ABC: Application Boot Camp - Sleep Deprivation Training

I am so exhausted.  And drained.  And spent.  

Raissa, Esther, Poet, Du and Jeaninne working on Applications

Immaculee, Francine and Jean Bosco - yes there's an app for that

Tonto Eric visits to lend support and one zillion recommendation letters

There's no way these photos can display the complete chaos of the past few weeks.  After exams finished in the village twenty senior 6 (seniors) students were allowed to stay in the village for two weeks to work on university applications. They were selected based in their grades and a mid-year college essay writing exercise.  These are some of the top students in the village.  The thinking is that these are the students that will have the best chance of being accepted and receiving a scholarship to a university.

They had really not started working on college applications at all before their national leaving exam.  Everyone is laser focused on studying for this exam, basically all year, but especially third term and it's hard to get them to think about anything else.  Now, with exams finished, they're all supposed to go home, but the catch is home probably does not have electricity, let alone a computer, and in the age of online university applications this is a real barrier.

So we hosted this program where the students could stay after school and work on applications.  There were actually 21, 1 student from last year.  They were working on applications primarily for MasterCard Foundation Scholarships like UBC, McGill, University of Toronto, Arizona State University and Michigan State University and some other possible scholarship opportunities.

I had thought it would be a fun couple of weeks, answering few questions.  Reading a few essays.  It was fun, but it was insane.

I had 10 'counselees'.  So many of the form application questions make no sense if you're Rwandan.  Address? No one in Rwanda has an address (we use the school's).  First Name and Last Name (given name / family name) are even a big discussion.  Rwandan's (like Imaculee Mugwaneza) have two names, a western and a Rwandan, but neither follow from your family and they think of Mugwaneza as first.  Don't even get me started on 'What is the value of your home?"  The kids had never filled out any forms like these.

And the applications are complicated.  For just one, first you apply to the school, request an application fee waiver, send transcripts, letters of recommendation, letters of financial validation AND then you apply for the scholarship, with the same biographical data forms again, then tons of financial information and then lots and lots of essays. For just one student, and just one school it is a lengthy complicated process.

Add 20 students, all hoping to apply to many schools. Mix in regular power outages that caused kids to lose their work (Save! Save! Save frequently please!) Documents need to be completed, printed, signed by people all over the village, scanned, the PDF file size needs to be shrunk and then, then you can submit part of an application.

The students would be at my house asking questions at 6 AM.  Serge showed up while I was taking a shower.  "I'm in the shower, Serge!  Can I have a few minutes?"  He replied "No Problem" and started shouting his questions at me.  KIds stayed in the computer lab working until 2 or 3 AM.

I had real trouble setting limits.  "No I don't have time to answer this question that is simple for me but a complete unknown for you and blocks you from applying to follow your life dream." So there were ten baby birds, loudly chirping, and one very tired robin flying to get a worm, grab a cup of coffee on the way back, give the worm to one baby bird who is unsatisfied and see 9 others squawking their heads off.

Camp was scheduled to run from November 11 through the 22nd.  But on the 23rd none of them left.  "We're not finished.  We have more questions."  To be fair the power had been out for long stretches ever single day of ABC.  Finally, on Tuesday Nov 26, I left, as an escape plan and because I needed to start visiting the remainder of the girls from Eleanor Roosevelt (more on that soon). They are still calling and showing up in Kigali with questions.  My guess now is that this will 'end' when all the applications are due.

It's a very difficult process.  I'm not sure if any of them will succeed.  However, we will have tried.  I think maybe the practice of applying, and paying attention to every detail on the application will be good for everyone who made the effort.

I would like to go to sleep for a week, but I need to visit the rest of my girls from Eleanor Roosevelt and start getting ready to come home.

Breaking: I'll be back in the US in December.

Working' Five to Nine, What a Way to Make a Living

One of the things that continually surprises me about life here at ASYV is how thinly the local staff is stretched.  They all work so hard and no one flinches when they are asked to do even more.  It's impossible for me to imagine the village working in America with the same number of staff and still providing all the same services.  Let's just say this is not a union shop.

