Making it Happen

When I left Salone last December, I had no return flight booked or any job offer (although I had only actually applied for 2 jobs!). All I knew was that I WAS coming back and that it would be within 2 months of leaving Freetown, with or without a job. Psychologically this was all quite difficult because I want to be in both places at once! Some people seem to manage this dual existence between countries, but can you do that between UK and West Africa? Its so vastly different, however many Saloneans do this with split families, between here and all over the UK, Peckham being a popular location and Manchester too. Leeds is a popular place to study Public Health. However, do many British born have this similar lifestyle taking into consideration the practicalities of working and living in two places so culturally diverse and relatively far away? I’ll look into it!

But anyway, I digress! The key to coming back to Salone and attempting to continue to make some kind of positive contribution is gaining employment and after a year of volunteering (ie lots of work no income!), this had to be paid work! I got home and chased the Ministry to see if they had funding agreed from Donors to employ me for at least another 6 months. I had written two proposals which had been duly sent to at least 2 Donors/potential funders back in December. And I waited... and at the same time I also applied for 2 health related jobs with NGOs. I got shortlisted for both. Are jobs like buses then? One job sounded very interesting and was paid more but you had to travel between 4 West African Countries, which sounded glamorous but I doubt it is and the other job based in Freetown, was working at national level as the first person in Sierra Leone. It was for a relatively new charity with 2 project components: public health and education. It sounded worthwhile and challenging. I was offered the job and I took it ....so with the usual mixed feelings of excitement and trepidation both with the new challenge but also coping with leaving home again, I came back to Africa - six weeks after I left.