Ok, now what are you doing there?

The last post got a little long...Sorry, I get really excited with this stuff!

Anyway, at home I work to administer the CDC PEPFAR grants to Ethiopia, Ghana, Haiti, India, Nigeria, Sudan, Rwanda and Zimbabwe. I work with the country offices on making sure the funding goes to the correct people and with the grantees to ensure that they've turned in the right reports and spend money on the things that they are allowed.

In Zambia, I'm on a detail to the program office side of the house. I'm working with the Zambia office on producing a large planning report to the Office of the Global AIDS Coordinator (OGAC). We work with the grantees to produce narratives explaining what they intend to accomplish in the following areas. Remember the 19 program areas of PEPFAR? CDC Zambia works in 16 of them and there is a report for each one. There is also a report from each grantee. Printed, this thing is about 800 pages.

They're also tapping into my grants experience working out any outstanding issues with our grantees and making strategies for the future. One of the failings of bureaucracy is that sometimes the right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing. It's very much like that between out field offices and my office. So I'm helping out with that while I'm here. And now they have me on the objective review panel of some PEPFAR small grants. So in the next few days I get to read 32 applications and score them. That will certainly gives me something to do at night if I get too busy at work.

I love, love, love working here. My co-workers are so nice, have a great attitude and are really dedicated to what they are doing. They are also really hospitable. Many have offered to take me places around town and help me adjust to life here. It's amazing how a healthy working environment can make a difference. Plus I get to work on things that I'm interested in and let me apply the things I learned in school. Thankfully, I have 4 more weeks to enjoy work life here. :)