18 month anniversary

Today marks my eighteen month anniversary as a VSO volunteer in The Gambia. I recently re-read my 'one year in' reflections post, and mostly things still stand... But paradoxically I feel both more settled and less settled than I did back in September. 

More settled in that, naturally, as time passes I get even more used to my surroundings and feel even more at home. Showing my brother around at Christmas compounded my feelings of 'this is where I live and this is what I know'. I can make more comparisons; I've had two Christmases here, two dry seasons, seen more people leave and more people arrive, and have survived two annual partnership review exercises.

But as each month passes I get closer to the end of my placement, and now at 18 months I'm 75% through. If I left tomorrow my placement would be considered a successful placement - I would not be an 'early returner'. As I hit 18 months, it's officially time to start looking at what I'm going to do next. And that's why I now feel less settled. I've actually been keeping an eye out for jobs since Christmas, but now it's time to step up the search. By doing VSO I am fulfilling a life long ambition. I had been waiting years to build up the professional experience and find the right time to go. In the 9 months from application to placement it was all I thought about. So what do I do now!?

Well, one option could be to do another placement and try another country. But while I definitely won't rule out another stint as a VSO volunteer, I'm not sure that immediately re-volunteering is the right thing to do. Financially speaking, it's time to get back on the path of paid employment. And professionally speaking it's time for a new challenge. It's time to take my pre-VSO public sector experience and my current 'hands on' experience of international development and combine them. I want to push myself, learn more, do more and see more, so that if I do volunteer again I bring even more to my next placement.

It's not time for me to return to the UK and I still want to stay in the world of international development. But this time I want to be fully on the team. As a volunteer I find myself caught in the middle... part of the team for sure, but sometimes only when it suits them, and without the power to really make the decisions. I'm the advisor, the guider, the demonstrator, and now I want to be the do-er, the manager and the decider again.

So, my CV is up to date, and I'm scanning every monitoring and evaluation, programme management and partnership management vacancy I find to see if I fit the requirements. The Gambia has been very good to me, and very good for me, but now I'm circling and looking for a new place to land!