I have finished!

FRIDAY at 50 mins past noon….

Just filed my last report to AfID. Me on hol now!

;-0   ;-0   ;-0

Last full working day done! ;-)

Thursday 12 Sep (after work)

I am pleased with what has been achieved (high praise indeed, from me) by the joint effort of the team and me. Of course, there are still things that I would rather have finished but that’s life! That being the case, that was my last full working day here! Half day tomorrow…

Aaaah... the goal post is in sight!

Wednesday 11 Sep (before work)

It has been a bit of a hard slog, keeping people motivated! Tedious things like manual writing; handing over stuff, collaboration… just do not come easily to some people! Enough said on the subject.

As for me, countdown has begun. Another two and a half days and I will consider the assignment finished, except for the inevitable report writing!

I am going to finish work on Friday, lunchtime. I have booked myself into a nice little hotel for Friday night at www.hotelcyvadier.com , I will come back to my lodgings on Saturday, pack my bag and take the crew of 3 out for dinner. I will head to PaP on Sunday morning and head home.

At JFK, I shall have to treat myself to a new mega iPod (160 GB) to replace my old one which met with death while we are here L.

Right, better start work! Babay (bye, bye in Creole)

Bryan said Yes! :-) ;-) ;-D

Saturday 7 Sep

Since my last update, there had been a blur of meetings upon meetings, most of them productive, but some of them, quite honestly, I could have done without!

End of week 3, I still have not managed to draw up financial statements for the first 10 / 11 months of the current accounting year ended 30 September 2013 as yet L … BUT, an awful lot of good work has been and still is being done!

No org chart – too political a hot potato. However, all the major tasks have been streamlined, joined up and procedures written as we go along. The beginning of collaboration may have just been born in Haiti, well, at least, in a music school in Jacmel!

The principal trustee, who, in his own words, recognises that he is not IT literate. However, he said that if I recommend networking the current disparate IT hardware (at a cost of 450USD for materials and labour will be provided free by a local IT specialist) to enable collaboration, then he accepts this expenditure!

I am very pleased with the work that everyone puts in in the last 3 weeks. We have come a very long way in such a short time! I am spent, knackered but happy!

It is now Saturday lunchtime and I will sign off from work till Monday morning. Not totally however, Bryan, an ex AfID volunteer is currently based in Haiti (4 – 5 hours drive from Jacmel) for another organisation, is coming to Jacmel to meet up with me.

Before I came out to Haiti, AfID told me of Bryan’s presence here. I got in touch with Bryan and asked him to come to the school and do a recce mission for me. This, he duly did and gave me feedback. This enabled me to do most, if not all, of the required prep. Which means that once I got here, I had been able to hit the ground … sprinting!

Anyway, back to my reason for mentioning Bryan here. The poor man does not know that he is going to be asked (by me !) to do a whole lot more for the school… I think that it needs close monitoring / coaching for another 6 months or so… I am going to ask Bryan if he would be prepared to give up some of his little enough spare time to come and help the school, maybe, once a month! Watch the space. I hope that the man from Del Monte will say … “Yes!”

 

The storerooms...

...and there are three storerooms all in all!!!

Thought I sneaked out of the house unobserved this morning, until this was brought to my desk 2 hours later... 

I opened it... 

That was my breakfast delivered to me, unsolicited...ahh, isn't that sweet? Omelette roll, freshly squeezed fruit juice, banana and freshly made ground coffee. Bon appetit!

Beam me up Sco'ie

Wednesday 4 Sep (part 2)

Strange way to end a working day! It is now 6.45pm. I have just had a 90 minutes meeting (one to one) with the second in command. I will see him again tomorrow at 7.30am. I will then see the first in command some time tomorrow (another 1-2-1). Followed by Friday morning with a meeting between these 2 and me. If they behave, we then have a meeting with the whole management team. If they don’t, I don’t really know what I will do as it is very confusing and damaging for the staff to be told 2 opposing things to do. Me, oink oink, comes to mind!

One really good thing though today, the underling in the office had 2 sessions of nearly 3 hours with me on designing a database to replace the current disjointed way of doing things here, he actually said that it was fun!

Anyway, I will need to stop by the barber on the way home!

Where is my lunch?

Wednesday 4 Sep

Have a few minutes just before lunch, so, I thought I would post an update.

Yesterday was amazing, my adopted French daughter (given her age) seized upon an available opportunity and spoke very nicely and gently to the yelling 2^nd in command, (about a matter, dear to him) whom, I must admit, looked very surprised but had been able to climb down from his high horse and reciprocate the tone. It went well and I am very happy to have witnessed it!

The last few days were like teaching Excel classes at all levels simultaneously and designing databases at the same time, at high speed!

I came into work fairly early… photos, uploaded when Katie can do it for me, will tell you a lovely wee story. I am well looked after!