Freetown

I just got back from a short trip to Freetown, Sierra Leone for a prebid meeting on an upcoming construction project. Here are some basic stats:

- Country Population: 5.6 million

- Freetown Population: 1.2 million

- Country Size: Slightly smaller than South Carolina

- National Language: primary is English, secondary is honking

- Brookfields National Soccer Stadium Capacity: 45,000

The countryside around Lungi (Freetown's airport) looked beautiful from the air: lush green vegetation, many winding rivers, and palm trees. Of course, not a lot of development.

As soon as we left the airport in a shuttle bus, we experienced the poor road conditions that justify most African posts recommending 4WD vehicles for employees. Even with a skilled driver, crazy traffic and/or pedestrians can align a tire with a nasty sinkhole (or whatever is worse than a "pothole", these holes were ridiculous). Not even Jeep Wranglers could escape major damage from the terrible roads: I saw one by the side of the road with its rear axle gone and its drive shaft hanging down in pitiful submission.

The prebid meetings went well: a lot of work came out of the trip to clarify the scope of work, which will improve the accuracy of the construction bids as well as lower them. The contractors engaged with good questions, Post's help and insights were invaluable, the local government officials we met with were helpful: all the pieces I'd experienced in non-federal prebids...except for the foreign country issues.

While we drove around town, I got some interesting photos like this one: check out the local scaffolding. It's scary because it clearly works, but I somehow doubt there are any injury statistics.

Safety violation: the guy sitting in the middle isn't wearing a hard hat.

I also managed to get this partial picture of the soccer stadium. Soccer is huge, not surprisingly. People were playing in fields, roads, all over every time we drove in the day.

We were told not to drink the tap water, so we bought bottled water. The predominant bottled water brands were produced locally, and my favorite label was this one - I'm not sure if I agree with their choice of image for their motto "The Sweet Taste of Purity":



I had a good experience with their claim that it was "bottled under strict hygenic conditions"

On the trip back, I ended up with a 6-hour layover in Brussels, so I wandered down to the Grand Place and nearby sights. I found this awesome Manneken Pis souvenir that would be a great white elephant party gift:

It was a good trip. The tropical heat and humidity made me appreciate the DC weather when I got home.  Now that we're back in DC, we'll focus on responding to the questions - I think we'll be busy in the next couple weeks.

(This post written while listening to John Hiatt Perfectly Good Guitar)

Ongoing news

Benghazi issues continue to flow through congress and the news, but they don’t appear to filter down to my level – at least, not directly.  While it doesn’t come up in our daily conversations much, it’s still disturbingly fascinating, like a car wreck.  Some construction changes and projects are developing as a result of the Accountability Review Board findings, so we’ll be accommodating those soon.  It’s fascinating to have a better understanding of the issues’ implications though, like pieces of a puzzle coming together for a complete picture.  I’m a big fan of perspective.

Our Construction Management office’s building floor is starting to get reconfigured over the next few months to accommodate more people in a more open cube layout.  It should be interesting, particularly considering how tight quarters are now.  For example, someone ordered about a dozen boxes of hard hats, but we don’t have much storage space in our current configuration, so they ended up getting stored in a currently-empty corner office.  Assuming the new layout has less storage space, it may encourage us to use more digital formats for files.  At least, that’s the Glass Half Full way of looking at this opportunity.  So long as I can keep my red Swingline, I'll be happy.

I’ve been catching up with the Facilities Managers who were in my same specialist class since most of them left for their posts about a month ago.  It sounds like each of them was dropped into a...an opportunity zone.  They’re very, very busy with work.

Like anywhere else, it's not all work at work. I recently overheard someone giving a compliment by saying, "I like your shirt - it looks like a margarita." I thought it was awesome.  I think it was a Friday, so I’m guessing that wasn’t a coincidence.

(This post written while listening to Violent Femmes Promise)

The news

OBO life has been pretty straightforward lately: we're finally finishing the Employee Evaluation Report (EER) season, we're heading into the heart of proposal season, and we may be getting some new hires soon.  The last bit would be fantastic, it seems like we could use the help, particularly with some recent staffing changes in Africa branch where we're losing a key person to the London embassy project.

The most interesting recent info is actually in the news, although that's probably generally not a good thing.  First was an April 11 opinion article in the Washington Post by some high level individuals.  It purports that Foreign Service political appointees are undermining the institution because they are short-term officials that don't "notably" contribute on a long-term basis like career staff do.  It also suggests that the State Department's General Service (a.k.a. civil service) system should be adapted to become more like the Foreign Service system.  It concluded by appealing to Secretary Kerry for change.  The article spawned a lot of controversy - we'll see if anything comes of it.

Then, just this week, Kathleen McGrade, age 64, and Brian Collinsworth, age 46, were indicted by a federal grand jury on charges from a scheme to steer more than $60 million in State Department contracts to a company they controlled.  Not good.

Back to matters at hand, we new hires from the 127th Specialist class are hoping to help with the NEW new hires' introduction to The System in a "pay it forward" way like the class before us.  We have no idea on the timing, though, so we'll just play it by ear.  Until then, time to get back at it!

(This post written while listening to 311 All Mixed Up)

The Cayman Islands need an embassy. Bad.

After a difficult March, my wife and I decided it was time for a vacation - and vacate we did, to Grand Cayman. We hadn't been to many places in the Caribbean before, including Grand Cayman, but it was very nice as you'd expect. One thing we didn't realize was the huge difference between the east and west sides: the east was more calm and laid back but fewer amenities, while the west was more active and had more of a night life. Definitely worth considering if you have a chance to visit sometime. Also, if you're into snorkeling, check out Testudo’s snorkeling blog, although of the places we had the time to visit, our favorite was Cemetery Beach. Anyway, the strangest part of the trip came on the first morning after we got there. I had just showered when I realized that, of all things, the place smelled like Kabul. I checked my clothes, looked around, then realized I hadn’t used my underarm deodorant in my travel bag since the Kabul trip. Yeah, I just wrote about my armpits.  I’m not proud.



