Hello Again!

I’m happy to report that I have now been unemployed for one week now. It has already been quite eventful. I was very happy to put in my final day at work and leave on a good note. We’ve since moved into our new apartment that is just down the road from our old place. A cute one-bedroom in the corner of a large family-owned rental compound.

So, what’s next?

Well, for the last few months I’ve been working with Ba Binta, a RPCV from Jambanjelly to get funding to finally finish the community library. In all her loveliness, Ba Binta was able to secure funding from a United States Rotary Club to do the bare-bones finishing on the library. That is, to get some shelves and tables and organize the books. The money should be coming through soon and Modou and I have volunteered to oversee the construction/implementation. So, hopefully I’ll be writing soon to finally announce the opening of the Jambanjelly Community library. A project that was started in June of 2006 will proudly open its doors in November 2009.

Note: I must also shamelessly share that there are many areas that are not yet complete on the library including the electricity wiring, septic system, compound wall, and training/maintenance fees. If anyone has anything large or small to share with the project, we would definitely put it to good use. 

Modou and I are also opening a small tour guide/taxi business with a cute Jeep we bought called Sama in Mandinka or Elepant in English. We hope to operate it during the upcoming tourist season while we are waiting for the K-1 to come through. Lastly, I’ll be returning home sometime in November or December to be a Maid of Honor in my childhood best friend’s wedding. Plans after that are still pending. J

Hello Again!

I’m happy to report that I have now been unemployed for one week now. It has already been quite eventful. I was very happy to put in my final day at work and leave on a good note. We’ve since moved into our new apartment that is just down the road from our old place. A cute one-bedroom in the corner of a large family-owned rental compound.

So, what’s next?

Well, for the last few months I’ve been working with Ba Binta, a RPCV from Jambanjelly to get funding to finally finish the community library. In all her loveliness, Ba Binta was able to secure funding from a United States Rotary Club to do the bare-bones finishing on the library. That is, to get some shelves and tables and organize the books. The money should be coming through soon and Modou and I have volunteered to oversee the construction/implementation. So, hopefully I’ll be writing soon to finally announce the opening of the Jambanjelly Community library. A project that was started in June of 2007 will proudly open its doors in November 2009.

Note: I must also shamelessly share that there are many areas that are not yet complete on the library including the electricity wiring, septic system, compound wall, and training/maintenance fees. If anyone has anything large or small to share with the project, we would definitely put it to good use. 

Modou and I are also opening a small tour guide/taxi business with a cute Jeep we bought called Sama in Mandinka or Elepant in English. We hope to operate it during the upcoming tourist season while we are waiting for the K-1 to come through. Lastly, I’ll be returning home sometime in November or December to be a Maid of Honor in my childhood best friend’s wedding. Plans after that are still pending. J

Hello, again

Wow. My most recent posts on this blog are from seven months ago. Seven months. I don't know how that much time could have passed, leaving me without a single electronic record (besides angst-written emails to friends and family) of all the hard lessons I have learned along the way. I guess that I was just so caught up in surviving this whirlwind we call life that I had no time to keep records.

No worries. I still remember everything. Or, everything I want to remember. At any rate, I still want to share my stories with whoever reads or passes by this blog and so here's a short recap...

Since last February, I went on a much-needed visit to the US and spent some very precious time with my family and friends. I was also the second-in-command for the implementation of the world's first integrated biometric management system, a contract that I helped implement by schlepping back and forth between government offices doing presentation after presentation to an often-sleeping group of government higher-ups. I also completed the highly confusing K-1 visa petition to allow the love of my life to start a life with me in the US, for which we are still waiting to hear from the seemingly black hole that cashed our $450 check right away and proceeded to give the annoying "processing" message whenever we check in. I also became facebook-officially engaged to the aforementioned love of my life and completed 26 out of 29 days of fasting during the Holy Month of Ramadan to show support for the religion of this country and my fiancé and my family to-be and to attempt to understand what the 1.5 billion other Muslims on this earth go through for 1/12 of their life. (It’s not easy, by the way).

To me, the most important thing I experienced over the past seven months was gross violation of work-life balance. I worked longer and harder in the past seven months than I have ever worked in my life. For those of you who are reading this and know a bit about my personal and professional history, you will understand that this means that I worked too hard. There's a point of saturation, in which your waking life becomes your work life and your sleeping life also becomes your work life and recreational life becomes your work life and you realize that it is all just too much. Around this same time, I also realized that the company I was killing myself to work for was really not at all worth killing myself for and so I made the scary decision to leave my job.

Right now, I am at the end of a two-month contractual resignation period and will soon be unemployed. Luckily, Modou and I were frugal with our meager means and will be okay financially for a little while until we can figure out our next steps. I already have an inkling as to what those are, but I don't want to write anything until I am really sure.

All that I am sure of 100% is that I made the right decision to leave this job and I feel proud that when I came to a real crossroads in life, I was able to choose the relationships with my family and my friends and my fiancé above the comfort, stability, and money that came along with a job that I had come to hate. Now, the challenge becomes avoiding getting myself into a situation where I have to choose between those two things when the stakes are higher (like when I have a mortgage to pay or kids to support). I'm sure I'll be able to figure that out with all the free time I will have now that I am (almost) unemployed...

