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Julia here - thought I'd give you the rundown on my work.
The office is a bit ramshackle; the roof leaks, the floor is wonky and it hasn’t been renovated since it was built a good forty years ago at least, but I have plenty of daylight streaming in and behind me through the window I can see away to the mountains. (Although I'll be playing musical desks a bit for the next couple of months).
The work environment is interesting - it’s an odd cross between Pacific style (nobody ever does anything quickly or when you ask them to and there is an incredible amount of authority-related protocols to follow) and UN style (everyone is super busy all the time and working ridiculous hours for ridiculous deadlines). I’m not quite sure how those two go together, but somehow they seem to here. So far I have quite a few different things to work on, including working on a proposal for a project aiming to reduce violence against women in the four countries our office covers (Samoa, Cook Islands, Niue and Tokelau), another proposal for a system to distribute condoms within all UN offices here, and soon we’ll be
The UN Compound
As seen from outside my office - opposite is UNESCO and to the right is FAO running some informal gender sensitisation training for the UNDP staff.
And they need it. Actually, I wish we could run gender sensitisation training for the whole country, but unfortunately that’s a bit ambitious. I’ve been quite stunned at some of the perceptions of gender roles and relations I’ve come across since being here. I knew there would be problems, but they’re bigger and more entrenched than I had expected. An example: another Australian guy, Matt, who’s here with his girlfriend, was at work one day and was asked to come in on yet another Saturday. He said, “Sorry, we’ve been working lots of weekends and this time I just want to spend some time with my girl.” Everyone nearby stopped and looked at him. “What?” said one workmate. “You know, I haven’t been able to spend much time with her recently so this weekend I think I will.” (Two workmates look at each other in concerned fashion). “Mate, you really wanna nip that in the bud, pretty quickly I reckon.” Also, a couple of Ed’s workmates have been on at him to go out drinking with them, but as long as he leaves me behind so they can, you
Savaia
Site visit for work - you can just see the edge of the marine reserve buoys if you look closely know, REALLY have fun. (I’d like to point out here that there’s nothing wrong with boys wanting to have their boys’ nights and girls wanting their own too, but I get worried when people think it’s the only way to have fun!) Women and men have very clearly defined roles, and a woman’s is to run the household. While more women may be slowly finding more opportunities to advance at work in urban areas, this is just on top of their existing responsibilities at home, and rural areas are a long way behind even that.
But back to work. I had to go snorkelling for work on Friday. A marine reserve has been set up by a village, and Misa, a colleague, was going on a site visit to monitor the project progress. I was asked along to look at the gender aspects of the project (yes, even environment projects have gender aspects). The day before, Misa asked, “Can you snorkel?” “Ah, sure, why?” “We need someone to go out and actually look at the coral.” (Note pacific style in the work environment coming to the fore here - ask a non-marine scientist who has never seen the site
The UNDP Office
My desk - but only for the next couple of weeks, then down the corridor for a couple of months, then back to this office at the other desk before to report on the progress of a marine reserve. But I got to go snorkelling, so decided not to point this out). After chatting with the village mayor and the project consultant at the village, they sent me out swimming. My main purpose was to check out the giant clams they have and see how they were faring (how I was meant to determine this I’m not entirely sure), but also check out the fish and coral. Well, the coral and fish looked pretty good, but could I find a single bloody clam? No. I swam back in (all of this without flippers, and the marine reserve is a bit off shore), and asked for more directions. Then swam back to the supposed spot again, and trawled up and down, back and forth, no clams. Not one. And there were supposed to be 400 of the buggers! By this point I’m quite stressed about the whole thing, worrying that when I get back to shore they’ll think I’m suggesting they haven’t got any clams, when I’m quite well aware that I’m probably just a stupid palagi (foreigner) who can’t tell a clam from a clownfish. Perhaps the guy pointing
Savaia
On my way in to go snorkelling... me to the clams didn’t really know where they were either. Alas, I had to return to shore and admit I couldn't find them. The mayor looked crestfallen. So now you know why snorkelling is hard work.
I’ve also had my first ‘drink beer and sing karaoke’ session with my colleagues; a great ice-breaker. We actually have an office karaoke machine, and in my four weeks at work it’s been put into action twice. We had a Friday night farewell for an employee who was heading home to Madagascar, and she requested an umu - traditional Samoan oven in the ground. I was a bit taken aback when the pig was brought in - a whole pig, teeth, trotters and all, looking quite like Babe except well done. But damn it tasted good. I dragged Ed along as well, and the two of us managed to get some of the others up out of their chairs to sing along with our very impressive rendition of Bon Jovi’s ‘Livin on a Prayer’.
I’ve also added some photos of a weekend day-trip we did to a waterfall and swimming hole. Beautiful place, but next to a very weird Mormon village
Waterfall
Misa and I stopped here to eat lunch on our way back to the office - the rain gave the waterfall a very ghostly feel that was like something out of the movie ‘Pleasantville’. Check out the pics to see what I mean.
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Kevin
non-member comment
Looks awesome guys! Geez Ed - I'd love to know exactly how you packed for Samoa. Umm let me see... sunscreen, swimmers, insect repellant..oh yes, and my Danger Mouse shirt, how could I forget.