I'm really terrible; I didn't realize how long it has been since I'd last written! Well I guess I'll just start with a recent update because I don't even think I could begin to remember all the things that have happened over the last (nearly) month. Things are really just same old same old, I have to admit. Things with work have been picking up some. I guess it was last week now, I went into my bosses office and approached him about starting of some projects because I am bored (and yes I told him I was bored). There is now an Alliance building project that I am slowly working on; hoping to having a meeting with one of the Board members when he returns from Zambia about going forward with determining who CPA's members actually are. My boss also suggested a few other projects that I could start work on; it's nice because they are really interesting projects for the most part and they are things that I can work on at my own pace or put on hiatus if I get busy with other things. The VSO volunteer and I are currently working on creating the last newsletter of the year. The boss was wanting to have it our for the end of November but knowing how slowly things function in this country and considering we have just recently started we didn't think there was anyway that would be possible but it turns out that UNICEF (they fund the newsletter) needs to have a first draft to the printers by the 20th of November otherwise we might not get the funding for it. So it looks like we don't have a choice but to rapidly produce a newsletter in the next 3 weeks. Things are going well so far but I have to admit that I'm not looking forward to the inevitable stresses ahead of chasing people to submit their stuff. Fingers crossed that all goes well!

In other news, I am now doing some volunteer work on the side for an NGO called Education for All (EFA). I am currently trying to find a donor to fund their new strategic plan and once that has been completed I have to write a proposal. I was kind of worried about the proposal writing but I think anything is going to seem easy next to having to find a damn donor. Now I truly understand why people hate the donor community; they certainly don't like to make things easy or even comprehensible for potential grantees. I will stop with this now before I bore you all to death but truly a frustrating endeavor!

Not been doing much other than working lately; so much so that I really can't recall anything that I've done other than strolling the beach and spending time lounging by the pool on a Sunday afternoon...hmm not sure if that's a good sign or not...probably not.

I've been thinking more about traveling, it's becoming that time of year (although you'd never know it if it wasn't for the calender) where people start asking what you're doing for the holidays. I know that CPA doesn't close for any extended length of time but I'm allowed to take a week or two holidays so I'm trying to decide what I want to do with myself. With so many friends in the Eastern and Southern parts of Africa I was hoping to make a trip out there but it turns out that it is extrodinarly expensive to fly within Africa (I guess because most people in Africa can't afford to travel and if they can they generally head outside Africa; it seems that most people who travel within Africa do so only for business purposes). So I am thinking about what I want to do, I might price some flights at different times of the year and see how things go; I really do want to see something other than The Gambia and knowing myself I'll probably regret it if I go home and didn't travel so I might just have to bite the bullet and pay the extortionate prices. Well see what happens.

Well I guess that's about it for now, I will try to be more diligent about writing but I won't make any promises! I hope that all is well with all of you wherever you are in the world!

From the Smiling Coast of Africa,

2 Months and Counting!

Well, once again the last week has been a bit of a blur! I'm not even really sure I recall most of it. I guess I will start by saying that most of my goals from last time were successful...sorta. I managed to get my visa extended until the end of December this time and amazingly enough it required no bribes at all! The second goal of telling Social Welfare that their database is a peice of crap was a little less successful. The man coordinating the whole thing was quite impressed with the thouroughness of the job I did on making "comments"; however, said that most of the documents were copied and pasted right from the original document which meant that they couldn't be changed. The Director of Social Welfare said that it is not possible to change the wording of policies and whatnot. Hmmm, seems like the extensive comments on all 86 pages was a gigantic waste of my time! The Director did say that they would take note of the comments and would present them to the National Assembly the next time the policies and whatnot came up for review. Ya right...like I believe that! The whole document was so incredibly poorly written that I couldn't comprehend the majority of what was being said. I don't know why the policies are so poorly written but apparently the studies (which are also very poorly written) were actually written mostly by British expats so I KNOW that they were not poorly written so now I'm having a bit of a hard time believing that the database was a simple copy paste job. Either way, it's out of my hands now and thank god my name is not attached to it.

Work has been midly amusing as always; I have spent the last couple of days at a training for members of the National Assembly....most of the last two days have been spent in arguments but I think they are arguing just for the sake of it. Really it is just the majority leader that has been instigating all the problems. The training is continuing on until tomorrow but I refused to attend on a Sunday...they are not paying me enough to work 7 days a week!

These training sessions are always interesting but other than that life at CPA is quite dull; I will be starting work on the newsletter that is coming out and there are definately cool projects that I could be working on but other interns in the past have also worked on the same projects and their work has been neatly filed away and not looked at since so I'm not really sure I want to waste my time working on something that I know will also be filed away for "safe keeping". Recently I have been networking with a few people from other organizations; there is an NGO that is education based that is just around the corner from where I live and currently they have no staff so I am meeting with the head of the organization (the one man show) on Monday to discuss options for doing some work for them. He seems to think that he might be able to negotiate with my boss for taking me at EFA on Friday's instead of going to CPA (since Friday is a half day at CPA anyway); I'm not sure my boss is going to go for that but I could always go to EFA on Friday's after CPA or do some contract work on my own time. Afterall, they can't control what I do on my own time and CPA certainly isn't utilizing my ablilities so I'll go elsewhere and get some extra experience. I was also chatting with the Policy and Budget Analyst from one of CPA's partner organizations and he wants me to look in possible Canadian donors for the new strategic plan they are developing so I will also go and visit him sometime this week. It looks like I have a lot of work coming my way in the next couple of months but if it all works out as I hope it should be a great learning experience!

Some of my IPMP friends have now arrived in The Gambia and I have to say that it is very strange to be in West Africa and just run into someone from home on the street or in the internet cafe as it so happens!! It seems that time is just flying by; it's so nice having someone else in the office now as well and we've been hanging out alot since she arrived a couple of weeks ago. It's so nice now to have company other than my own! Well, I guess that's about it for now. Hope that everyone is well and it's always nice to hear from the other sides of the world!