Valued . . .?
on Rob Wootton (Zambia), 28/Feb/2012 08:21, 34 days ago
Now I am not surprised but still somewhat disappointed. To explain, and therefore have a bit of a moan, there are two things on my mind. Firstly, I left my role at the Mazabuka DATF three weeks ago now and since then there has been a lengthy silence from my former colleagues. Admittedly my departure from Maz was swift, yet despite pressing them and various reminders my offer of some form of handover and skills training session has failed to happen. This is despite phone calls from some of the same colleagues when problems have arisen, which would not have been problems in the first place if they had made time for us to meet. The ball is firmly in their court as the Executive team in Maz have much more to gain, and also lose, than I by us getting or not getting together. All the documents, reports and other bits of information that I have would be useful to them. The silence leads to questions such as where did I go wrong, what did I not do, was the last two years a waste of time, was anyone actually listening to me . . . and so on.This is the first disappointment.Secondly, and this is of less importance, I would have liked some sort of goodbye from my work colleagues. I accept that I left quickly for Lusaka because of the new work with NAC and knowing their mindset they will be thinking that I have not actually left the country yet so they still have time. However, to counter such excuses, I do feel unappreciated. The life experience here has been unforgettable, greatly rewarding and enriching, but as a volunteer I gave up a lot of time (two years), money (am trying not to count how much!) and (loss of) personal time with friends and family to work in Maz. Of course I did this willingly but given the time and effort that I have put in the lack of any form of a goodbye is the second disappointment.