So far I’ve had a very interesting experience of work here.
Obviously, I have learned things not only about the education programme, but
also about office politics, the sometimes bemusing way things are done here,
and I have also learned lots about myself. I think that a lot of the novelty of
has worn off and, while I am enjoying the work and my colleagues are lovely, I
know I would find it extremely difficult to stay here long-term.
Since my last
blog post, there’s been a bit more variety in the jobs assigned me, which is
what I was hoping for. Sabuj Sangha is a beneficiary of the Smile Foundation,
and I’ve been uploading profiles and photos of some of our students to the
Smile Foundation website. This is easy, but since each photo takes ages to
upload it’s quite time-consuming. This month, I have accompanied co-workers on
field visits to see some of Sabuj Sangha’s education centres and programmes.
This is something I have been looking forward to since I arrived here, as I get
to spend time with the kids and actually have an idea what people are talking
about when they mention the different education initiatives. Since then reports
have followed the visits, and I'm also writing up the final draft of our new child protection policy. On top of all this, I also have a kind of mini-project coming up that
should hopefully take up a good bit of my time, which is to update a prospectus
for our office. This will be used for fundraising etc, and the template has
already been provided.
Despite this however, it hasn’t been all perfect, but I feel
as though the problems I’ve had are probably typical of many people who’ve gone
on placement. Without getting into a big long speil, the experience of not
having enough work began to affect me, not at the beginning which is what
people have mentioned in the past, but actually about 1 month in. Then other
days I am given work with only just enough time to do it. They seem to have a
very funny habit here of not mentioning things until the last minute. So while
there is actually work to be done, it is a question of management, especially
time management. However the issue now seems to be resolved, for the moment
anyway. Another thing I've noticed is that one or two of the people I work with seem to think that I've a lot more money than I actually do. I know I shouldn't be surprised by this, and by Indian standards I do have a good bit of money, but at the same time they know I'm a volunteer, so it's a bit strange. However as I said
before I doubt I’m the only one who has encountered these kind of things, and overall I'm having a positive experience of work placement. What have other people come across in the past couple of months regarding the work environment and their colleagues?
Hoping everyone is doing really well, and I’m looking
forward to reading more posts soon.
Lizzy x
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