The same kitchen staff makes every meal of the day.  They arrive at 4 AM, to prepare breakfast that will be served at 6 AM (porridge and rolls) for 500 students.  As soon as the breakfast dishes are done, those same employees will begin making lunch for 500 students and about 200 staff and visitors that will be served at 2:00 PM.  Mountains of rice are prepared.  Thousands of carrots and potatoes are peeled and chopped by hand.  Beans are cooked with a sauce.  Other vegetables are often added to the sauce.  Somehow, before lunch is served the staff also finds time to tend to the kitchen garden, often planting and hoeing and also finds time to bake tomorrow's 500 or so breakfast rolls. Once lunch is wrapped up by 3PM they have 5 hours to get ready for dinner.  Another 500 students and maybe 100 staff served more potatoes or cooking bananas, rice and sauce.  Once the kids finish eating by 9, the kitchen staff clean all the serving dishes and the whole kitchen and are finished for the day around 10 PM.  These workers get one day off a week.  In a lot of places this would be two (possibly three?) shifts of work.  Here it is a typical day.  Look out if there is something special to prepare like salad, fruit or meat, then the day is even longer.  There are also special meals to prepare for some restricted diets. Most surprising to me is that this whole staff is friendly, smiling and greets anyone who visits the kitchen warmly.  They also never fail.  Meals are always ready, and there is always enough to eat. That's an 18 hour day folks.

Another great example is the drivers: There are three drivers who work for the village.  To pick up the teachers all over Kigali and drive them to ASYV they start work at 4 AM, driving all around the city and getting to school around 6:30 AM, I guess. (I am usually not up at that hour.) A second driver picks up the administrative staff like the finance department.  The third driver is alwas in the village if there is a need to take a student to a hospital or other errands.  All day, those drivers run errands picking up supplies for the village or taking sick kids to the hospital.  Add to this insanity: sporting events, field trips, and sometimes shuttling kids or staff for special programs.  Then when the school day and after school meetings are over, that same driver drives the teachers home and gets everyone dropped off by 7 PM or so.  Then they get fuel and get ready for the next day, so are probably done with work at about 8 PM. 16 hour day is just the standard for their position.

Take the role of the family mother: These women are asked to parent 16 kids, get them up at 5 AM for breakfast and supervise, chaperone and love them once they are back from school from 3:00 PM to lights out at 11 PM. During the day while the kids are at school there are staff meetings, english lessons, computer lessons, securing supplies from the village inventory for the house, visiting with health & wellness for any problem kids and more often than not, caring for at least one sick kid at home.  In the afternoon, many lead Extracurricular Programs teaching sewing, traditional weaving and even carpentry.  They work 12 days in a row, then get 2 days off to see their external family (some have husbands and biological kids). 

Then there's the village IT coordinator who has to try to keep about 100 rickety machines that kids download every virus under the sun onto functional.  The machines have 3 possible operating systems (Windows, Linux or Ubuntu) and a wide array of software products.  Also, in addition to doing this full time job, please just imagine this for a second, the village asked him to start teaching an IT class in the afternoon 4 days a week.  He teaches from 3-5:30 PM Monday - Thursday for about 50 students. He assigns and grades homework and tests and plans his four 150 minute classes per week.  All this while evaluating software the village needs to run the finance department, print report cards and helping people map a network drive and connect to a printer.

I've done a little org design and optimization, and honestly if I was going to try and staff this place for an American workforce, I think I would about triple the staff, which of course would blow the budget. I'm not entirely sure what to make of it. I think part of it, certainly, is that the job market here is terrible, so employers have a lot of leverage to ask whatever they want.  On the ground though, to really feels like the staff are so committed to the kids, and to the future of Rwanda, that any request is received and acted upon.  Every full time employee here sacrifices seeing their family, sleep and any notion of free time to keep Agahozo-Shalom running and do the best they can for the kids.  It is truly awe- inspiring dedication.  It's not a job for them, it's a calling.

