"What Exactly is He Doing to Help?"

People who have studied the SDLC (Systems Development Lifecycle) know that the first (and probably the most important) phase of any project is the “Analysis” phase. You don’t just suddenly jump into something. You have to carefully, calmly, review the situation, make some choices and come up with your game plan. I’ve spent some time going around the country so I could see everything for myself and truly decide where my skills would be best used and where they would benefit the most people. I’ve have seen with my own eyes where aid is and is not needed. I will probably go to the Galle region as well, just so I would have done the full circle.

When I was leaving Canada, I was really gung-ho and thought: “Yeah, I’m gonna’ go dig trenches, build houses, help at ground zero and this and that.” Now that I have done my homework, I see that those aren’t the people they need here. There is a lot of unskilled labor available here. As I mentioned in a previous post, you don’t need people to come in from other countries to do unskilled labor. There’s more than enough unemployment here. This place needs thinkers; people who can make plans and manage projects; people who can write and review proposals to see if they make sense; unbiased decision makers. These skills are much more valuable to this country, and I can offer some of them.

Michael, a “Canadian Headhunter” [who has a very interesting blog (check it out)], saw my blog and said [on Heather’s blog?]: “Did I miss something? I couldn’t figure out what exactly is he doing to help.” I’m assuming because he’s a busy headhunter he just didn’t have time to read through the site. Heather suggested asking me directly. Good idea. For those of you who were wondering what the latest news is on the job(s) at hand, here it is:

My main project, which is the power plant and housing project in Ampara, is still on-going. Of course as in any job, there are issues of confidentiality and especially here, you don’t typically discuss everything you’re doing. In terms of projects on the side: I wanted a couple that would use my MIS skills, so I’ve taken on a couple of database projects that I will be working on a few times a week when I’m in the city. These are some [relatively] large scale/long term projects and these were the ones I was referring to when I said: “People who won’t see my face or be able to say ‘Thank you’”. I also wanted a couple of grassroots projects, so I would be able to go hand things to the kids myself and see the smiles on their faces. Hesh (my aunt) has told me that ice cream is a big thing for kids in poorer areas here, so I have to devise a plan to get ice cream to some kids in the camp. We saw some land in Mullaitivu where we will probably be building some temporary housing and a “community center”-type structure so I will be helping our church organize that. I’m really trying to get the people in these areas involved, so they can sustain themselves once we leave.

“Catch a man a fish and you can sell it to him. Teach a man to fish and you ruin a wonderful business opportunity”
-Karl Marx

Ooops. Wrong one. I’ve been in Sri Lanka too long. Sorry. There’s my cynicism coming out. Here’s what I meant to say:

“Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime”
-Unknown

Now that I’m finished going around the county, the entries will get into more day-to-day things and I’ll get started on the SLTT (Sri Lanka: Travel Tips) entries. Back in Canada I don’t blog about my job or what the organizations I’m working for are doing and I definitely won’t be starting that here! I’ll still try and keep the content as interesting as I can, but I do have to be careful what I write up here. You know, freedom of speech and all that!