NYC for the weekend

Friday night we took Amtrak to NYC for the weekend. I hadn't ridden on Amtrak before and was pleased that it was close to European train travel. We didn't get seats together right away and had to wait until one of our seat mates departed before we could sit together. Lexi was pretty by the train ride as well. She kept popping up to look over the seat or around it; played with the tray table and enjoyed looking out the window. You pass through Maryland, Philadelphia, Delaware and New Jersey to get to NYC from here. The train going arrived on time though the train coming home was about 10 minutes late.

The reason for the visit was to see Stephen's brother and partner who live there as well as Stephen's parents who flew in for a long weekend. I figured out that I hadn't been to NYC since our engagement in late 2001. This was Lexi's first trip there but I doubt she will remember much. We spent most of the time playing in the park and hanging out with the family. Stephen and I also went and saw a movie (which I thought was expensive for 1PM) while the others watched Lexi. It was a really nice weekend.

About noon on Friday, I received a telephone call from the car dealership that we were dealing with that the car we had wanted had arrived - it came about 1.5 weeks earlier than expected. After several telephone calls, we decided that we just couldn't go in then to complete the paperwork. If they sold it over the weekend, we would just have to keep waiting. But Monday morning, the dealership called again and the car was still there. So after work we headed out to the suburbs and completed the transaction. I had never purchased a brand new car before - I was surprised at how long it took (over 3 hours) and how many pieces of paper there were to deal with. But we finally got it home tired and happy. The car we got was a Toyota Prius. I really wanted a Hybrid and Stephen didn't take too much convincing.

In other news, I had a job interview this morning...I thought it went pretty well. I will let you more if the news is positive.

Food

I have been meaning to write about this for a while.

Of the almost 7 years that Stephen and I have been married, over 80% of it we have lived out of the country. We have a variety of U.S. cookbooks and try to use those recipes. Doing that overseas was a bit of a challenge - the types of things in the cookbooks were hard to find or not in the same quantity or just not quite the same. Since being back, we have made several dishes in the originally intended way - and boy, were they good! Having Italian dressing made one recipe change a lot; it was hard to believe.

We also had take out Chinese recently, the first time in ages. Fortune cookies came with it - haven't had those in years. Lexi enjoyed them as well though she didn't understand about getting the paper out first before you bit into it.

World's largest refugee camp

The video below should go on The Middle Bulge, our Kenya/Africa blog, but that is officially shut down and no one is checking it, so no one would see it there.

I stumbled upon this video on CNN of Dadaab Refugee Camp, which is run by the Lutheran World Federation - Kenya, which Sarah worked for, and which I visited to gather stories and information for LWF Kenya's annual report for 2008.

The Weekend

We spent a fair part of the weekend running around though Stephen felt really lethargic on Saturday morning (we think it was because of his allergy medicine) so we didn't get to go to one of the planned activities. Mid-afternoon, we headed downtown and saw the people on the Naked Bike Ride go by. There were about 20 people riding in protest of use of cars, etc - for more details you can look on the web. In case you are wondering, the DC law is that it is not indecent exposure unless your genitals are showing so that gives you an idea of how 'naked' is 'naked'.

We headed over to the Mall to listen to the free Jazz for a while. It was good but there wasn't a shady spot to sit in so we soon left and went over to the American History Museum where we saw the Star Spangled Banner. We also looked at a couple of other exhibits but stayed away from the ones that Stephen really wanted to see because it was quite crowded and a bit hard to get through with Lexi's stroller.

After grabbing a quick dinner, we headed north and watched the Gay Pride Parade. Lexi had a good time waving at the people and receiving bead necklaces. She came home with quite a collection of them and they are still entertaining her. Stephen and I thought it was a rather tame parade though particularly compared to Chicago's but we didn't stay for the whole thing.

Sunday we did some house hunting. There was an open house at a house in our neighborhood that we both thought looked good. We also looked at a couple of houses with our relator. This seems like such hard decision. There are so many factors to consider. I guess nothing has struck us as 'perfect' quite yet. Our landlord is enamored with Lexi so we can pretty much stay here as long as we want. It would be nice to wrap this up sooner rather than later so we can just get settled. Plus, we could take advantage of the tax credit.

Now I have a list of things to try and accomplish this week - if Lexi cooperates!

An exciting day in Washington

It’s been quite a day in Our Nation’s Capital, both for me and with happenings in the city.

There was a shooting inside the Holocaust Museum, and a security guard was killed. This happened during the lunch hour, and I was out and about but at the other end of Pennsylvania Ave. on Capitol Hill.

