Category Archives: work

Honouring Fridays: May 1st, 2009

I was reading back through some of my old blog posts and realized that I don’t talk as much about my work as I would like to. Perhaps I have difficulty putting into words what I do here or perhaps it is just the last thing I feel like thinking about after a long and busy week…so this week, some things I am grateful for at work, to hopefully share a bit more what exactly I am doing

Focused advocacy plans. Our coalition had a planning meeting this week and has FINALLY narrowed their focus down to some tangible, measurable, and achievable demands around advocacy. It is all well and good to want to demand high quality education for all students, but to whom do you make your demands? And how will you know when they have been met? And what does quality education really mean? So, we spent a day focusing our demands. We want…1) The Nepal Government to allocate 20% of the national budget to education (currently 16.53% comes out way), 2) Funds to flow more quickly to the school level (there are currently about 25 steps for money to reach schools so it takes forever to get there), 3) Proper use and allocation of funds at the school level, 4) Establishment of a national constitutional body through which all teachers are hired, 5) Better governance at the school level. It is satisfying to know that we are capable of these kinds of demands…let’s just hope that we can actually do some of these things!
Hiring great, passionate, and intelligent people. This week we also completed the hiring process for GCE Nepal’s first full-time staff member, a Coordinator. We had outstanding applications, a great interview team, a transparent and ethical recruitment and selection process, and what I think will be an incredibly talented individual who I will enjoy working with immensely. Much like hiring students at universities – a great colleague can make all the difference.
Having more questions than answers. It is always the case that when you are new to any organization, you should spend more time asking questions than answering them. AND, the wonderful thing about being able to ask lots of questions is that you can push thinking further. I don’t always plan to challenge how things work, but in my efforts to understand for my own learning, my questions prompt discussions that might not otherwise happen. Take, for example, a simple question about how GCE Nepal communicates with their members. I wanted to understand how the Steering Committee shares information. What I discovered is that nobody had really ever considered this before. A good question can be one of the best tools for learning but it can also be one of the best tools for getting work started…
Gaining the trust and confidence of colleagues. If I think of what I knew about my work 5 months ago, 4 months ago, 3 months ago, 2 months ago, or 1 month ago I can see how the depth has changed but also how I get my information has changed. Those I work with are much more open and willing to be honest about where our coalition struggles. I have real conversations…finally! It took time to sift through the information, opinions, perspectives, and glossy descriptions of our work. To weigh, measure, test, clarify, and analyze all this information takes time…slowly, slowly, slowly. But eventually I got a complete picture of the reality. And then, I began to have real conversations.

Honouring Fridays: March 20th, 2009

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The march of the week days continues on. One thing that I can confidently say about working in a new country is that work is still work is still work, any way you slice it. I had kind of thought (naively) that somehow working overseas would feel not like work! But who am I kidding really – it is still fraught with the same pitfalls as work anywhere – overtime/weekend work may be expected, office politics still run rampant, not everyone loves their job and it is still hard to get people to work together and collaborate. All that said, work in Nepal is nothing like work in Canada 🙂 Yes, it still feels like work and still has many of the same pitfalls, but …it is indescribably different. So, to honour this particular Friday some things that I am grateful for at work 🙂

