Pestilog

Grant Updates

So, if you have had the misfortune of bumping into me online in the last week, then you might know that this OSI grant is EATING MY LIFE! It has fully consumed me for the last 7 days, not only because there is a huge time crunch and I have been essentially cold-calling non-profit organizations in Ukraine for participation and immediate commitment, but also because every inch of communication has been in Ukrainian. Its SUCH an emotional roller coaster.
--Hey! I heard back from the folks in ____!! ROCK!!
--Oh crap! I don't know that word. Where's the dictionary?!
--Oh, hey they like my idea! I'm golden!!
--But, shit, how do you say "First Draft" in Russian?! WAIT!! I dont speak Russian!
Oh my lord. Stephen has been coming up to me randomly in the hallway and just giving me random, unsolicited hugs on principle. I have let my stress level get so high. The one saving grace is that the deadline for this grant is this Thursday, so come hell or high water, its all over (at least in the immediate) in 5 days.

But here's how things are going, for the interested:
*I sent out a bunch of e mails baiting people into talking about this. I heard back from 4 organizations and one activist at the national All Ukraine HR office in Kiev.
*I sent out a second e mail of the "wanna write a grant?" variety and heard back from one group who said that they were planning on applying for the grant themselves, but are interested in submitting a proposal together, and could I send them what I have?
*I tell a dirty lie and say that I have drafted a proposal and will get it translated out of English for them pronto.
*I hit the library and then compose said grant proposal, sans hard dollar values for the budget (how am I supposed to know what a reasonable compensation is for being interviewed is in Ukraine?--see, this is why I need them.)
*I find Nina, who is a FREIKIN ROCK STAR, and who is also Russian, who is willing to translate this 4 pg single spaced document into Russian by the next morning.
*And I just mailed off what I have to them. Part of me is leary about this situation, because there is nothing stopping them from just ditching me at this point and taking my methods as their own. But honestly, I'm ok with that risk. Because, frankly, I really have no interest in doing this project alone. I can't do it alone. I think its almost inappropriate for me, a newbie to this, not even fluent in the language, to come in and to this national-survey--even if I was able to hire every Ukrainian social scientist at CEU with these grant dollars. Worse case scenario, I don't get the grant (for shame!) and another organization has a better idea of how to run respondent-driven sampling and maybe, just maybe, do a better job on this project. At the very least, squeeze some more dollars for their heinously underfunded programming...I think that, despite these possibility, I will be able to sleep at night.

posted by Veruka2 @ 1:50 PM