I found out that I was accepted into American University’s School of Communications master’s degree program in public communication. Returning to school to get my master’s degree was plan A when I wasn’t getting any job interviews. Now that I have a job, it’s plan B. I will now consider attending part time, but I will have to see what sort of financial aid I can get.

I attended a House subcommittee hearing this morning. It was held in a committee hearing room on a floor of offices in one of the House office buildings. The room was regally decorated, and the windows to the outside framed the Capitol dome. One of our regional program managers from Ohio had been invited to be a witness at this hearing, so three of us from the office attended to support her. Amazingly, I understood the testimony of the witnesses, but it was the questions the committee members asked of them and the conversation around the hearing that I could not follow. Aaron, one of my coworkers, knows many people on the Hill, and so he was having these conversations with people he ran into. I did meet the highest-ranking member of the Executive Branch in the room – an Undersecretary of USDA. I doubted I would find a job on the Hill when I arrived here, but I still wanted to be close to the government and see it at work in whatever job I found. So I guess I am doing what I wanted when getting into places and meetings like this, plus I had lunch with Michelle, a friend who works for a senator on the Hill, and I saw him and think I passed Chuck Schumer on my way to her office. I’ve been waiting to have some “celebrity” (politician) sightings since moving here. But the hearing really confirmed for me that our entire government, practically, is run by middle-aged white men. So sad. Let’s support the confirmation of Sonia Sotomayor.

Here’s the press release on the hearing I attended so you can read what it was about:

Subcommittee Reviews Rural Development Programs

WASHINGTON - Today, the House Agriculture Subcommittee on Rural Development, Biotechnology, Specialty Crops and Foreign Agriculture held a hearing to review the U.S. Department of Agriculture's rural development programs and the status of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds for these programs. Congressman Mike McIntyre of North Carolina is Chairman of the subcommittee.

"USDA rural development policies and programs are critical to the success of our small towns and communities," Chairman McIntyre said. "From key infrastructure and housing to broadband and business loans, federal funds are playing a critical role in helping communities move forward, and it is critical that these dollars are spent wisely and appropriately. This subcommittee will continue to do all we can to support Rural America and ensure that the taxpayers' dollars are being spent in the most efficient manner."

"We are taking a very close look at the coordination of projects, strategic infrastructure planning, and distribution of funding obligations," said Subcommittee Ranking Member Michael Conaway of Texas.

"Today's testimony highlighted several critical barriers to getting funding to where it is most needed in rural America, and we hope USDA will be able to address those problems quickly."

The Subcommittee heard testimony from two panels of witnesses, including Under Secretary for Rural Development Dallas Tonsager, who spoke about USDA's rural development programs as well as American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds targeted for those programs.
Signed into law earlier this year, the recovery legislation authorizes $4.36 billion for rural development loan and grant programs.

The Subcommittee also heard from the Department's Inspector General charged with overseeing recovery legislation funds, as well as representatives from rural communities.

The opening statements of all witnesses are available on the House Agriculture Committee website at http://agriculture.house.gov/hearings/index.html. A full transcript of the hearing will be posted on the Committee website at a later date.

Witnesses:

Panel I

Mr. Dallas P. Tonsager, Under Secretary of Agriculture for Rural Development, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Washington, D.C.
Ms. Phyllis Fong, Office of Inspector General, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Washington, D.C.

Panel II

Mr. Franklin Rivenbark, Commissioner, Pender County, on behalf of the National Association of Counties, Willard, North Carolina
Ms. Debra Martin, Director, Great Lakes Rural Community Assistance Partnership, Fremont, Ohio
Governor Chandler Sanchez, on behalf of the Pueblo of Acoma and the National Congress of American Indians, Acoma, New Mexico
Mr. Doug Anderton, General Manager, Dade County Water and Sewer Authority, on behalf of the National Rural Water Association, Trenton, Georgia
Mr. Tommy Duck, Executive Director Texas Rural Water Association,Austin, Texas

Finally, Virginia, my birth state, held its gubernatorial primary for governor yesterday. A candidate who was way behind in the polls a few weeks ago pulled off a stunning upset. It should be interesting to see which party wins this first general statewide election since the presidential election, when the state turned from red to blue. The winner of yesterday’s election is from a rural area and not northern Virginia, which is more liberal and was responsible for the state’s color change.

Looking for work and road work

Lexi and I walked to the largest grocery store within walking distance. It shares a parking lot with a Home Depot and several small stores. In this parking lot, in the morning in particular, there always seems to be quite a few men hanging around. I assume that they are looking for casual labor jobs - that this parking lot is an area where they can be picked up to do a day's work. I am quite thankful that is not my circumstance or the way I would have to find a job. Today, it seemed like the number of men there was larger than usual. Does that mean that they were all laid off from something else recently or is there really no reason for it? It's hard to know.

