Going with the flow

Well, to be honest, it has been a long week here in Madagascar. I left Antananarivo on Tuesday and came to Ambositra where I will be the remainder of my time in Madagascar. The winter months (summer in the northern hemisphere) is a popular time for staff to take annual leave, usually about a month. So I arrived when they were all returning to work and dealing with a month of backed up issues. Come to find out, the regional director in Ambositra, John, thought that I was going to be station in Mananjary, an ADRA site along the coast doing administrative duties. Well, surprise to him, I am in Ambositra doing development. On top of now finding things for me to do, which he wasn't expecting, the language barrier is proving to be more challenging than expected. It came to the point where John could not see past my inabilities to speak French or Malagasy and actually consider my skills, training, and experience. It was then after an hour of brainstorming of how I could fit in here that I realized he had not received my CV (glorified resume) to even know what I was capable of doing. After that was squared away, we have decided that I will be involved with project planning. Come to find out, more people than originally thought, speak English -- at least ADRA staff. So I am no longer Assistant Coordinator of Disaster Prevention and Risk Management but rather somewhere between project planning and M&E (Monitoring and Evaluation).

About the program -there is a consortium made up of four NGO's: ADRA, CARE, Land O'Lakes, and CRS (Catholic Relief Services) working of a five year project funded by USAID fighting food insecurity. Madagascar is the second worst country in the world in regards to food insecurity due to disasters, the current political crisis, and poor quantity and quality of crop production. There are three main strategic objectives (SO) these organizations are working on: SO1 -Health & HIV/Aids, SO2 -Livelihoods (Agriculture stuff), and SO3 -Disaster Prevention. Across these three SO's they are promoting good governance, sustainability, gender, and the environment.

So where do I fit in? I will be helping with USAID food distributions and going out 2-3times a week participating in that. There are food distributions to the most vulnerable, a food for work program (such as building roads, etc), and food provided for those that attend trainings or participate in disaster prevention meetings. I will also be helping to analyze if what is happening in the field is really meeting ADRA's strategic objectives per the USAID project proposal. I have also offered my English services to be a liaison between ADRA HQ in D.C. and USAID, who require English reporting. I also plan on going into the field to see the agriculture projects and health projects just to learn and see what is going on. So, slowly but surely, my new job description is coming together. I am reminded that things move at their own pace in Africa and preparation comes after it's needed. Oh well, go with the flow...things always get figured out one way or another - it just might not be immediately.

I am sure more unexpected and exciting things are to come. Stay tuned...