JOB OPPORTUNITY- IM UN-SURE-BUT I AM HOPEFUL!

Since I arrived I have been getting referrals to people that are complete strangers and the only thing we have in common is a single mutual acquaintance. It is a BIG deal for me to reach out on a ‘cold call’ to people who I know nothing about, but being in a new country and not knowing many people, it is the only way to get myself out there and I need to have a little more faith and confidence in myself to know that 99% of the time everything will work out okay. I am not sure about the rest of Africa, but Kenya in particular, is a country where it really is not what you know but who you know. A lot of jobs here are referral and word of mouth based. Apparently there are a lot of the jobs that are not formally advertised. Most post openings are communicated through word of mouth; hence it is advisable to join expat forums/groups and to attend ‘meet ups’ to get to know other expats in Nairobi. I haven’t seen any notices for any scheduled meet ups at this point so I have had to rely upon people I know who know people and I have emailed/phoned every single person that has been given to me to date.

Not everyone has replied or has been in a position to help or meet. Of the 3 referrals that were given to me in London, I had one ‘no reply’, one who left Ethiopia a long time ago and any contacts have also moved on (this was when Ethiopia was still an option) and my referral in Tanzania was moving back to the UK after several years in the country. I was given more words of wisdom short of anything else and Ms Tanzania’s words included to be careful about falling in love with a local Kenyan boy as it is usually disastrous in the end and to get myself settled, organised and to be careful. Well I have been there and literally done that-I’d like to think I am a little wiser in that department now-but who can argue with matters of the heart? Ms Ethiopia’s words were that volunteering or working in Ethiopia is not straight forward. It requires a lot of effort. But it is doable. NGOs have restrictions on the number of expats they can have on their books as authorities fear that they will take the jobs of locals. I was told to be prepared to be very proactive and also prepare myself for lots of false starts. And she didn’t want to sound negative but in the four years she was there she saw a lot of people who wanted to do good only to be met by the same frustrations. It’s good to know and I am sure that a lot of African countries will be similar but I have the time, the patience may require a bit more work, but I am willing to wait for the right job and I know that it will happen. So not all contacts work out, but at least I know that I am following up every single one and in a timely manner as well, as there is no time like the present.

If you read my blog, you all know of my first real referral and who I now like to call a friend. It was Joshua who was a friend of a friend and I was nervous and looking forward to our meeting all at the same time. It is a little like a job interview, once you do the first one, I am sure it will get easier the more you do. I am a people person, it is just the initial ‘will they like me’-‘will I like them scenario’. There are some people in this world that you will instantly connect with and there are also going to be people that you instantly know that you don’t. But you have to have an open mind and I just hope that my charming personality and good looks will shine through every time (ha ha). Like any meeting with people you don’t know, what do you talk to a complete stranger about and what do I expect/they expect from the meeting? As it worked out I had nothing to worry about with Joshua, he was so easy going. We chatted in his office for around 30 minutes and I was just myself, I was honest and told him I would love to get into Charity/ Aid work and he asked about getting back into the travel industry and I said I did love working in travel, so it wouldn’t be off the cards. Joshua mentioned that he has 2 clients that are into charity work and he will have a talk to them. Like I have mentioned before I don’t expect anyone to get me a job, but a foot in the door or a contact is worth a million bucks in this country. We talked about Africa, visas and he even said he will ask some questions about a work visa and that his company could sponsor me so that I can stay without having to be on the tourist visa. He’ll keep his ear to the ground, he is in the travel industry after all, so hopefully he knows a lot of people and he may be able to refer me in the future. It’s a start, and it feels like a positive one at that.

This week has been the most active since my arrival into the country. I got an email out of the blue from a buddy that I went to go to high school with **cough cough** 25 years ago. Just out of nowhere I got a message on Facebook telling me that his sister-in-law was moving to Nairobi for work. She has lived here before and he was sure that she would appreciate a friendly face and gave me her Twitter name and also her email address. I have sent her an email and I really hope that she gets back to me and then we will arrange a time and place to meet. I am really starting to miss some form of companionship-I need to get out and you know when you need to get out when the building caretaker, Charles, is making comments about me not leaving my place for days. Some days I feel bad that I haven’t gone out, but I am keeping busy and I just need to make the most of my down time, as I am sure (hoping) that it will change soon and I just need to chillax and enjoy it. The upside of Charles keeping an eye on me is that if something happened to me in my apartment, he wouldn’t be far away if he hasn’t seen me in a few days.

My next referral this week was from Lou. It was more informational than a referral at the start of the week and by the end of the week I had a name and an email. Lou and I travelled together on my first 2 weeks in Africa of Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda. We became sturdy friends over the 2 weeks and we have kept in touch over the last 18 months which is quite a feat when she isn’t on Facebook, it is all via email, which I think is becoming the new ‘snail mail’ of the electronic age and it is because of her job in the Government that she doesn’t have a Facebook account. Lou was finding out from past people that have worked in Australian Consulates around the world and how they went about getting their jobs and how they employed people overseas. We got some good advice from some-one that was currently the Tokyo Embassy and later in the week we heard from a friend that was currently working in South Sudan. We got some great information that I will be able to work with here and I also got an email address of someone currently working in the Consulate in Nairobi, but was due to finish his post in the coming days so to send a message to him ASAP. Well I did send that message the very same day I received Lou’s email to get an automated reply that he had already finished his posting. Bummer. The message left other contact email addresses and also a personal email for him, but I am not sure it is going too far to email him on his personal email. I will think on that. She mentioned even if I did get employment I wouldn’t be getting all the perks but the salary is an Australian equivalent which is worth a lot more here in Kenya that is for sure, and I couldn’t really give a toss about the perks, if I was getting paid a salary, this would be enough for me to have a great life here.

