Wait. I'm supposed to do what?

When I first joined the Peace Corps I thought- Awesome! Taking a step back from the reports that I did as an EMT, RA, student, and just a person living in the United States will be nice and when I get back to the US I’ll be mentally ready to do them all again. Oops.

Much to my surprise I found we still have to do paperwork (or computer work) while in Burkina Faso. I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised. After all, it is a governmental organization- so there’s probably some system of accountability, record keeping, or just something designed to make sure I don’t have too much fun.

In true Peace Corps form we have to fill out a VRF (Volunteer Report Form). I just love the acronyms we have. It makes guessing at what something means a whole lot of fun. In fact, I’m not 100% sure that’s what it stands for- but I’d say it’s more likely than not. Anyway, the VRF (not to be confused with the VFD from Lemony Snicket’s ASeries of Unfortunate Events- still need to read the 13^th book in that I think) is something that’s due quarterly in order to track, trend, and otherwise monitor the activities of PCVs (peace corps volunteers). Now, in many areas of life this would be an easy thing to do. However, given the lack of electricity for the majority of PCVs it becomes a bit of an issue. Way back when, the forms were done by hand. This created a lot of paperwork that killed a lot of trees, kept getting lost when volunteers tried to mail it in, and on top of that was more than occasionally illegible. This brought the advent of a new computerized system- which I believe made use of Microsoft excel. Then people who didn’t have excel couldn’t do it. Darn. This brought another system that was easy to use…with windows computers. Volunteers with macs were once again stymied. Then someone said, “I know let’s use Java!” For those of you that don’t know Java is a cross platform system (works on any operating system), but no one uses it anymore…because it’s big and clunky and is from the 1990s. Ironically Peace Corps Burkina Faso started using this nifty piece of technology within the past 18 months. Anyway, case in point- Java is outdated and now volunteers with new computers don’t have it. This day in age- simple solution- download it. Problem- who’s got the bandwith to download it? Well here at our nifty hotel it’s possible. But, then you tell 23 people to do it and they all do it at the same time and no one gets it. I just laugh at things like this because, that’s really all you can do.

By now, I’m assuming we all have it. I actually had the foresight to download java the night before so as they say here, “pas de problem”.

Where was I? Oh yea, the VRF.

It has places to input primary projects, which peace corps goal it completes, who you did it with, what it was, when it was, how many people went, how much it cost (thus tracking your grants), any problems- it’s actually incredibly comprehensive. It’s kinda like the Trinity RA reporting system…on steroids.

I actually like the fact that we have to fill out these VRFs, it seems like a good way to keep people on task, and also it keeps our bosses apprised of our doings.

Aside from that we learned how to write grants- apparently money makes the world go round. It’s kinda funny, we get a monthly stipend (LLA here- Living and Leave Allowance) and it’s adequate- so I really don’t think about money because let’s face it- I really don’t spend money in village. Maybe $1.25/day. Tops. But the rest of the world uses money, thinks about money, and to get supplies for some projects you need funding. It’s interesting the types of grants the peace corps has, how you have to apply for them, how you can possibly get them and the various bureaucratic loopholes you have to find and squeeze yourself (and whatever project you’re trying do to) through. I’m not saying lie, cheat, or steal but if you’re doing a project but the grant that will give you the money needs a family planning component you can toss in a family planning component and all of a sudden… you can apply for the grant (even though it wasn’t the intent at the beginning).

As I’ve said before- money is not the solution to all problems- and in fact in a country like Burkina Faso, money is frequently not the answer at all. Money doesn’t automatically make things sustainable and doesn’t solve problems. But for supplies such as CPR mannequins (hypothetically speaking) it could be useful.

It’s important to know the inner workings of an organization (especially governmental) in order to understand and be able to operate within that framework. All in all, I’d say it was a day well spent.