First week at work

I have had a very gentle start to work with a three-day week, being sandwiched between two long weekends for public holidays. I have started to meet some of my colleagues, but many people have been away because of the holidays.

My working situation is slightly convoluted, and I think it will take a little while to iron out some of the details. The project that I am contributing to - "In school, in society" - is a VSO project, so I need to report to VSO. However, VSO identifies partner organisations to be involved in the project and to "host" the volunteers. My "employer" organisation is World Education, a very well-established international NGO that has been working in Thailand with refugee and migrant communities for many years. So I also need to work within the World Education context and to collaborate with colleagues there. It is a three-way relationship, with World Ed. and VSO also needing to collaborate to help ensure the success of the placement. Plenty of scope there for uncertainties, ambiguities, miscommunications and much more... So here's an example: I am supposed to have a "coordinator" who I will work with very closely and who will act as translator. Quite a crucial role. There seems to have been a certain lack of clarity around the recruitment process and who was going to do what, with the result that, as yet, there is no coordinator in post.

Putting all that to one side, my first impression is that World Education is going to be a very positive place to work. The Director, who has recently joined the organisation, is an ex-VSO volunteer, so she has a good understanding of the role of a VSO volunteer, which will be very helpful. WE has quite a large staff plus various volunteers and interns, working in teams on various different projects. It will take me a while to get to know everyone's names and roles. Everyone I have met so far has been incredibly friendly and helpful. I will work quite closely with the team that work with Thai schools and the Ministry of Education. One lady in this team has taken me under her wing, and I think she will be a good person for me to practise my Thai with. She is married to a British chap (now here's a story: his sister was a VSO volunteer some years ago. He came out to Thailand to visit her and that's how he met his wife. The more I hear about it, the more I think VSO is a glorified match-making agency! Our Thai teacher is also married to an ex-volunteer who was one of her students years ago.)

Schools are closed for the long holidays at the moment (end of Feb to mid-May), so I won't be able to visit the schools I will be working with for a while. The week after next I am going to join the team who do "Training of Trainers" - training teachers and school directors in effective training methods. Mostly I will be observing and helping out with practical things, but I am going to present one small part. The training will all be in Burmese, so my session will be translated. I spent some time this week working with one of the trainers to prepare the session. It is going to be really interesting to see how I can take the training skills I already have and apply them in this new context.