And thre shall be much arm-ripping

May I rant?

Ok. So yesterday I was in the office of my counterpart (checking flight times for Christmas) when he came in and told me that because I apparently have no time for (or interest in) working in the vivero (tree nursery) they have hired a new person in charge on behalf of the organization. (The mayor also has a person in charge but he does nothing)

When I first got to site I went to the tree nursery and found that the ladies who work there already know how to do the basic stuff. I couldn´t think of any way to help the production of the vivero (mostly because I also only know the basics). I explained this to my counterpart, adding that my general area of expertise is education. But to please him I asked for more information about the types of trees grown, the treatment of seeds. I also asked for a copy of their plan and the registro where they record all the data. I was told that the viverista (guy in charge) had most of this information...but he´s never around. I found this a smidge odd because the viverista actually asked me for a lot of this info that he was sposed to already have. I was NEVER given any information on their general plan of operation or timeline or anything. (As I recall I was told "we need 4000 plants") I tried to help them out by drawing a map of the vivero, doing a FODA to get a baseline, and finally to offer workshops on the stuff that I know that they don´t (honestly not much but important stuff) but my counterpart seemed more concerned with "branding" the vivero as USAID funded. Too little too late I guess.

Now my counterpart has hired someone, given her all the necessary information and told her what they need from her...including a plan, a registro of data and a general chronogram. AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!! My counterpart said to me "I asked you to go to the vivero, I practically begged you and you did nothing."...at which point I freaked out a little bit.

To be honest, I don´t really want to work in the vivero. It´s probably better that they´ve hired someone local who actually has experience in this sort of stuff....but I´m PISSED. I can´t help if I don´t know what they want! Is this a warranted reaction?

Also, the mayor´s office has asked me to help educate some people on the mini-vivero in one of the schools. My counterpart told me that he "would be very angry" if I agreed to help out with this vivero but not with his. Hopefully I explained adequately that my responsibility was to be education and not the actual manual labor. But again I could have ripped his arms off.

That has been my rant.

Shall I lighten the mood? Sunday as I walked to the market to drink an api (purple quinoa drink served hot) I counted 8 people with eye patches. EIGHT! Then I went to get a hamburger and BOTH the people who work at my pension had eye patches too! Unfortunately for y´all the explanation isn´t as glamorous as act-like-a-pirate day, or an eye-stabbing maniac on the loose but rather the Cuban doctors in town are giving free surgeries for cataracts.

Today I feel much better by the way after meeting my new Spanish tutor, planning some activities in the kindergarden, and watching the técnico from the Mayor´s office get yelled at by three people at once. I thought I was the only one totally frustrated with him...it was great!