She says...come and work with me!

Last week I was very kindly (and informally) offered a position with a different European-based NGO. I met my soon-to-be predecessor, a lovely young kiwi man (YKM), during a social board games evening. Yes, we party hard in Siberia. YKM told me later that he wouldn't have contacted me it if I hadn't picked up the details of the game so quickly.....it really is the little things that count.

I haven't yet formally received or accepted the offer. 'He' and I agreed to talk with the big man about it for a while, which is part of the delay, and the other is that there is no one more senior than my proposed position in the country to complete anything formal.  My soon-to-be boss is very highly respected and clearly brings joy and laughter to the office, but he also happens to be the CEO of the multinational organisation, so I am not yet sure if or when he will return to Siberia.

Nonetheless, after 4 days of work I have a new email address with their logo, I've learned of approx. 3,653 in-house concerns that could do with some of my energy and effort, and the watchman brings me tea and coffee throughout the day, goes and gets keys cut for me and fixes the AC when it blows dust/sand on me. Although I'm volunteering pre-contract, today I was given by YKM the equivalent of $35 to cover my meal costs for a week. That's above the free staff lunch that the cook/cleaner lass prepares everyday. Those meals have been really quite nice so far, but today I was forced to restrain my facial expression at the sight of what appeared to be portions of a cleft-footed animal hoof. I did plan to eat it, but once it was on my plate I couldn't determine where the edible bit began and the bone finished. I asked my colleagues what it was, and despite offering 'cow, camel, sheep, goat' in both English and Siberian, I was told it was 'meat' (in both English and Siberian). 

The NGO's specialty is providing access to water within established communities, and they also do some community development and training of Trainers.... who train Teachers of children with special needs. There's not really a health component (other than extrapolating the necessity for water!) which I'm a little disappointed about. On the other hand, while my role is, let's say 'ill-defined', I can probably push some sort of community development/public health projects eventually.
          Whilst health is on hold for the time being, almost every other topic you could think of falls under my responsibility. My primary role will be the Financial Manager (with desperately needed support from NZ-based YKM via the wonders of the internet), but I will also be in charge of general administration and Human Resources for the 5 Siberian offices. I've been asked to address the situation of the 4+ staff who have been given official warnings and then dismissed during the past 18mths, but continue to appear at the office most days and receive a free lunch and a salary.  Note, this group does not include the somewhat larger group of female employees who have deemed it necessary to hide upstairs in the guest accommodation for a close-eyed meeting each afternoon. It was only 3 months ago that someone put their foot down and banned children of employees from attending the office each day.

Just in case I'm not busy enough in my 3, possibly 4 days a week, I offered to pick up the dusty, neglected hat for security, chiefly because I'm a little concerned about the lack of locks on anything (including the front door), and the watchmen, who have yet to be witnessed doing any watching.

So who wants to come and work for me in Siberia?? Oh, sorry, I forgot to mention that we don't have any money, so it'll be voluntary. I should also warn that you will have a higher than usual chance of meeting our maker earlier that you expected when traveling to and from work each day, but that is a topic for the next blog.