Talented and wise colleagues. It is often the case that I seek the wise council and advise of my “supervisor” R. I have found myself a bit stumped this week on how to address some internal politics and clearly unethical behaviour within the coalition I work with. What I am continually so impressed with is R’s ability to read a situation for the subtle and often incredibly sensitive cultural messages that I so easily miss. He understands so well the dynamics of human behaviour within the Nepali context and can so easily and gracefully adapt his own communication to these complex social situations. Hi wisdom and talent is impressive and I have so much to learn from him.
The official VSO Library. Not everyone knows this, but one of the simple pleasures of being at the VSO office is that I can sherpa back to my apartment every day a couple of books from the VSO library. These are years and years worth of books collected by various volunteers and left for the enjoyment of continuing volunteer generations. All free and totalling about 1500 books in total. From the obscure, to the mundane, to the breathtaking one can find just about anything. And I have also discovered that there is a point after which one will read ANYTHING simply for the sake of reading. So far I have read books (fiction and non…you decide) on the following topics: British culture, tennis and drug addiction, incest in frontier France, the Nepali civil war, walking the Appalachian Trail, lesbian love in the early 1900 British theatre scene, down’s syndrome, the life of a writer, the culture of a small fishing village of the coast of france…and I have only just dipped a toe into the literary excitement of the VSO library.
Riding on the back of my boss’s motorbike to get to meetings. It is hard to imagine how I would have reacted in Canada to the suggestion that I hop on the back of a bosses motorbike and zip off to a meeting. But, today, that was exactly what happened. Indulge me for a moment and just imagine your own boss riding a motorbike. Now, imagine yourself, dressed in traditional Nepali clothes but topped off with a black motorcycle helment and hopping on the back. Weaving in between cars, traffic, and bicycles, balancing precariously on the back, trying to make your body flow with the bike rather than against it. After the meeting, we debrief the meeting while whizzing through the streets….incredible! I must admit that I loved it and hope we have more meetings we need to get to where we will need to take the motorbike.
Meetings where a mutiny occurs! The above mentioned motorbike trip took us to the first all-members meeting of the Global Campaign for Education-Nepal. About 15 people in total attended but the big news, and something I was considerably grateful for, was the fact that a mutiny occurred! The chair was essentially kicked from his position by both his organization and the rest of the members. There was a reshuffle of the steering committee which hopefully resulted in renewed focus and energy. AND, all this happened while the (ex) Chair was not in attendance! He wasn’t even there to defend himself. Bizarre to think that he was part of the coalition a day ago and now is no longer involved…and I don’t even know that anyone has told him yet…yikes! But I must admit it was a step in the right direction – and it was just such a interesting process to observe.

Honouring Fridays: March 13th, 2009

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Mid-march already! So hard to believe it really. At home, I could mark the months with work cycles, important dates, holidays, and often seasons; here is harder to mark the passage of time as readily. The holidays are new and unfamiliar, the work cycle is totally new, and the seasons seem to wash slowly into each other like the bleeding of water colour paints. Perhaps this why time is more fluid and less structured here…thinking in larger increments of time lends itself to a more free and bigger picture way of thinking. The immediate details don’t matter…the afterlife, one’s legacy, one’s family history and sucessive generations…that is how time is truly measured in Nepal.

Nepali Straight talkers. Today I had my first productive meeting with my Global Campaign for Education-Nepal steering committee. The challenge for the past 4 months has been to try and observe, assess, and understand the organization and leave plenty of room for them to involve me where they see fit. I am very conscious of the methods other INGOs use to push their own agendas and I am very focussed on not working in that way. It is their country, their education policy, and their coalition…I can support but they need to feel comfortable with me. So, months roll by, I wait. And today, a tipping point thanks to another INGO. They had brought along a senior member of staff to observe and comment on the planning process (we are 8 reports behind schedule for our donor oganization….blech!). He was able to say the things I wasn’t – he could speak as a Nepali to another Nepali, with confidence about how things work , in a direct and constructive way. And the best part was that he was able to reinforce many of the recommendations that I had been making….so without getting too hopeful I would like to believe that this signals a productive turn in the work of the coalition. Yippee!

