Work Update.

It has been close to a month since I have given an update on my project. The project is often overshadowed by the many other aspects of my life and adjustment here that I often have to remind myself that my primary purpose here is to work.

The community audit has turned into a larger research study than I was expecting. This is great as it will be an opportunity to gather concrete information about a wider number of experiences than I was originally planning for. The research proposal was completed last week and sent to my Canadian organization to approve the budget. I have no sense of whether this budget will be approved or not. The costs are very low for a study, mainly gas and transportation costs. As well as hiring someone to teach me Chichewa. Planning this study has driven home the point to me that I will most likely be unable to communicate directly with any of the beneficiaries for whom I am planning these programs. This has been disappointing and requires a significant adjustment to my expectations. I am most excited by interacting directly with women and children, speaking with them and building my own relationships. In light of this challenge, I will be training a team of research assistants to help me with conducting the interviews and leading the focus groups. Again, an interesting challenge (if anyone has any concrete information on interviewing techniques for qualitative research, please email me!).

Now I wait.
Waiting is pretty standard around here.
In the meantime I am working on the training for the research assistants and a manual for the youth clubs that CAYO coordinates.
Technically a lot of work. But the days feel empty.

The office environment is unique to any other working situation I have experienced before. I am trying not to be nit-picky, but the space is extremely small. There is NO privacy. For someone who is used to sitting in silence and privacy to gather my thoughts, I find it very hard to get the juices flowing at work. Someone is always looking over your shoulder to see what you are doing…..
I am also not exactly sure what my co-workers think of me (not that I will ever find out). I try to be friendly and talk, but am not always sure what to talk about. I want to build relationships with them, I just don’t know how. So I am