(One last case-in-point: Every minute of the day is scheduled from 6 AM to 10 PM, so if you have something unplanned to deal with, you need to scheduled it outside of that time.  I just left a 10 PM - Midnight meeting where everyone but the Americans sat patiently. I don't know if Rwandans are just genetically harder workers than any Americans I've ever known, or if the aftermath of the genocide changes you in ways where anything else seems tolerable, even reasonable by comparison.)

Mixed Nuts

I’m tired. Here’s a quick update.

Since NUFL 1 there was a week of work. I started making my own lunches for some reason which are pretty gross. This won’t last long.

Last weekend was a Mixed Nats qualifier. I played with Gary. We had a lot of fun. We beat two established teams (Honey Badgers and Mucous) and even gave Station 59 (Joy, Hussey, Liz, Chris, Jess, etc,) a decent game. (Tied at 5s, final 17-12). I played pretty well and handled a lot. I tied in the women’s MVP voting and got to split the spoils (a beer) with Mama (Lauren) which is pretty cool. Pretty much everyone on Gary is like a Freshman at Uni and there are also some juniors like Snail's super cool sister Cat. The team is goofy and very positive and it was a lot of fun. Cute Kids.

After the tournament, we went to the beach near St. Kilda. The water was freezing and made my feet numb but Mel Jackson and Chris and Sebbo Barr got all the way in the ocean. Dave did a back flip on the sand despite an ankle too sore to play the second half of the finals against Station 59. I was suspect and biked off to the Gunn Island Hotel where we all watched two footy games and drank Bees Knees beer and ate bar food. It was a good Sunday.

NUFL 2 is coming up. I’m helping to organize “billets” which means a free place to crash with another ultimate player. It’s pretty common here and a uniquely Australian thing. No one makes hotel reservations. They all just couch surf around the country. Slackers!

I got a great card in the mail from my mom. Kelly humor is puntastic. Hippo Birdy Two Ewe. You get the idea. This card couples my mom’s essential criteria (a golden retriever on the front) with a Kelly pun. The golden on the front is standing in a baby pool. The text inside reads, “You’re the one I waded for.” I laughed.

My parents will be here in early October. We’ll be checking out Melbourne, the Great Ocean Road and the Yarra Wine Valley. I am preparing for the impact.

This weekend will involve VOS practice, a party at Joy & Hussey’s house and watching some footy.

Congrats to Ambush for finally getting over on Godiva.
Congrats to Lindy for her first day of Kindergarten.

Thanks to Jesse for passing on this link of the AFL player who is trying out as punter for the eagles: Sav Rocca

Have a great Labor Day you lazy Americans.

fo-fo-fo

One of the great things about today is that I know the date. While tomorrow might be April 5th or May 4th based on where you are from 4/4 is nothing to argue about. I look forward to Cinco de Mayo. (Maybe I will try to have another Margarita.)

I have been working 8 AM – Midnight, with lunch at my desk and no dinner break. It’s about as awesome as it sounds. Stress is near maximum. I’ve eaten all the skin off the ends of my fingers. It’s pretty gross. I have a constant low grade headache that spikes on conference calls and when anyone speaks to me. Stupid huans! Woo woo. Every day I get assigned X things to do urgently, and achieve .4X of those things. I am a frog sliding deeper into the well every day. No worries about getting bored. I seem to have about 5 people who think I report to them. None of them are shy about delegating action items. As long as I keep trying to do everything they ask, all this will probably persist. If only I weren’t so conflict averse... I’d rather eat the wrong order than bring it to the waitress attention that I ordered the grilled cheese, not a calamari platter.

I never played D&D, but I wish I knew the lingo, because I would drop a line right here about needing two sleep potions. So there.

My employer (who I’ll never name again here) has recently expanded it’s corporate policy to prohibit employees from having a blog. Though many of my readers are co-workers, I’m hopeful they won’t report me. I think the intent behind the policy is to stop us from disclosing any corporate secrets. They needn’t have worried, as I don’t know any.

