I can hardly believe that I’ve been here 3 months already!
Time is going so quickly! I have truly settled into Calabar and life here now.
I’m finding that I have adapted to life here now, I know the shops and where I
can buy certain things, and can pretty much find everything I need or variances
of! Have got used to eating from cans – meat and vegetables! But I can still
get luxuries here – chocolate chip cookies and ginger nut biscuits, oh and
Pringles! So you can see why I needed to join a gym! The weather was incredibly
hot, making sleep tricky, but we’ve had some spectacular thunderstorms the last
few evenings which have cooled down the temperature a bit! Rain even in the dry
season! But the kindness of people here still shows – in the thunderstorms a
lovely man offered us a lift home so we wouldn’t get too wet!
Work is busy, I’m now in the full swing of completing my
Organisational Development Assessment – am interviewing staff and conducting
research on how NGOs run. My own expectations and the business model I am used
to working within just doesn’t fit into African culture and that of a
non-profit organisation. So I need to adjust my own though processes and
standards at the same time! GPI are avidly awaiting the report so I’m feeling
pressure to perform well! I just hope I can meet their expectations and don’t
let them or myself down. I’m hoping to visit a couple of other GPI centres as
well, so hope to see more of this lovely country.
My social life is always busy – have a lovely group of
friends and always have plenty of company! Gym, pool, cinema, dinners out,
karaoke bars, nightclubs…… Life certainly is good! I miss a good cocktail and
chilled glass of rose though! And I have a craving for Mexican food and a
quarter pounder with fries!
Lovely Leanne has moved out of my house and will soon be
heading to Cameroon, I already miss her loads! It really is a joy to live with
someone you get on so well with, and I know we’ll stay friends wherever in the
world we are! Two VSO staff have moved into my house, Elsie and Folusho – they
are managing an ICS project where 10 UK and 10 Nigerian volunteers work on a
community development project for 3 months. The project is running in
partnership with GPI so we are looking forward to seeing how things go! Will be
nice to have a few UK people around as well!
Plans for the next 2 months are to work really hard and then
reward myself with a trip to Cameroon to see Leanne and the volcanic beaches at
Limbe!
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