The Global Development Center is a small, maverick, international, humanitarian assistance group with a bare-bones staff, hand-to-mouth funding, and enough audacity to run rings around the Peace Corps. Right now, for example, Director Bob Adams is looking for two technicians - ideally one hardware and one software geek - to help wire up all of Guatemala in the next couple of years.
Guatemala has recently emerged from a military dictatorship and a decades-long guerrilla war in which tens of thousands of Mayan Indians were massacred and their rural villages destroyed. As part of the peace process, international and Guatemalan non-governmental organizations (NGOs) with experience in health, agriculture, education, housing, community development, and human rights are working to rebuild the society.
GDC and its local partner ASIES, a Guatemalan research institute, plan to link up hundreds of community-level Guatemalan NGOs, bringing them up to speed on computers, email, the Internet, intranets, and extranets, depending on their needs. The NGOs form a range of groups, including a tiny rural organization working off a single solar-powered cellular phone, a sophisticated national human rights group with 50,000 members, and a top-notch database programming concern.
This means that GDC's technicians, says Bob, "are simply going to have to be flexible and open-minded about what they do. A precise job description would kill the project." Bob wants technicians who can fool around with recalcitrant modems in the mountains, design software for maternity-pediatric health clinics in the capital, set up an extranet for a consortium of well-drilling NGOs, and teach Web design to Mayan artists, while "constantly redesigning the project to meet the needs encountered in the field." Yes, you're gonna work your butts off - but, as Bob points out, "You won't have to follow some stupid plan designed in Washington. Our folks are going to have fun."
You're also going to need to know a lot more about people than your standard high-tech specialist does. Previous experience living abroad is a big help, so that you don't freak out when the phone goes dead, the scorpion falls out of your shoe, or you're sick as a dog and there's nothing to eat but boiled yucca. Fluent Spanish is essential, as is a willingness to shut up and let other people make decisions. "We can't afford to jet in like the all-knowing American experts," says Bob. "Humor, patience, and respect are what make it work."
GDC's project is slated to run about three years, and a minimum one-year commitment is required. The salary range is from US$45,000 to $90,000, depending on experience. And if you stay outside the United States for 11 out of the 12 months, it's tax-free. Keep in mind that housing is provided, along with expenses, while you're living and traveling inside Guatemala, and you'll get a paid home-leave trip after a year. With all of that, do you really need a title and a job description, too?
Location: Guatemala
Salary: US$45,000 to $90,000, depending on experience
Skills: Networking, programming, hardware maintenance or software development, people skills, and fluency in Spanish.
For more information about this dream job, email Morgan Daybell.
This article originally appeared in HotWired.