I have met with a recruiter and continue to look for jobs on various websites. No interviews yet, but it is still early. It seems like it will be easier for me to stay in the non-profit arena that to try to go back to working for a profit company which I am disappointed about. I had hoped to get away from non-profit for a little while at least. This might mean that I am locked into this arena for the rest of my working life.

I have to admit, I thought that in Kenya they were behind in technology when it came to infrastructure. I think I even remarked in one of my blog posts about how they were painting the lines on the street by hand. Well, I guess they weren't all that behind as right here in our neighborhood, they were doing the same thing. They have just repaved a portion of the street and 4 guys were out there with a measuring tape, a string and paint, painting on the crosswalk lines. I guess I was wrong about Kenya being behind the times.

A ReCAP of my first week at RCAP

A note about the title: The organization of my new job is called RCAP, Inc., which is the Rural Community Assistance Partnership.

I had an intense first week on my new job. I had told my new boss on Tuesday the previous week when I accepted the offer of the position that I was willing to start the following Monday, which was June 1 – the first of the month, a good day to start something new, I thought. But it was a busy week for the office that included a board meeting (one full day) and a program managers meeting (another full day two days later). So I tried my best to do some reading on my own and orienting myself in order to stay out of the boss’s hair as much as I could on those days he was in the office, since he was busy doing things for those meetings.

I confess that I did have parts of some days last week in which I was full of despair, doubt and anxiety as well as feelings that I had gotten into something that was over my head, mostly with the subject matter of the organization but a bit over worrying that I didn’t have the right level of communications skills. On the other hand, by the end of the week, I felt it was a good beginning to a new job. I attended the full-day program managers meeting, and after talking at length to the other two full-time employees in the office, at least I was able to define what I need to know about the organization and how it operates, even if I won’t know it and understand it for many more weeks or months. I was able to frame for myself and figure out the scope of what I’ll need to learn, and to me, that is often half the battle.

I also must say that this was an easier transition to make than those of past new jobs. It was like the transition we made when we moved from Geneva to Nairobi. For that, I knew what to expect when making an overseas move – or at least I knew how disorienting it was going to be. I knew what I would have to do when making that move from Europe to Africa, unlike the move from Chicago to Geneva, which was a huge adjustment, or the transition to my job with the ELCA World Hunger Appeal in Chicago. With this job, I had much more of the prepared mindset that I had when we moved from Geneva to Nairobi. I started by knowing beforehand how I would attack the learning curve – what questions I should ask and of whom and how I should gather information to get myself comfortable with my duties and the organization.

The biggest adjustment to this position is the type of organization and the office it’s in. My coworkers are:

• Robert, my boss, RCAP’s executive director, who is a former Navy man, from Texas, and a political liberal (not a typical combination, I know). He’s very laid back and easy-going.
• Aaron, a high-strung, ADHD-type, intense, driven, take-charge director in his late 30s who manages a couple of the government grants that the organization gets. Before he came to RCAP, he worked on Capitol Hill for Tom Daschle when he was majority leader, and his roots are on a farm in South Dakota.
• Dave, who is from West Virginia, a fairly ordinary bear of a guy who is your best meat-loving drinking buddy. He manages some of the organization’s other government contracts.
• Joy, a mid-50s registered member of the Green Party. She is the training director and lives and works from Boulder, so she’s not in the office here in D.C. She has a doctorate in water systems or something and has worked for the Peace Corps. She’s also a vegetarian and is the sort of Birkenstock-wearing, recycling-type of liberal that are numerous in that city and state.
  

So it’s just us four guys in the office. There is normally a part-time accountant, but that position is currently vacant and will be filled soon (and no, Sarah’s not interested in it at all). It’s a big change from my previous two full-time positions in which I was one of a dozen or so staffers in Geneva (and working in a building with a couple of hundred people) and on a staff of about 29 in Chicago (and in a building where I regularly interacted with many others in a building where a few hundred people worked). In a way, this will be a nice change, since I am the (topmost) director of communications (except for the executive director, we’re all directors, but we don’t direct any staff) and don’t have another communicator over me (a refreshing change from Geneva, where I had a demanding, insecure and downright mean communicator over me as my boss). On the other hand, there’s absolutely no hiding during political squabbles in the office or relying on other communications experts to help me with my specific duties or getting the work in my area done.

