First Day in the Office

Well my first day in the office was a series of surprises... My job is Strategic Development Advisor at the Federation of the Swazi Business Community in Manzini - the commercial and industrial centre in Swaziland. Part of it is building the capacity of the organisation to represent its members - small and medium enterprises. The other part is working directly with members to build their own skills and businesses.

Surprise #1

Someone from FESBC was supposed to be picking me up between 8 and 8.30 and Gemma assured me they would be late... Imagine my surprise when man turned up at 7.50 in a rather splendid Mercedes... His name was Zwelly Zulu, he's a board member and has a penchant for chilled out house music from South African DJs. The rest of the day was surprising in different ways.

Surprise #2

The job description said I would be managing an accountant, an administrator and an office assistant. The accountant and the office assistant left two years ago, and the administrator, Zanele, has been running the place ever since. There's a receptionist (Khulile), and an accountancy graduate (Khosy) who joined three days' before and is working for nothing to get some experience - the job market in Swaziland is pretty grim.

(Left to right: Khulile, Zanele and Khosy).

Surprise #3

The office...a reception desk, two windowless rooms, one desk and chair between three of us, and a meeting room. The meeting room is four garden tables and chairs with what looks like wedding decorations. White and purple covers, and some articifial rose flower arrangements.

Surprise #4

The job description said there would be a pc with a printer - didn't realise that meant one pc and printer between me and Zanele and Khosy and Khulile. With a dial-up connection. And one phone line - for everything, and everybody. The picture is Khosy and Zanele at the one desk in front of the one PC and printer.

So...then I met some of the board members. Two blokes (as well as Zwelly) and three women. They included Mr Mabuza (Hezekiel - though I suspect he'll always be Mr Mabuza to me) , the second VP, who's my boss, who owns five different companies - including office furniture (yay, surely!), office machinery (yay!) and stationery (yay!). Thuli, the first VP, who has been given the job of mentoring me. I quizzed them on FESBC, they quizzed me - I think I acquitted myself ok, but was probably a bit full on!

Surprise #5

It's not clear how many members they have...somewhere between 80 and 1000 as far as I can tell(!). First step will be setting up a database. Help me Con!

Then Zanele and Khosy took me for a walk around Manzini to orientate me. Manzini is very HOT. In a Queensland type of a way. No sunscreen on so I just copied Zanele and put my umbrella up. Very Singaporean...

I guess the biggest concern is how I get all the information out to start putting plans together. People who've been here a while have warned me about how hard it is to get things done - everyone wants to be involved in everything but not necessarily in making a decision - evidence of that even on my first day. I just want to get stuck in and start planning...so much needed...sources of funding, working out what members get/want for their money, working out who the members are, etc etc. I am excited though it will be a huge rollercoaster in terms of ability to get things done. Some really nice people though...

What the...?!

This is for anyone who's wondering why I've ended up in Swaziland...

Well, I gave up work (the first time!) in 2006 to do a Masters in International Development. The idea was that would do the course and then change careers, from wonderful call centres and consulting in the private sector, to something (undetermined) in the not-for-profit or charity sector.

But then off I went and did another year's consulting, although this time it was in the health service, so a step closer to where I wanted to be. Then I did a Masters last year in Health Policy which was supposed to add another string to my strangely-shaped bow. The additional appeal was that Con was studying Medical Statistics and frankly the opportunity to study for another year and be a student with Con was just TOO inviting!

Anyway, after all that and much discussion, Con and I came to the conclusion that, if I really wanted to work in development, I might have to go off somewhere for a year or two and get some experience. Difficult, given how much we love being together, but it will mean that we can follow our dream in the future.

So, fast forward to September last year, and I met a wonderful woman called Pauliina from an organisation called Skillshare at a recruitment fair in London. She suggested that I try for a placement with them. Skillshare does the same sort of work as VSO, in that they take experienced people (average age 40+) and put them into roles where they can use their skills and experience in a developing country. The best thing is that they only choose a foreign worker where skills aren't available locally, so you don't feel like you're taking someone else's job. You're paid a local salary, as well as a flights, accommodation and other bits and pieces (if you're interested their website is http://www.skillshare.org.uk/).

The upshot of this is that I have a job for a year in Manzini in Swaziland to work for the Federation of Small Businesses. The job description covers a stack of different things - when I've worked out what I'll be doing I'll let you know! I arrived in Swaziland on Monday, and I start work tomorrow (Friday). Con is coming down lots - first trip is at Easter for my birthday, and we've got the next one booked for the end of May. 32 sleeps to go...!

