Wrapping things up
on Z for Zimbabwe (Zimbabwe), 24/Jul/2011 12:15, 34 days ago
My final week at work has started off a bit early. Today (Sunday) I'm attending an offsite management planning meeting for National AIDS Council (NAC) in Kadoma, about 2 hours away from Harare, which will last until Tuesday evening. I had to wake up at 5:30am this morning... not cool for a Sunday :(I'm done with my work on the NAC website (yesssss!!)! It has been live for over a month (www.nac.org.zw), I've implemented all structural feedback received from management and stakeholders, and I've documented in detail all processes involved in updating and maintaining the site (I think I'm becoming pretty good at documenting stuff like this and writing best practices :)). I've also been training NAC employees so they can do any necessary updates on their own. My colleague Trust is the main person I've been working with and I am confident that he is now well versed on almost everything related to updating the site. This week we'll continue to review documentation and go through some website features, so I can answer any of his final questions.I've also started transitioning work related to other extra projects I'm involved with here. It's a bit sad to have to let these things go, but it's also very exciting to see where others will take them.I've transfered ownership (and directorship) of the socially responsible, informational website development company I started a couple months ago -Infoweby - to several Zimbabwean friends of mine and I'm looking forward to seeing how they will improve it. I've shown them how to do most of the stuff and I've documented the website creation process in great detail, but I think I may need to provide a bit more training on the creation of the sites. Overall though, this process is almost done.In addition, the salsa community that I've been planning events for in the past couple of months (www.salsaharare.com) has been transitioned to someone else, too. One of the most dedicated dancers and a regular attendee - Gavin - is organizing the events now (starting from last Friday :)) I gave him my salsa, merengues, and bachata music and sent him instructions on how to promote the events through emails and social media. I think it would be very cool seeing this community grow, and maybe one day, when I come back to visit, I'll be able to go and dance some salsa on a Friday evening.As I finish work this Friday, I plan on going to Mozambique for a few days before coming back to Harare to pack and leave. I'll see some of my friends there, including other VSO volunteers. I've missed having fellow VSO volunteers in Zimbabwe... I'm still the only one in the country. Others were supposed to be joining me since February, but due to complications with work permits, certifications, and other paperwork, none have been able to make it in the country yet (makes me feel kind of lucky I did :) haha)... hopefully soon. I've provided VSO with some tips and advice, from a volunteer's perspective, so they can share them with people as they start coming in. I hope this can make their process of adjusting to living here a bit smoother.