Fun, Forms and Feelings

I've now completed about two weeks of work at the JVA Nairobi office. It's about a 30 minute/two matatu commute from my apartment, depending on traffic. The security is quite tight because of the nature of work we do, but the guards are all super friendly, as long as you have your identification badge! I have never worked at a place where the day was so precisely scheduled, and where all staff so willingly break off work for lunch and quitting time. It goes- 8:00am, clock in; 10:15- tea break; 1:15-lunch; 4:15- outta there!

It seems that Mark, Lyndsay and I came on board at a good time, because during my first full week, there was an all staff training for the field team. Apparently, it is extremely rare to see all of the Kenyan and expat staff that do the circuit rides together in one room at the same time. Even if most of the training was so detailed that it went right over our heads, we had a nice time getting to know everyone. The training week culminated in a 'wellness' day for all Nairobi staff. ('Wellness day' = staff party, except with lots more organized teambuilding activities!)
Pic - some of the staff during training

Pic - staff scaling an inflatable slide during a relay activity. My team, the red team just happened to take home the top honors of the day! :)

After taking the weekend to recover from our wellness day, we reported to work bright and early Monday morning. Mark and Rosie were due to head to the field early that week, where they would receive further on the job training. With most of the other staff either traveling or on out of the office comp time, it was just Lyndsay and I who were there training with Njeri, one of the Kenyan staff, and a great lady. She taught us one of three types of interviews we will be conducting with the refugees- Formfilling. We will learn the others- prescreening and casework- later in the field. These are the three interviews JVA does with all refugees to prepare their cases for review by US immigration officers for approval or denial.

Formfilling is generally done by Kenyan staff, but caseworkers are required to learn both so we understand it, and can help out if necessary. I won't go into the millions and millions of details and codes involved. Suffice it to say that there are many many different forms and database pages, as well as 47 pages of codes to use in filling them out. Gotta love government processes!

At first I was mostly just nervous to be face to face with the refugees, asking them questions. I quickly got over that, but then I was sure I would go absolutely crazy trying to document all of their answers. Njeri says it takes the average formfiller about an hour to fill in all the paperwork and data after the interview- it is taking me about 4 at the moment! Ah well, I guess practice makes perfect. And it had certainly better- one little error by us could cause the refugee's case to be delayed by months...or years...! No pressure or anything.

So, there's this heavy detail-oriented/administrative side to the job. But on the other end of the spectrum is the refugee, and their story. Even asking them routine questions about the whereabouts of their relatives can be very intense and emotional. The most common code for these is, "UNK = unknown." Parents, siblings, kids- since fleeing their country, many people have no idea where any of them are, or how they're doing. There are also some really difficult stories of persecution at the hands of various groups in the country of origin- detention, rape, death threats...one man we interviewed this week actually broke down in tears as he showed us the injuries he had suffered due to expressing his political opinions.

All in all, the "fun, forms, and feelings" of the first two weeks at work made for quite an intense learning experience. Now, I begin the next phase as I leave for my first trip to the field this afternoon. I'll be spending 3.5 weeks in Ethiopia, helping to process cases there. I look forward to updating you on how it goes, and in the meantime, enjoy your October!

Blessings,
Tammie