Skills

So many things can happen in a short time. In the past few weeks, I got a job offer from VSO, took one more VSO course, worked my last day in the synagogue and emptied my office there.
 

Regarding the job offer, I got an offer in Nigeria and I decided to apply for it. This means I filled in the application form. Now, the organization which I might be working for from February, is thinking about my application. They don’t have a choice of several volunteers, but they can refuse me and hope they will find someone else. In that case, VSO will look for another placement for me.  It looks very nice though, so keep your fingers crossed!
 

The VSO course was very interesting again. It is nice to spend a weekend with people who are ready to work in development countries, like me. The training was called Skills for Working in Development. And that was really what it was about.
 

One of the most important topics of the weekend was facilitation. We as volunteers are not the ones who have to change (the work of) an organization; the organization should change itself when they see the need. The only thing we can do is facilitating them to do this. Quite a challenge for me, I am normally the one who easily says; o I can do it! I should really change this habit into empowering the people and say: o YOU can do this!
 

Other important topics were building bridges (another challenge for me, take a lot of time to get to know people and don’t try to do business too soon), corruption and dealing with conflicts. Again, no one tried to give us a brighter picture than reality will be. But all of us were very enthusiast about our plans, so it was a very motivating weekend again.
 

Keep your fingers crossed!

 

SKIWD participants,
people heading to Pemba (Tanzania), Zambia, Zimbabwe, Ghana,
Bangladesh, Papua New Guinea, Uganda