All wrapped up in Kampala

….And a very merry Hanukkah Night 5  and a happy X-mas, too

Saturday, 17^th December

It’s been a while since I last spoke of the work I’ve been doing here.  I think the last thing I talked about was Interview Candidate #4.  Well I got a News Flash! Interview Candidate # 4 didn’t show up for an appointment he made to discuss terms of the contract.  Four days later another News Flash! Interview Candidate #4 alerts us that he has accepted a job from another organization (thanks but no thanks).  One and a half weeks later yet another News Flash! Interview Candidate #4 shows up at our door asking us to again to be considered for the position.  He says that the organization he accepted the job from had not been truthful about the amount of travel he would be doing. 

I discussed this with my colleagues and, at first, we disagreed on how to handle this.  My feeling was that he did a poor job managing his interview process and should have strung us along by not making the appointment to discuss contract issues.  Instead, he doesn’t show up for his appointment and prematurely sends us a notice about his other job offer.  He is a young man near the beginning of his professional career, let’s cut him a break.

However, my colleagues felt different.  They said that this exemplified the typical Ugandan way of doing things: coming to us when he wanted something but not alerting us of his absence for our meeting (his excuse was that his internet was down, he tried phoning the office but the office phone didn’t work, and the only other number he had was that of our ED, which he tried but she was in a workshop).  Perhaps this isn’t someone who will go above and beyond the call of duty, a key characteristic we are looking for.

Fast forward, we interview four more candidates for the position and hire a young woman capable of the job, though I had to teach her the double-click method for selecting icons (she has chosen to continue her right-click campaign despite my protests against right click > Open).  Almost simultaneously, we interviewed seven candidates for the Finance Officer position and found a really smart person from an International NGO, which we had to make a new category in our salary for, but he is well worth it.  He is plenty excited to get started and start tinkering around with the Excel tools I made to generate reports, and log transactions.  His past experience at a well run Netherland-sponsored NGO has equipped him with great ideas to make the internal operations more cohesive and robust.  Good Luck to you, Samuel.

One difference with employment in Uganda is that both these new employees’ former organizations required a one and two month(s) resignation notice, respectively.  If they were to leave any sooner, then the missing weeks of pay would be a burden of the employee.  In both cases, since we needed them to start during that penalty period, we shouldered the penalty.  We have also changed our contracts to reflect a one month notice, or pay stipulation.  When in Rome…

The rest of my time at work was spent training new staff, ironing out all the changes I made, teaching them to the staff, and making sure I leave a proper trail of the new way of doing things.  Dropbox was a big implementation—for those curious, I ditched the Google Docs because of strong recommendations from a consultant the organization will have as part of a grant they are participating in.  Concerns such as network reliability are serious here, and Dropbox allows users to update forms and documents while not online, which Google does not provide, yet.

So now I’m finished.  Made a few manuals and did my very best in attacking as many issues regarding the internal operations as I could with the intention that it is sustainable, easy to carry out in my absence.  I organized a protocol for budgeting which will allow them to better plan for the future as opposed to making funding requests based on short-term immediate needs, and I learned a lot about NGOs and how they can get so much done with so little resources.  There is a lot of work to do here, and people are knowledgeable in the subject matter, but there could definitely be more technical support when it comes to regular office management, financing, and conducting monitoring and evaluation (M&E) two to four times a year. 

What Was it Like?

The big question I would ponder before departing on this journey was What will it be like?  Working and living in Uganda.  What is Kampala like?  I’d never even seen an African city before this trip.  What will the office be like?  What will the people be like?  How will I get to work?  How big are the snakes?  Those were the fears.  My hopes revolved around being able to make an impact at my org.  Lucky for me and them, the role I played was in line with my strengths and much more pivotal than I could have ever imagined.

Working in Kampala was an experience, to say the least.  I can honestly say that the first month to month-and-a-half were much more difficult than the last month and change.  The longer we were here, the more I felt like we could do this for a longer stretch of time.  The this I’m referring to is not the life that Ugandans lead, though.  Our fellow muzungu friends all had cars, nice large living spaces, ate plenty of nice meals (out or cooking in), and had a comfortable network where they would frequently see each other as a large group.  Always something to do.  It was similar to life in New York, but a lot more manageable, we were not overwhelmed with a social life here, but we certainly enjoyed the company we kept: unique and fascinating people with similar interests to ourselves.