Cabbage. One of the most under appreciated, hardy, and satisfyingly crunchy vegetables to hit the culinary scene some centuries ago. Last night we made the most delicious sesame-soy-honey coleslaw with fresh green cabbage, carrots, red onion, and a smashing dressing. Recipe is coming soon….but wanted to remind folks that the lowly cabbage is worth a second look. Excellent in curries, instead of tortillas as wrappers for tasty fillings, in salads, pickled, in soups, as filling for tacos…consider this slogan…”where one could use lettuce….CABBAGE instead!”
M’s Family. The parents of my dear friend, M, arrived in Nepal this week. M’s mother was recently diagnosed with cancer so this trip has already been an emotional and mental preparation. A small group of us went for dinner with them this week and it was such an honour to meet them. There we moments of intense sadness and tears but also moments shining with laughter and sheer joy for being together. The poor waiters must have thought we were crazy, switching from laughing to tears in mere seconds. It was however, one of the most genuine, real, and honest moments of my time here in Nepal. Nobody tried to pretend things were okay or to create an atmosphere that felt overly celebratory. We all just shared our meal and infused our time with love, good conversation, support, warmth, understanding, and compassion…when we felt like laughing we laughed and when we felt like crying we cried.
Feeling a place through art. Other of my dear friends, and a fellow Canadian, is an exceptionally talented painter. It is a hobby but in my mind it is his true calling. He captures more vividly the mood, feeling, and inner sense of Nepal than any picture I could take with a camera. A few of his paintings are available to view on his website. His Nepal hills pulsate with purples, blues, greens and appear smoky with the haze of fog. It is always one of my favourite things to be in a place with G and then to revisit that place through his paintings.

Honouring Fridays: February 20th, 2009

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Pancakes. Not the puffy, fluffy kind but the pan cooked thicker, crepe-like kind made of egg, milk, and flour. Topped with fresh honey and lemon or with curried veggies – we have been enjoying them in both sweet and savoury ways since it is easily made by candle light and is quick after a long day at work. Breakfast for dinner…perfect!
My landlady. We have had a problem with our generator that powers our water pump lately, which has meant a shortage of water to our apartment. Enough for a shower every few days but little more. We are able to pump water into buckets to flush the toilet and wash dishes which is just fine. But what makes this something to be grateful for is that when I come home from work I often find a bucket or jug of water waitig at my door…a little gesture but so appreciated since I don’t have to lug it up 4 flights of stairs in the dark. Thanks to Rita my landlady for always making sure we can flush.
Rest. The joys of a good restorative and rejuvinating sleep were revealed to me this week after a few difficult nights. Mental exhaustion unravelled all my rational thinking, emotional composure, and coping abilities earlier this week. I took rest. And miraculously, 8 hours later, I awoke feeling completely restored 🙂 There is no other activity that results in such good health, that takes zero energy in which to engage and yet produces results so vastly impressive in nature.
Language. The eloquence of a statement I had written in English I had hoped could be translated into Nepali for a workshop next week. Not suprisingly, it was not that simple. The nuances of Nepali, the structures of sentences created their own unique eloquence but required tweaking, thinking, debating, and carefully selecting the appropriate word. This required further explanation from me about the meaning behind my statement. Was one of those moments where the complexity of languages was both frustrating and magical. These are complex words we speak…

Honouring Fridays: February 6th, 2009

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It has been a long week – we are gearing up for a program analysis workshop happening Monday to Wednesday next week and since we are all new here in the Education Program office, I am pitching in to help where I can – we are sort of fumbling through it all together which is pretty comedic really. And yet in all the rush, I am celebrating the feeling of being productive and useful again – I forgot how good it feels to be useful.

Silence. Kathmandu is a city full of noise. There is rarely that deep and unending silence that one can sometimes find deep in the forest or even the kind of silence that one finds at the ocean – the waves and seagulls become a sort of white noise. BUT, in the misty early morning as families wake and give “puja” to the gods there is a stillness that almost resembles silence. I sleep through the best silence most days since it appears fleetingly between 5am – 6am. But if one is lucky enough to catch it, it would be easy to understand why people in Nepal wake so early – the gods are present in the silence.
Transgender choirs. So last week I was grateful for diversity and this week I am grateful that I was able to be present at the first performance of Nepal’s first transgender choir (perhaps the first in much of the world too?). It was a great show and I discovered that one of the offices for the Blue Diamond Society is actually in a small building in my back yard…a truly small world! Needless to say, this week I was inspired by all the voices I heard in the choir.
Gas. No, not the human kind, but the cooking kind. We are now the proud “owners” of two large red gas cylinders which dutifully cook our food on the two-gas burner stove and heat our water for showers. They are cumbersome, heavy, ugly, and dirty things but we love them for the freedom they provide – we can finally cook our own dinners!
The Department of Education in Nepal. This week I attended my first meeting in the Department, along with about 20 other Nepali individuals from various INGOs, NGOs, and the government. It was just the most amazing thing to see – the politics, the subtle power dynamics, the personalities, the cultural rituals. The important government officials came and went throughout the meeting – particularly when things got sticky and they were being called to task on some of the programming choices – enrolling students who are not retained in the school system instead of working on student-teacher ratios or providing free textbooks to students – they simply stood up, walked into a side office, and shut the door. There was much banging of fists, agenda pushing, and advocating for various causes, all happening throughout the official meeting – cell phones ringing, people coming in and out, Nepali insults flying (at least I think that is what happened, as it was all in Nepali – I think I caught most of it!). Fantastic fun and a great introduction to the nature of government meetings – I have to say I throroughly enjoyed it and look forward to the next showing.