I feel dead tired, but I just want to force myself to type this post so I can remember the way I feel today. 

As I'm sure you've noticed, I recently fell into the blogging abyss despite my promises to update more. I'm not even going to apologize. I was reading online that if you want to have a successful blog, you have to commit to posting at least two times per week. That will never happen. This blog may be mediocre at best!

Anyway, I've been eating, sleeping, and breathing a very important presentation for our company. We were shortlisted for a contract to provide biometric voters identification cards for the whole of Gambia through the Independent Electoral Commission in the country. Sounds great, huh? The only problem is that we were shortlisted along with the leading international producers of this technology. It was a true David and Goliath story. While we are very successful at what we do, we obviously are a small fry (for now) when compared to a company that has something that 700 million euros of revenue per annum. 

So, what did we do? PREPARE!

We did a full demonstration of our proposed techology: photograph, fingerprint scanning (in Africa? I know!), a customized database, electronic form scanning. We even created a wireless network to enable real-time projection of the database. Basically, we created the entire, customized system before we even saw a penny from it. And, we didn't stop there. My one-woman department stepped up to the plate in a way that it hadn't yet. We ran an advertisement insert in all the papers yesterday, created a testimonial video (I'll add the link once I get it on our website) for use in the presentation that kicked butt, created customized marketing collateral for all the attendees, spent hours on the powerpoint presentation (including having professional photography for use as graphics), and did so much research it made me feel like my head was going to explode.

We even went so far as to have custom-tailored outfits for our team (made by the wonderfully talented Mr. Modou Mbye) even though we decided not to use them at the last minute.

The presentation was this afternoon and I'm so happy that we did not have one single hiccup. There were about 50 people in attendance. I presented about our company profile and the CEO handled the technology solution. The Chairman of the task force making the decision told us during the question and answer period that our presentation was the best they've seen and there's only one more presentation left. 

Back at the office when our entire company was eating lunch together, our CEO told us that when he started the company seven years ago, he used to dream of the day that he would compete against leading international IT companies and be the best. I'm so proud that we were able to bring his dream to fruition together. 

Now, we still have a long way to go. There are many hurdles to climb and possibilities that the good ol' African corruption I'm coming to know more and more everyday might thwart our chances at success. But, I believe that the people making the decision will make the right one. If we get this contract, it could sustain and grow our company in so many ways. That is what I am realizing I want more a more. I want to create more job opportunities for Gambians. I want to help grow this company so that I am not even needed anymore as a skilled foreigner working there. I want to work for the company that is bringing biometric voting technology to the Gambia. When people line up to vote on election day, I want them to be proud that a Gambian company has given them one of the most advanced voting systems in Africa. No, make that the world.

But tonight I want to figure out what I'm going to have for dinner and then try to catch up on the sleep and time with my boyfriend that I've been sacrificing for the last month. I just wanted to record this happy moment and share it with whoever wants to read about it!

Miss you all!

A public relations nightmare

Just to give everyone an idea of what a Client & Marketing Manager is up against in The Gambia, let me relay a brief timeline:

Early November: Approached by Habibu Ceesay of Business Digest to write a feature article about Pristine Consulting for an IT special issue. I agree on the terms that Pristine is given prior review (I know hearing this hurts all those journalism junkie readers out there, but given the state of journalism in Gambia, I didn't dare trust them to print our information without me at least checking it for grammar and spelling first).

Mid November: Habibu shows up at the office unannounced with an old school cassette recorder to do an interview. Not a problem, I was already prepared with a media kit and digital photographs for his article. 

Early December: I read in the papers that Habibu passed away due to "stomache problems". This is really sad news because Habibu seemed to be a really sweet guy and a talented writer, both of which any country could use more of. I assume the obvious that our article has been moved from the production lineup.

Early January: Muhammed from Business Digest shows up at the office unannounced for another interview with another old school cassette recorder. I agree on the terms that Pristine is given prior review, a phrase I repeated about forty times during the course of the interview. I reprint the media kit, tell him one final time that I MUST see the article before it is printed, and give him my business card for any questions. 

Saturday, January 17, 2009: Muhammed calls my cell phone saying that he wants to email me the article, but he doesn't have my card anymore. He says it's urgent. My red flags go up. I scream into the phone: "EMAIL IT TO INFO@PRISTINECONSULTING.COM. DO NOT DO NOT DO NOT PRINT THE ARTICLE IN THIS WEEK'S EDITION. COME TO THE OFFICE ON MONDAY". Muhammed promises to come to the office on Monday to review the article. 

Monday, January 19, 2009: Muhammed never comes.

Tuesday, January 20, 2009: Muhammed never comes.

Wednesday, January 21, 2009: Muhammed comes to the office with 10 copies of this week's Business Digest, with a 3/4 page feature on "Pristine Consultancy is Microsoft Certified Partner in The Gambia" .

