Crazy Day at Work

"Disorganized," "challenging," "unstructured," "draining": Those are
some of the words that describe my experience working as a Peace Corps
Volunteer.. Some days are more so than others, however, today was not
one of them.

Here's run down. By Wednesday, I have to finish the first draft of my
Small Project Assistant grant. Oksana, my counterpart for the project,
was sick today. We are putting together a Business Center. The BAT
Tobacco company has said that they are willing to pay for trainers and
two consultants for the center. The City Council will provide a
location, pay utilitities, hire and pay a coordinator, and conduct a
marketing plan. Peace Corps will pay for the equipment needed in the
Center.

Oksana was sick because there's a rampant flu epidemic in my town and
I know of at least four that are incredibly sick because of it. Since
Oksana is out, I had to ask Deputy Mayor Yeremenko to provide me with
new colleagues...this took about two hours.

Everyone who was there today was suffering from something else: a
state of idleness. And on top of that, Oksana never finished the work
I assigned her. The work for the project the city wants. The work that
we need. So now we are on a two day deadline to finish a bunch writing
a documents that should have been done weeks ago!

I am sure this happens in America...but no matter where I am, I hate
when this happens to me.

The new people I am working with are asking a bunch of legal questions
that I don't have a clue. So we have to plan another meetng with the
deputy mayor and get this cleared up. There go another two hours.

At the end, the Deputy Mayor cleared everything up and by tomorrow all
of the documents will be finished. Let's hope this is the case cause
if it's not...I will really need to think of what to do next.