First Few Days in Swaziland

Well, after a pathetic attempt at blagging it at Heathrow, I meekly paid for my 6kg of excess baggage and said goodbye to Con. It's all very surreal, and the feeling that I'm just going on holiday isn't helped by the fact that it was about 30 degrees and beautiful sunshine when I arrived on Monday. It also wasn't helped by the fact that I was staying in a bed & breakfast for a couple of nights with a beautiful garden - sitting on the patio felt like being back in Australia.

On Wednesday, I moved to the Skillshare guesthouse in the suburbs of Mbabane, the capital of Swaziland, where they'd been having some work done. Alas, the move was a little premature...I unpacked my suitcases and carefully arranged my books and other bits and pieces. Four hours later when the rains came and the workmen had unhelpfully taken the roof off, my room sprang a massive leak. All the books I had carefully chosen and lugged from the UK ruined...suddenly it wasn't so much like a holiday. Apart from that(!) the guesthouse is really nice, pretty basic but everything you could need (even cable TV and internet).

As you can imagine, at the moment I feel like a bit of a cheat. The outskirts of Mbabane are very quiet and Mbabane itself is relatively safe. It feels a bit like an Australian town with its shopping malls, though a quick look at the bus station dispels that one pretty quickly.

The last three days have been settling in and getting organised. I've had sessions on local politics, culture and customs, a medical check and induction stuff like how I'll be paid. I can't apply for a work permit until my Criminal Records check is completed in the UK - submitted on 18 December but still no sign of it. I have 30 days in the country before I have to leave if it doesn't appear...

Despite the slight issue with a work permit, tomorrow is my first day at the office and in Manzini. I'm somewhat alarmed by the fact that FESBC - the Federation of Small (or Swazi, depending on which document you read) Businesses have said that they would like to get my arrival covered by the national newspaper. Apparently this is big news ...gulp. They want the members to see that something good is happening since they set up two years ago. Rest assured that I'll post the press cuttings if it happens...

Stuff about Swaziland

Well, nine sleeps to go before I head to Swaziland for a year. The flight is booked for 6pm on Valentine's Day - a good day for an emotional goodbye at the airport...!

So, first things first, where is this Swaziland place?

Congratulations to those of you who know that it's not a fictional country to start with, and that it borders South Africa - impressive! For those of you (like me) who aren't familiar with it, here are some key facts...

It's to the east of South Africa, mostly surrounded by South Africa, with Mozambique to the east.

It's 17,364 square km, which is...(thank the lord for WIkipedia)...

• A little bit smaller than Wales (for the Triggs)
• A bit smaller than New Jersey (Con and any other Sopranos fans)
• A quarter of the size of Ireland (for the Lane-Hills)
• Under over a fifth the size of Tasmania (for the Australians) Who else realised that Tasmania was that big?!

It's still an absolute monarchy, where the King (Mswati III) has the authority to appoint the Prime Minister, cabinet and the judiciary. There aren't many left - some of the others are Saudi Arabia, Brunei, Oman and Qatar - not the most impressive list. A new constitution was put in place in 2005, but there is still no free press, and repression of opposition political activity. If you'd like to read more about politics in Swaziland, there's a great blog from a pro-democracy group, though it makes for fairly depressing reading...

http://swazilandcommentary.blogspot.com

There's also a good video on the BBC site about the king and the annual Reed Dance where 100,000 virgins (you heard me right!) dance for him, and about how many wives he has (said to be 14 at the last count):

http://news.bbc.co.uk/player/nol/newsid_5320000/newsid_5325800/5325886.stm?bw=bb&mp=wm&news=1&ms3=6&ms_javascript=true&nol_storyid=5325886&bbcws=2

Sadly, one of the things for which Swaziland is most infamous for is having the highest prevalence of HIV in the world, with 27% of its population living with HIV. Between 50 and 65% of new infections are in heterosexuals regarded as low-risk individuals, and over 40% of mums-to-be attending antenatal clinics are living with HIV. Hardly surprising given the king's role model behaviour on polygamy, as well as a general stigma about discussing HIV.

And finally, what about poverty and development? Well, for those of you who are familiar with the UN's Human Development Report, it rates 142nd in the world on the Human Development index. Life expectancy at birth is just 45 years, and over 80% of the population live on under $2 a day.

However, although the general picture sounds pretty grim, Swaziland is apparently a very beautiful country (wait for the photos!) and volunteers generally struggle to leave at the end of their posting. I can't wait to get to know it, and I'm looking forward to Con visiting me (often!) to share my new experiences.

I'll be back with what I'm actually going to do when I get there!