I look at the article and don't know whether I should laugh, cry, or run to my boss' office and beg to keep my job. 

Obviously, I work for Pristine Consulting, not Pristine Consultancy as the article says. We are an information technology company, not an intermission technology company as the article says. Not to mention the fact that I am quoted as saying: "we have the integrity and we are honest and we want to develop IT in The Gambia, by doing so, offer quality services and products to make sure that our clients are happy because we have the quality personnel".

Please. If I actually speak like that, shoot me. 

Then, I call the editor, explain who I am, and tell him that the CEO and myself would like to meet with him at 2:00 o'clock that very day to discuss the article. We are not happy. 

He shows up at 4:15, asks directly for the CEO although I was the one that called and interfaced with him. I retrieve him for the meeting and introduce myself. The CEO introduces me again. Then, the editor begins to explain what happened from his point of view (basically, the writer sucks even though the writer says the editor made him run the story) and the man refers to me as "this woman", even though he's been introduced to me three times already. 

It ended up that they'll correct the info in their next issue and write us a front page feature article when we bring our next product to market (with the promise of prior review, of course, hahahaha). And I learned a really really tough lesson: In Gambia, the best P.R. is a preprinted, predesigned, only-has-to-be-inserted-in-the-newspaper advertisement.

A different new year's resolution

When I drink my Nescafe instant coffee in the morning, I almost always look out the window of my balcony to a breathtaking view of a green ocean and remind myself that home is only an ocean away. I think that if I squint hard enough, the east coast will come into focus. 

My apartment complex is located where the Gambia River meets the Atlantic Ocean. Just a few steps down the beach of my apartment are several touristy hotels. Thus, the beaches are almost always loaded with  frolickers enjoying some relaxation time. The water is beautiful, but it's also very dangerous because it is where two bodies of water meet. The currents and waves are so powerful that even when you are standing shin-deep in water, your feet are buried deep in the sand in a matter of seconds. 

As you know, last week marked the celebration of another new year. Thanks to the President of the The Gambia, I had public holidays for both Thursday and Friday. You can bet that I was at the beach at least once a day, throwing around my new Life is Good frisbee with Modou courtesy of Miss Katherine Staley and thinking about all the things I want to accomplish in the next year.

I started stressing a bit because I had promised myself that I would only take one year away from school before starting grad work, which means that I should be applying to graduate schools as we speak. But, I still feel totally at a loss as to what I should study in grad school, so much so that I actually googled "what should I study in grad school?", hoping that google would miraculously answer the question of what I should do with my life.

Truth is, I like what I'm doing at work to a certain extent. I like the fast pace. I like interacting with people. I like the challenge of it. But I don't feel like this is the kind of job that I could work at for a long time and then look back and say that I really felt like I found my life's purpose and contentment with what I did. The real question then becomes, is that even achievable? Do many people feel like that when they look back on their life? Or, do many of us settle into the routine of whatever falls into our lap and make the best of it? I would like to think that the perfect job is out there and I just need to figure out what it is, but I also know that it is idealistic to think like that and I feel like I need to start accepting reality a bit more.  

At any rate, I was speaking first about New Year's resolutions and how easily I became wrapped-up in the stress of graduate school and life possibilities. I used to look out at the sea and contemplate those things, feeling like my life was as open as the sea before me. Little did I know that the very same sea that represented the openess of my life had just swallowed the life of two individuals about my age on the very weekend I was asking google to tell me what I should study in grad school. There is nothing like a life lost too soon to remind you just how fleeting all of it is.

I don't think I'll ever look at that ocean the same way again. Modou saw them carrying one of the bodies away from our favorite place to sit and chat and we had a long conversation about how important it is that we just enjoy every day we have together even as we plan and stress about our longterm future. 

How's that for a new year's resolution?

Hello again!

Geez, it's been way too long since my last post. October 15th? I can hardly even recall the events of the past two months because they've passed in such a blur so I won't even try to summarize them all in a boring list. No, I'm going even further to announce a new direction for Gambia Living. A rebranding if you will. I'm ready to chronicle my current life in a more real way and less "traveler's blog" way. The thing is, whenever I've wanted to blog in the last couple of months, I've always felt reticent to put my real thoughts on paper. Too many people know about this blog, people that I wouldn't really want to tell about my less glamorous day-to-day activities or frustrations with work or pathetic bouts of homesickness. I seriously considered shutting the blog down in general, thinking it's better to not do something at all than to do it improperly. 

But, a couple of weeks ago, Modou said something to the effect that I should "keep writing those things on the internet" because they "make me think" and I realized that the blog should continue for the forced introspection that it brings if nothing else. 

So, here goes. Gambia Living: Uncensored. Sorry that it means you have to log in to read my content. I'm in charge of public relations for my company, so I can't ethically keep it completely open and promise to write truthfully. Besides, what I'm sure it will amount to is the story of a young professional trying to make it work with someone she loves. Hopefully the setting of this story will make it worth logging into.

Until later...