ALSO this week I have made a new Facebook friend. I have had a few Facebook friend requests from Africans I don’t know the last couple of days and generally as a rule won’t accept anyone that I don’t know but I have accepted one person based on face value. I do need to get myself out more and he went to the trouble of sending me his email address and phone number, he lives in Nairobi and he quite clearly mentioned being a friend. Now I can hear you all cringing as you read this but sometimes you just need to run with your gut instinct and everything just rings right and so as not to get our messages crossed I have been up front with him and his replies have been more than honest, so I have accepted him as a friend-it all has to start somewhere and whether it was a male or a female I would have done the same thing. I have also had 2 requests from the web site ‘Meet Up’ that I joined when I first arrived. It is supposed to be a site where groups of people arrange to ‘meet up’ but my 2 messages have been looking for a serious relationship and left me their mobile numbers. It is those people I will NOT respond to and it is not the reason I joined the site in the first place. I hear you breathe a sigh of relief-see I haven’t totally lost it.

I have saved the best news for last. I sent an email to my friend that works for the UN in Italy. I met her and her husband on my G Adventure tour of Ethiopia in October 2011 and we got along famously. We have kept in touch via email, as JG doesn’t have a Facebook account. I got my initial idea of working for the UN from JG on our trip and she mentioned that if I ever did move to Africa and still wanted to shoot for the UN to let her know and now here I am 16 months later. I sent her an email that I was here in Nairobi and was she in a position to refer me/give me a name/contact to get a foot in the door. As I have mentioned many times before, I don’t expect anyone to ‘get’ me a job, but a referral is worth a million emails and I know from previous research how hard it is to get into any of these NGO/Aid roles and I think a lot of them are again a word of mouth type set up and I am hoping because I am now here, if I could get a contact and a foot in the door, I will be well ahead of the pack of other people that maybe applying from their homes around the world. I am on the ground and I am READY. So JG emailed me back the same day and said she has just spoken to her friend, AC (keeping names out for now) and has asked that I send my CV through to her in Italy, she will add a few comments from her end and then send it through to Nairobi for me on an official level. She also mentioned that AC would be happy to meet with me on a personal level and have a coffee and a laugh. That sounds wonderful to me and even if nothing comes out of the job area, my CV is in the system with the right people and hopefully I’ll make a new friend out of the experience. I had smile from ear to ear and I just couldn’t stop woo hoo-ing around my apartment for the next 5 minutes!!! There were a few emails back and forth between the 3 of us and on Thursday AC asked to send through my CV urgently as there maybe something coming up and she wanted to share it with someone as she was going on 2 weeks leave. So I rang and asked if Friday was okay as I didn’t have internet access, it worked out it was, and we ended the call with the promise to catch up in early March upon her return. I can’t tell you how HAPPY I am. I was high fiving myself and throw in a couple of air punches-oh and the smile was still pasted on my face.

CAN YOU BELIEVE IT?

So there were no promises made, it would be contract work (which I am fine with) but my CV was with the right people and I emailed it off on Friday morning. I was advised to write a cover letter about myself, my travels and the fundraising I did for the Water Charity. I didn’t want to go overboard on the letter, I know there are a million people that think they can change the world and after reading literature, people in the UN see the good, bad and all the ugly and I wonder if they think fresh faces like myself coming through that my attitude will change with time and my rose coloured glasses are no longer on my face. I don’t know-I like to think I have a bit more experience of the world and what I have seen for it not to leave me to disheartened and only time will tell if I get an interview, let alone a job. It could take weeks or months for something, but it is a start-a positive start and it has given me hope for the future. I ended up writing from the heart, what got me to Nairobi today and my vision for my future and that I was here to stay. Shelly advised me to write it like a blog entry and they will see the good in me from that. So I did. It will either turn them off me or help me in my search for a job. BUT things are starting to turn-I’m feeling better with myself, I LOVE having my own place and I have some future travel plans that are coming up so I have things to look forward to now and to know I have made the first step for a job, for the UNITED NATIONS no less.

ISNT THAT JUST FANTASTIC NEWS?

So it really does come down to not what you know but who you know. I am hopeful that a whole new world of opportunity it starting to open up for me and I can’t tell you how this feels. I needed this and like I said before if nothing comes of it I will be a little disappointed but I am prepared for the set-backs-not everything will always work out as you planned, but it will make me more determined. It’s the hardest times that teach us the most valuable lessons and life isn’t about finding yourself life is about creating yourself and I will never, never, never give up.

BUT ISNT THAT JUST THE MOST EXCITING NEWS?

Keep all your fingers and toes crossed-I’ll let you know when I hear something…..