Mel’s news!

A few weeks ago I was on the phone to my contact at VSO and she asked, ‘does your partner have marketing skills and would she like a job?’.. which was altogether I think the strangest start to an interview process Mel has ever had. The job was to take on the position in Pursat being vacated by the person whose house we have taken on - she had decided to go back home to Kenya as her young daughter kept getting ill and she couldn’t bear to be so far away.

Anyway I explained that Mel’s marketing experience was fairly limited but would they consider her anyway, which was fine. So we sent off her CV and a couple of days later we heard that they really liked the CV and she had been approved from the VSO side, so the funding for Mel’s position was there, and the final step was for the NGO Mel was to be placed with to rubber stamp the deal.

We were still waiting to hear when we went to have a look around the organisation during a few days we had in Pursat town, away from the language training. Mel and I both (for different reasons) went to meet the whole organisation, and to our astonishment in front of the entire staff of the organisation it was quite casually announced: ‘actually the board has approved your post, when can you start’… So it was jubiliation all round on the way home.

When we got back to Phnom Penh a few days later I set about arranging a surprise party for Mel, which was no mean feat given we were living in each other’s pockets. I barely had the opportunity to send the few surreptitious texts to my partners in crime – a few of Mel’s friends here who I’d roped in to help me out. On the appointed day of the party, however, we happened to share a ride with the head of VSO Cambodia, Alice, on our way to meet the British Ambassador (interesting guy, but that’s another story). We happened to mention Mel’s new position and her face dropped and she explained that there had been a mix-up in communication and that the funds for Mel’s post had already been allocated elsewhere so it was quite possible it might not go ahead after all. Our heart’s sank – mine not least thinking of all the effort everyone had put into arranging the party. But I had to call it off and we went for quiet ‘cheer-up-Mel’ drinks instead.

Well to cut a long story short, some four weeks of waiting later it all went through, the money was found from somewhere, still not quite sure of all the details but Mel started two days ago, and so far seems to be going really well. Is quite a stretch for Mel as it’s pretty different work to anything she’s ever done before – but she came to Cambodia looking for a change of direction… and she’s certainly got that!