In the last few weeks I did not let my frustrations get the best of me.  Sure I had my rare—and much needed—venting of emotions in whatever form it came out in, but in Uganda, in Kampala, like any abroad situation, it is best to roll with the punches.  When the price is too high, bargain it lower; when the taxi is crowded, shrink up into a ball and throw your hand out the window beckoning for more to join; when it’s just another boring Sunday, go to church to hum along to the beats of Jesus and Jehovah; and when it’s raining so hard that you can’t see the ground in front of you, just wait it out, everyone will understand.  Just one thing I never got used to, everyone answers their phones.  I trained two new employees and each incoming call was handled.  Learn to expect it and use it as a bathroom break.

Interviews

3 October 2011

Today we interviewed six candidates for an office administration position.  Candidate #1: very shy, nervous, and was not able to relate his skills to the position.  Candidate #2:  similar to #1  with a little more experience as an admin.  Candidate #3: a big man with an infectious laugh (I’ve always wanted to use that phrase) and all the right experiences, he even interviewed well, a likely candidate.  Candidate #4: my personal favorite of the lot.  An energetic lad who was the first to score high marks in the category of interest in the organization, he asked questions  relevant to this org and had an answer for the question if you were to retire today, what would you do?  A farmer.  Many others said they would do “business” if they could retire today.  They either didn’t understand the question or business means something else over here.  Candidate #5:  I just don’t think he was a good fit for this position, in his last post he ran an branch office for the NGO, he was overqualified.  And Candidate #6...sort of a Willie Lowman character, an older man who showed up with certificates from being employee of the month and winning a cash award for hard work at an organization 15 years ago.  He also looked off in the distance or down when answering questions.  I felt sorry for him.  He was the last interview of the day, so I didn’t feel that sorry when it was all over.

The next day…. Candidate #3 vs Candidate #4.

The other two people on the interview panel favored Candidate #3.  He had all the qualifications.  His salary range was right where we would like it to be, but he maybe seemed a bit overqualified.  In my mind, he basically took himself out of the running when he had a chance to ask questions about the NGO.  The first question was regarding timing for notification about the position, the second, was about financial compensation for travel (he did come from outside Kampala and we said we would compensate accordingly).  However, he did not ask any other questions, and wasted an opportunity to show his interest in the org and what he already knows about it.

Candidate #4 seemed genuinely excited about the position, he is currently working for an NGO that was similar in some aspects (his program lost funding which is why he is job hunting), and he has the proper experience.  He also had the great proposal that we should put literature about our org in the lobby area.  And to take the cake, he had questions about who the donors are, the organizations other field offices, and other specifics which showed he did his homework.  His only mistake was in not delivering a letter inviting our NGO to an event/workshop held by the NGO he currently works for.  The circumstances surrounding this instance were that he was asked to deliver the letter, seemingly as a favor.  After being unable to find our office he returned the letter to the person.  When asked if he knew whether we received the invite or not, he imagined we did not!... Ooops.  But he was honest, and in this country honesty goes a long way, at least that’s how I spun it when speaking to my colleagues in my effort to convince them to choose this man.  His excitement about the position was a big plus and I used that as well: “you want someone who will grow with the organization.”  And lastly, he mentioned some examples of his tech savvy-ness which I liked since I am planning a lot of computer oriented templates. 

One sticking point for the other candidate was his salary.  I responded that this is not a criteria of selection, but helpful in negotiation.  If a selected candidate cannot agree to the salary terms then we must go to our number two.  I think this argument was new to them and helped put things in perspective for my colleagues.

I was able to get them to see that this guy was the better candidate.  I called his references—one of which noted he is a “casual dresser”—and they were all positive, so we are extending an offer on Monday.  I hope this guy works out.  This was the first move I made here that will actually have a larger impact.  I certainly imposed my will on the situation, but did so in a way that explained my point of view and I was successful in convincing my colleagues.  I think it was a matter of the other people on the panel viewing the candidates with the proper lens.  I was the optometrist to fit them with the right style.