Imagine if I started blogging about corporate methodology. I don’t even think my Mom would check Courtneyspondence any more. “Another best practice is writing things down…”

One final point about work is that my good friend Amy Cooper’s husband’s baby brother is about to come from Dublin, Ireland to work with me. DON’T WORRY SIMON: It’s won’t be as bad for him as it is for me, I promise. As a ‘non-executive’, his hours are tracked and he’s not eligible for overtime, so while I’ll likely continue to work to midnight each night, he’ll need to leave by 6:30 or so PM every day, which is reasonable. I’m looking forward to having someone around that I know and someone that I trust. Paul is super smart, so having him on the team should make my life a little better. I am getting sick of cutting the meat into safe bites for the ponce who reports to me now.

Tragically, the Hoyas lost. Final 4 is pretty good though. Pretty good. I think the team might be decent next year, too. We didn’t play great against Ohio, but it wouldn’t have mattered as there was no stopping Florida. No stopping them. (From the accounts I read of both games.) Does U of K have a coach yet? Is it weird that I think Joquim Noah looks a little like my sister?

How much do Macs suck? Okay they have better commericals, but try using one. I am using my powerbook right now, so I can’t put links into this post. Ability to hyperlink text is not exactly a new ask. I’m only able to use word because somebody awesome who lives with Dave Marino gave me a copy, not to get her in trouble for the student exemption. ( I’m a student, of sneakers. )

That’s about all the complaining I can fit into this post. Expect more.

On the up side, pieces 4 and 5 of mail have arrived from the US: YAY! made my week! Super thanks to Ali Kling for a PERFECT care package of exactly what I was missing. Also super thanks to Tim, Alex & baby Nina who sent me 4 cliff bars, one for each day of the upcoming nationals tourney and a reminder to be sure only to eat them in my 'glycogen window'. I’ll try. I bet they only feed Nina in her glycogen window.

Things are pretty good right this second too. I am home in 301. I have on a track suit. I am blogging and listening to Iron + Wine, Kings of Leon and drinking a glass of champagne. Does anyone (Curtiss?) know how to get the cork back in the bottle. I only want a glass. It’ll go flat…

Also. In a few weeks, I'm going to see Wilco. I bought a ticket today. I had NO IDEA they were coming, but Hootchie sent me a clue and I jumped on it. And you all thought he was good for nothing... I guess this'll be my 7th or so time to see Jeff Tweedy. It's an assigned seating show. that'll be one night to leave work before midnight.

A Hoya is a What?

I am presently easting something called broad beans, which I incorrectly assumed were the Australian name for Lima beans. Broad beans are no such thing. They taste bitter and somehow sweaty at the same time. This is what I imagine is all the serfs had to eat in feudal times. They are completely gross. I am eating them anyway.

This week was busy at work and I didn’t do much more than work and go to Team Box practice on Thursday night. Practice was okay, we played 500, which I am terrible at and some 4 on 4 and then went out for beers. It was a good time.

On Friday I called my sister from work when I had a lucky meeting cancellation. Lindy has been sick and they have a septic system overhaul underway but I think they will all be okay. I am reminded that my vows to never own a home or breed are wise.

This morning I got up early and headed over to the Crown casino to try to see the Hoyas game. Tip off was 7:27 PM Friday east coast time, so 10:27 AM Saturday morning here. I was in the casino hoping that the sports book would help me out. No dice. They were showing horse racing, last nights women’s springboard diving and the Miami Heat down by 20 to the Indiana Pacers. Great. I went home to watch ESPN gamecast refresh every 30 seconds and my Mom called with play by play. Just as well that I wasn’t watching the game, it would have been too much for me. Georgetown trailed most of the game and was down 1 with 7 seconds to go. They won it at the buzzer with a 2 point jumper. Next up UNC. Look out!

I spent the rest of the day running around the royal botanical garden and running errands and such is the thrilling, non-stop action life of a world traveler such as myself. I got the dry cleaning.

Now, I am exhausted and I am going back to sleep.