I took this at Cemetery Beach.



Back at work, things are as busy as ever, and seem to be getting busier.  I don’t think it’s just me, the other new hires that came in with me seem to be having the same experience.  I did my first Technical Evaluation Panel for a project’s proposals – in this case, a set of prequalification submittals.  It’s interesting to process proposals not only from the other side, but to experience the federal process versus the municipal approach I was used to in my previous job.  Not necessarily better or worse, just different, and equally as tedious.  Especially having prepared who-knows-how-many proposals myself and knowing how much time goes into a responsive proposal effort, it’s only fair to read them.  Rating each one on each evaluation criteria is predictably time-consuming, but oh well.

One day while I was in the bathroom - where all the most important conversations happen anywhere - two guys walked in as one was saying to the other, "This is a great place to work: there's always something broken that needs fixing. You can go home at night with a real sense of accomplishment." The other guy responded with a semi-surprised, non-committal grunt.  Huh, I just wrote about my bathroom experience.  This post is getting worse.

I recently saw someone on the bus with an odd smartphone: she'd printed website articles to read. Inexpensive and effective, but weird.  It still seems a little strange to see almost everyone on the buses and trains staring down at their smartphones, although I only notice it when I look up from mine.

If you’re interested in the a travel-size sample of this job’s experience without becoming a permanent hire, today these job opportunities as an Architect Personal Services Contractor (PSC) and as a General Engineer PSC were posted.  These vacancies are only open until May 17, so jump on it!

(This post written while listening to Jack Johnson Sitting, Waiting, Wishing)

Change

In early March we discovered one of our dogs had widespread cancer. The vet thinks it was hemangiosarcoma – a rapidly-growing cancer in her blood vessels that spread to her spleen, liver, a kidney, and a heart valve – but it was so far along there wasn't much point in testing it to confirm. We made her comfortable, including home saline injections and hand-feeding her as much pepperoni pizza as she would eat, but we had to put her down Friday night. It may have been the hardest thing I've ever had to do. Obviously it's been difficult to watch an almost 13-year institution in our lives change so much so quickly, and now be gone.

Sorry to be a downer, it's just hard to coalesce interesting work stuff right now. To lighten the mood, here's a new urinal we probably won't be seeing in diplomatic facilities anytime soon. I think there's a joke about LEED in there somewhere but it's not coming to me.

(This post written while listening to one snoring dog.)

EERie

The last couple of weeks have consisted primarily of the usual workload, with sprinklings of internal Post bidding.  On the work front, I was monitoring an email exchange about sending more guards to a project, and the site's security guy asked what the guards' assignments would be like. The DC security guy wrote, "They usually rotate every 12 months or whenever one of them gets malaria, whichever comes first." Outstanding!

On Post bidding, there isn't much to say at this point.  It's still in progress, not that I expect it to directly affect me. In different bidding news, I'm starting my first construction project bidding process for the government. It's interesting to compare my previous experience to the government's approach: it's all extremely similar and more formalized, as expected.

In this week's branch meeting, I suddenly heard a duck quacking. It was the ringtone for one of my coworkers - let's call him Fred - who said quickly, "Sorry I have to take this," and hurried out of the room. During the pause, another coworker checked his phone and said, "Looks like a new Pope was just elected." My supervisor gestured towards the door and said, "Well, looks like Fred just got The Call!" We laughed. Then we were reminded to not bring our phones into the meetings.

We're now in the thick of Employee Evaluation Report (EER) season.  Appraisals are difficult no matter where you are, and it's the same here. The EER process involves a pretty involved series of essays, starting with a work requirements statement, continuing with an evaluation of performance and accomplishments, evaluation of potential (which includes the dreaded Areas for Improvement), and review statement, all the while addressing the Core Precepts: leadership, managerial, interpersonal, communication, intellectual, and substantive knowledge. It's basically essay writing about your performance.

Probably the biggest variable is the conclusion: the DS-1829's Section VII is the employee statement area, which is lovingly referred to as The Suicide Box. It's an opportunity for employees to say what they want. You can describe your accomplishments, explain why your rater or reviewer gave you a bad review, or even celebrate the Airing of Grievances. Airing grievances is definitely and publicly not recommended, but that hasn't stopped some people.

There seem to be subtleties to how exactly to write each section, which is particularly challenging for us newcomers who've only heard examples of others' EER writings. It's not surprising that this goes into your permanent record, but it's still nerve-wracking to consider the implications if it doesn't go well. Of course I'll do the best I can, and if all else fails, I'll attach a note from my mother (assuming she gives me a good review).

(This post written while listening to B.B King Nobody Loves Me But My Mother)

PAC to the rescue?

With the sequestration now official and a potential shutdown coming up, what will we do?  I propose hiring the Permanent Assurance Company to fix our budgeting issues.  (Just watched the Meaning of Life again this weekend for the first time in over 15 years...great movie on so many levels.)

We don't know what effect the sequestration will have on us yet; there appear to be too many variables to know.  In the meantime, the formal OBO Construction Management bid process seems to be over.  I imagine I'll be much more involved in next year's bidding process, but we'll see what happens.  There's definitely plenty of work to do in DC.

Other than that fascinating sidelines activity, I've mostly been supporting my project assignments - nothing too crazy over the last couple of weeks.  If you have 8 minutes to kill, this NPR piece talks about OBO’s efforts to balance building safety and beauty.  It doesn’t have any particularly fascinating reveals, but it does shed some insight into the issues our designers try to balance.

(This post written while listening to Avicii Levels)