Changes in Plans

I know that my first day in the Save The Children office is my favorite. I have spent quite some time preparing for that day, with the advantage that I have made a visit here a year prior. So, the fundamental logistics are already in place (where is the bathroom, how do I navigate back to the tiny office where I am working, etc.)
But even Sunday night, I am aware that plans and agendas will certainly change. In fact, it is what I hope will happen.

This predilection for change in work tasks likely stems from a few months working on the Boeing AOG team supporting hand tools about 15 years ago. AOG means "Airplane On Ground", meaning that for some reason a a customers plane can not be put into flight and the local ground crew cannot fix it. Boeing then send out a highly-specialized "rapid response" team the airport, or jungle or end of a runway where a plane skidded off the end and tore up it's nose in a near final nose-dive. The AOG team was legendary and I found myself at a desk with a red telephone and a list of contacts. My manager told me to do anything that they want regardless of cost, and that speed was prime (NetHope...?). I was bored to death, spending my time keeping my ad hoc database applications up and running, and reading kit specifications to be prepared.

Sure enough that phone rang and a Boeing AOG person in Thailand did not even say hello, but just started reading off a list of items needed, calipers, specialized sockets, the like. For years, I had worked with databases developing tool inventory applications back in the days of Apple IIE's. For many of those early years, I was always located in a loud, dirty factory; I loved it. I knew tools after researching and developing many a contract, first needing to be expert on what I was buying. Well, the guy on the other end of the phone read that list faster than I could write it down, then simply demanded, "when will they be here?"; no phone number, no name. I paused, thinking that I first needed to review available inventory located in the worlds' largest building by volume (the Boeing 747/767/777/787 factory in Everett Washington. He then hung up. I jumped on the computer and started looking for what I thought he told me. Less than ten minutes later that phone rang again. This was the AOG manager. there was no hello, simply, "did you get the Thailand airways request?". Before I could answer, he simply asked, "Have they shipped yet?"

Well, I loved that job, I would hand-walk, hand-talk those order through, even carrying boxes ot the shipping department and helping them unpack them from the vendor boxes, and re-pack them for overseas travel. I would often drive them the 40 miles to hand-deliver ot Fed-Ex or UPS. It was stressful, but i loved that phone call... I get bored easily.

Well, back to Haiti. I had not been informed when the Save vehicle would pick me up, but I stood out and watched the parade of diplomats and other NGO workers fume about their armored SUV showing up late. A most unhappy lot! I waited over an hour, not because they were late, but I wanted to ensure that I, was not? Besides, I was freely being entertained!

A familiar face arrived in a Save vehicle for the short 5 minute drive to the office


I was met my my friend Roseval Supreme, the Monitoring & Evaluation manager (data). Then a parade of familiar faces walked in to greet my return. All hugs, and cheek kisses from the women, all very polite, but warm. I love it here. Roseval then told me that, there had been a change of plans. Yes! "could i present to the managers (about 15) a explanation how PDA's could benefit them?". I replied, "Sure, when?". In 20 minutes. Also, immediately after the PDA Productivity for Managers presentation,instead of a small team to train, there would be representatives from most of the program sectors, some coming in from not-too-distant areas, but along difficult roads. Good, I realized that these persons were not the typical M&E, database fluent teams members usually assembled for my visits; these would be the persons subordinates would probably use the PDA's, and usually natives to the impact areas.

well I already had a customized training plan prepared which I would simply enlarge with more explanations ("what is a PDA, a database??) for the enlarged PDA team. But first, the manager presentation. A quick Word outline of my thoughts on mobile functionalities with Outlook, and other ME Office mobile applications, including email, cell phone, internet connectivity, including carrying PDF travel documents and a secure program to carry those pesky password and PIN numbers around. As the outline fleshed out, I began bringing images of the app's into a Power Point presentation. Had the wrong template, but no time ot change it, content not pretty. Fortunately I gained another 10 minutes while waiting for the room to fill, but I needed to walk around handing out as many PDA's as I could. The meeting went well, especially after the idea set in that they could stay connected with office staff and programs without being tied to their desktop/ laptop. Mobile computing, what an idea. this also gave me a chance ot meet some of the new managers and I gave a brief explanation of why I was there based on my prior assessment visit. Gratitude was expressed for the donation of the PDA's and software.

Onto the next meeting as the managers filed out. The team of about a dozen people walked in, five of them with the new PDA's. These had not been gathering dust, and i could quickly see that we would have to do some soft resets. This was one of the most excitecd groups that I have had. Of course, they wanted ot get right into the software, but instead we spent an hour and a half on a what i thought would be a 20 minute discussion of "First Questions", a sort of "have you considered who, what, where...? I was thrilled of the discussion, most of it in French, but i could "feel" what they were talking about, with Roseval intuitively translating for me the key points. They were already ahead of my next question in many cases, already discussing it themselves.

My main point that was new to them was laying ot rest the pre-conceived concept of taking an existing paper form and simply developing it in the forms design software and loading and testing it on the PDA. Harold Narcisse, whom I met in Guatemala at an M&E conference last year literally beamed when I diagrammed on a flip chart that we actually work backwards from their Results Framework indicators, build a database, then ODBC-link into the forms design database, which in turn produces the PDA form, thus ensuring that they only spend the time and effort in the field collecting data that they need.

Anyway, we had great fun, breaking for lunch from 1-2 outside in that glorious sunny Haitian weather. When we attempted ot leave for my hotel at 4PM, a huge stake bed delivery truck was blocking most of the vehicles in the narrow compound. Roseval laughed (Haitians always laugh at adversity - survival) as he described that the truck was unable to backup (transmission problem) and we were all stuck. The truck was too huge to push, so it moved forward and a sort of Keystone Cops struggle ensued of vehicles edging back and forth inches at a time ot escape the truck and depart from the compound.

Oh, and another change in plans. Friday is flag day, so not work in the office, but a trip for Mr. Dave to the city...Whoopee!