From the Hard Drive - Introduction to Work

We had lunch with the Program Managers and counterparts on Wednesday; this was a good chance to ask some initial questions and to hear some of our counterpart’s thinking. Tim seems very dynamic – Homeland Handicrafts is what it is entirely due to his vision and direction. Then we met separately with our Program Manager, Stepan. Gordon and Jeanne fall under the TEFL program and Brian and I fall under Community and Business Development. We read about the overall project framework and discussed our roles. We’d like to serve as consultants, both to Homeland Handicrafts and to any of the PCVs whose projects feed into Homeland Handicrafts – right now, all of the artisans that the NGO works with have been identified by PCVs, and the PCV serves as the local contact. Stepan is there to offer any support that we need, which is great. He has to clarify with Washington what our reporting system will be – I’m kind of hoping for the simple monthly/mid-service/final reporting of the Philippines and not the complicated reporting format that they were implementing in Morocco just as I left, but I’ll go with the flow. Our counterpart mentioned giving separate projects to Brian and me, albeit with overlap and collaboration, and I found that reassuring.

I’ll skip ahead chronologically for now to the next day, when we went on a field trip with our counterpart and his IT/translation person. This was an opportunity to see how they introduce the program to a new community. They advertise for a couple of weeks (the PCV in the site put up posters, and then there was word of mouth) to say they are coming and will review the work of any interested artisans. Tim does a presentation on seven principles of selling a successful product (such as make it small and packable) and then reviews the items that people have brought to see if they have any potential, based on his experience. The people who stay behind to ask questions and/or who appear more dynamic during the presentation are usually the ones he ends up working with. He gives them a couple of weeks to develop a product based on his principles and then comes back to the community. If the product idea is good, and the price seems reasonable based on his formula (he pays everyone the same hourly wage, plus materials, plus an extra percentage to be split between the artisan and the local partner NGO – Homeland Handicrafts takes nothing), then he will ask for a sample and/or agree to sell the product. Usually 20 or so people show up at the initial meeting and one or two when he returns. Brian and I took pictures and took notes – and already have lots of questions and ideas. It was a great opportunity, but it was an information overload on top of jet lag, and it meant that our survival language and culture lesson was cut short, so while I am glad I went, in a way I wish it had been this coming week instead. It’s all right, though, because unlike in the Philippines, we have a tutoring allowance here, and I intend to use it to learn some of the language!

One thing that was disconcerting was that as the meeting was breaking up and people were standing around, there was a woman with a daughter of about 12 or 13, and the daughter kept staring at me. In retrospect, if I had had some language I might have asked her name and made other small talk, but at the time I didn’t even think of that; I just felt uncomfortable. There were other women with light-colored hair in the room (not natural, but mine is enhanced as well), so I couldn’t understand why she was staring. I don’t think I look that different from the other people here – but I guess that I do. Later, Armine, the Language Coordinator, told me that of the four of us, I was likeliest to get unwanted attention. So if I come back to the U.S. with darker hair again, it’s because it’s a survival technique! Or maybe I will get used to it – it’s just been so long since I’ve been stared at that I’ve forgotten that aspect of being in the Peace Corps.

I started reading the Emergency Action Plan, and I realize that in the last post I failed to mention a few other potential dangers that were discussed in our session. I mentioned earthquake and petty crime, but there is also war (relations with Azerbaijan continue to simmer), civil unrest (there were violent protests after the 2008 election; the next election isn’t until 2013, but that doesn’t mean everyone’s happy), radiation leak (the nuclear plant is old and in a seismic zone; there’s been a rule that PCVs can’t be placed within 30 km – but Yerevan is within 30 km), and then mudslide, hailstorm and flood.

(I got some language from my tutor to try to describe what I wanted, but my hair is now lighter, not darker. I’ve been complimented on it, but I don’t like it! And it cost too much for me to redo it right away… so I’ll wait until next time and try to get it darker – or at least back to what my Chicago hairstylist wrote down! Also – since learning about the dangers here of earthquake and nuclear plant leak – and being here for a minor earthquake – both New Zealand and Japan have happened…).