I have an office of my own again with a door I can close, although it’s on the inside of the building, and so I have no windows. I despise the office building we’re in. The entrance area is decent and modern enough, but the rest of the building is so nondescript, ordinary, plain, boring and almost run down that it’s just awful. It has absolutely no personality or character. There is another organization on our floor, but I’ve never seen anybody else on our floor other than our staff and the mail and courier delivery people. The only thing that makes up for this is that the building is right around the corner from the White House (it’s at 16th & K NW). Every time I cross 16th St., I turn and look down at the White House and marvel at where I’m working and living, knowing that so many important things are happening so close to me.

The program managers meeting that was held last week was for our main contacts in the organization’s regional offices (a term that’s used loosely, since these regional offices are basically autonomous organizations that agree to work together and have our office in D.C. that doesn’t really have any authority over them). There are six regions, and my boss wants me to travel to each within my first year. These regional offices are “community action organizations,” which is a type of entity I’m still trying to understand.

My first and urgent priority is to get the organization’s website up and running again. It has basically a web page only that is just a place holder. Rather than just replacing and re-creating the old site, I will oversee the whole redesign of the site and overhaul the content, which will means I will have to go through it all carefully, and this will give me a chance to learn about the organization and force me to communicate about it well on a public space. I will also be the editor of the organization’s quarterly magazine. A major part of my responsibilities from now until September will be to oversee the logistics and organizing of the annual conference of technical assistance providers (people like water and sewer experts in the regions who work on the ground in rural areas helping communities) that will be held in Rosslyn.

This job is also a new beginning for me in many ways. This is really the very first job I have gotten without using or having any previous connections to the organization or people who worked for it. Recall that I beat out 300 people who sent their resumes in for the position and the nine others who were interviewed for it. After my bad work experience in Geneva and struggling for many months from Geneva and Nairobi to find work in Nairobi and D.C., getting this job is proof for me, in a way, that I have recovered from my bad Geneva experience and a long period in which I felt my career had fallen off the rails. I am also consciously trying to make a new start in this job. I still may be the baby, the youngest one, in the office, but I have decided that I am not going to play that role or allow myself to be treated like the “young, inexperienced one” who needs to be taken under someone’s wing and mentored and taught down to. I may come to the organization not knowing much about the type of work it does, but still I believe (and have been told by many of you who are familiar with my skills and the organizations I have worked for) that I bring a considerable amount of skills, experience and a good sense, having worked and traveled internationally, of how the world works (or an appreciation of its complexity). Again, I’m really pleased that I am the sole communicator in this position and am not working under another communicator whose ways I will be expected to follow and who will have veto power over me. This position has been vacant for three years, so I will have a lot of room to define how my duties are carried out and how communications in the organization is done. And because there has been this vacancy, the organization has fallen behind a bit with how it does its communications. It has not stayed current with doing things electronically, etc. My skills are slightly behind in this area as well, so I can grow and catch up with the current ways of communicating as the organization does too.

The first few weeks and months of a new job are always the hardest and most awkward. Part of my bad feelings last week were just frustration and impatience – not being able to get into the real work quickly because I’ve waited so long to have a regular job. But with this job I’m determined to get past all this as quickly as possible and settle in.

And here we are at the Capitol!

Last Sunday after church, we took a picnic lunch and ate in sight of the Capitol building. It was another warm day. Then we popped into the Air and Space Museum which Lexi really enjoyed. She likes to say and point out airplanes. We ended our day with a walking tour in Penn Quarter which is an area around Pennsylvania Avenue - though I can't tell you the boundaries. The guide was really good and as Lexi fell asleep for most of it, I even got to learn a few things myself.

After a nice Monday, rains and thunderstorms came and now it has been cool and wet for most of the week. It's after nap time and we still haven't been outside yet. Even though it is still drizzly, we are probably going to go out anyway! Getting a little bit stir crazy inside.

The weekend is supposed to be nicer - we certainly hope so!

Escalators and Elevators

Stephen pointed this out to me and then I have noticed it several times: in many of the Metro stations the escalators leading DOWN to the station - to the part where you get on the train - is exposed to the elements. Therefore, leaving them vulnerable to rain, snow, falling leaves, etc. Now whose bright idea was that?? Didn't someone realize that this particular design feature would result in escalators breaking down a lot as they are electrical equipment?? I guess some are now being covered to stop this from happening. At the Dupont Circle Station, I had to walk down what is probably one of the longest escalators in the city. It's HARD to walk up or down a non-functioning escalator.

For the elevators connected to the Metro stations, they do have announcements all over every station telling you which stops elevators are not working and giving you the stop you should get out at instead where they will provide a shuttle bus. Still seems like a hassle if you have to use the elevator but at least you know in advance!