Challenges

Everybody that got to know me a little bit better, know that I won’t bounce back on a challenge that easy. Why would I be here? A challenge makes me fight and work hard to make it work, even when others don’t see it happen anymore. This is the case with my job here in Nigeria. Since October 2010 I’m here to fulfil a job as teacher trainer for National volunteers who are not trained to be teachers. On itself already a challenge as I think being a teacher is not just something you do, you really need to learn how to coop with situations and how to transfer knowledge in an effective way.

I was not the only one entering this country with this particular placement description, a volunteer from the UK, has had the same challenges since October in Kwara State. He did not see the bright light at the end of the tunnel like I see it. He saw the same chaos…… working without a real plan ….. inventing a wheel without resources. Maybe he was the smart one. I sometimes think; ‘Maybe I also should think about changing my placement in something less stressful and more structured.’ He left the placement partly and is now working in a more lined out placement in Kwara.

I stayed because I believed and I still belief in the power of this project. I stayed to fight for the national volunteers I work for. I wanted to see how I can make this work in Nassarawa State. But ever since I started fighting for this project the light at the end of the tunnel doesn’t get brighter of bigger. It stays far away out of reach. How long can I keep working in this situation without getting stressed out by frustrations?

I’ve been shouting and crying for a stakeholders meeting about this whole programme. I’ve threatened to leave the country if the stakeholder meeting wasn’t arranged before March. Somehow I didn’t leave and I agreed on a meeting after my trip to The Netherlands, so date was set in June, last Tuesday to be exact. Finally my meeting about goals and objectives, I thought. All stakeholders in Nassarawa state were invited; also some potential new stakeholders were there.

The evening before the meeting Yakiem, Chinwe, Lucy and I met to do the last preparations for the meeting. Then I discovered that the content of the meeting as planned was not as promising as I hoped it would be. It was more about brainstorming instead of making plans. Then we had to prepare our own parts and I had to prepare the bit about objectives and I knew I had to do that bit, but in my head I did a different kind of session about objectives. In my head I planned a SWOT-analyses and after that try to generate new objectives with the outcome. Now I had only 20 minutes! That’s no time to write new objectives with a group of 20 participants! So I organized in inventory session about new possible objectives.

So during the meeting with all important stakeholders present we were only brainstorming about the future of the programme. No real decisions were made. The only real decision I forced was that I will be the project manager for the NGVP in Nassarawa state. The rest of the outcome is more or less caught by the words; We could do. …… We should do……. Maybe………. Possibly……. For me for now empty words. So I will start shouting again for a follow up in which really agreements are signed with a real placement agreement in the end of it. Best thing about that meeting will be that I’m the one able to initiate it as the project manager.