Rethinking advocacy

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One of the significant roles I will play here in Nepal is supporting a coalition of NGOs (non-governmental organizations) and INGOs (international non-governmental organizations) in coordinating their advocacy work. So, the result has been an endless slog through oodles and oodles of donor agency reports, position papers, data summaries and government documents on education in Nepal.

Now, they all contain exceptionally important information that is central to any advocacy effort that is to be made. However, my complaint lies in the readability of the documents – it seems as though the target outcome for the reader is blurred vision and loss of purpose…

BUT, there is so much potential…so I did some research and have come up with this great great free downloadable booklet on information design by a clever group at Tactical Technology Collective…highly recommended to anyone who is interested in ways to make information more appealing, particulary to audiences who may not be familiar with the details, when concepts are too complex to be explained in words, or to increase the accessibility of your information.

A new way to approach to advocacy…I hope so…because what we currently doing is just not working.

First day of work

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After 2 months of cautious observation, protection, training and coddling, this week i our first week of work.

The cautionary tales of not expecting too much, being patient, and taking everything that might happen in stride had worn us all down. In fact, our expectations were so lowered that I was thrilled to walk into my office and have a desk, chair, and binder of reading waiting for me.

Much of the week was spent reading and studying documents related to child-friendly schools, inclusive education, valuing teachers, teacher training, and complex, tedious and often circular debates by large donor agencies about just how important education is to alleviating poverty (I absolutely can agree with their arguments but let me tell you these documents do not stimulate any creativity or inspire ideas that will help to achieve their lofty goals).

Today I got my computer started up and was able to dig a bit deeper into the specifics on my job which is to provide support and advocacy advice to the Nepal Global Campaign for Education, comprised of local NGO’s and some INGO’s that are making efforts to coordinate their advocacy efforts towards the Education for All goal of 2015. It is complicated…and more so given that I am not familiar with all the development lingo, acronyms, and agencies…phewwww!

The highlight of my day happens twice = once at 9:30am and once at 2:30pm. This is chiyaa chutti (tea break) and lunch respectively. The whole office gathers to chat and read the newspaper during chiyaa – a lovely start to the day. Then at lunch, we all flock to a corner of the yard to eat our curry, rice, and dhaal for lunch. We pay ahead for a month of lunch (about 50 cents Canadian per day) and the fabulous kitchen team lovingly prepares us lunch…very very tasty! No more brown bagging when I can have a hot and fresh lunch each day!

I have yet to sort out my best mode of transport to and from work. So far I have been walking 1-hour each way which in the morning is lovely – tea in a travel mug and BBC World News through my headphones makes the time pass quickly. But the afternoon walk is just chocked with exhaust, dust, noise, people, traffic, dogs, garbage, street vendors, honking, and the odd cow that it is almost too much stimulus after a long day of work. Today I hopped the bus and it was heaven, and by heaven I mean a jostling and bumping ride full to the brim with people, with bags smacking you in the head (much like a crowded 99 bus in Vancouver but with more chaos and twice as crowded) – and still…it was heavenly compared to the walk home.