It All Adds Up, by Quinn

I loved my job at the Legislative Fiscal Division as a Fiscal Analyst.  But to be honest, when I was focusing on the budget of the Health & Human Services Division, I wasn't exactly operating in my areas of passion.  At the time, my bosses knew I was planning for and working toward leaving for Bolivia within the next year.  So working on the development of an Excel model for tracking and forecasting the cost of Medicaid to the State of Montana often felt like an activity with no connection to the rest of my life, but I hoped it would be helpful to my co-workers at least.


So what did I do last night?  Well, I taught a workshop on Excel, in Spanish, here in Bolivia.  But more than that, at the end of our time together, I learned that two Bolivian ladies I was teaching actually work in an HIV clinic here in Cochabamba, and that they have data going back to 1984, which they are interested in learning to use in a very similar manner.  Now they plan to spend the next month or so trying to get the data into a usable format, and then we will meet again to work together to develop a usable model for them, which will help them operate more efficiently in their clinic, allowing them to better assist people with a very real need.

Using Excel to help people with HIV.  Can't say I saw that one coming.