One weekend, I was sitting in the small living room of my equally small house. I was feeling a little down reflecting on how my fellowship year was turning out after four months. Things were not going as I had expected; at this juncture, job satisfaction and morale were generally low, not only on my part, but in all team members. Job satisfaction and morale were low on my part because what ended up being my job description had very little to do with M&E. One of the big reasons I joined the fellowship (I only applied for this one position at my current placement) was that I wanted to sharpen my M&E skills, but clearly this was not happening.
But my thoughts and feelings of disappointment were quickly replaced by those of gratitude. William and Mine decided to pay me a surprise visit this very weekend. Their primary aim was to investigate why I was so withdrawn from everyone else and also see what they could do for me. I am glad and grateful that they paid me this surprise visit. I was grateful because their visit showed me that they deeply cared for me. But this also reminded me about how a community should be defined-a place where everyone cares about everyone’s welfare.
But another reason I was (and I still am) grateful that the two Fellows visited me when they did, is the illustration that Mine shared with me after patiently and attentively listening to my troubles. She compared developing a strong career to a stack of pencils. It is certainly very easy to snap a single pencil by hand but more effort is required as the number of pencils increases until it virtually impossible to snap the pencils. In like manner, strong performers in a work environment have picked up different skills (or “pencils”) along their career path. She advised me that having different types of “pencils” not just M&E, will make me very marketable and job secure. “Having a narrow set of skills (few “pencils”) just makes it easy for some to break you” she said. This advice did a lot to improve my morale over the course of the fellowship.
As I embark on a new tour of duty after the fellowship, I am even more grateful that Mine gave me that advise. In my new role at EGPAF, the scope of my new job goes way beyond M&E and it includes different types of pencils to get the project done. I will have to be a chameleon of some sorts.