Paul

When flying back over the Atlantic, I apparently had an organisation phone me in Peru and invite me to take part in a pre-interview by phone. Given that I was never going to get that message, it was fortunate that they followed it up a few days later with an email. The pre-interview came around and I did enough, it seems, for them to invite me to a final interview and assessment day. That was Tuesday. Late on Wednesday afternoon I got a call to say that I have a job!!!! I’m soon to become (on the 17th of October) a Country Programme Manager for World Vision UK. Having started to apply for jobs in April and got nowhere, the timing of this job couldn’t have been more perfect. In fact, we’ve just seen God’s hand at work throughout the whole application process.

For the uninitiated, World Vision is the largest grassroots development charity in the world; a massive organisation working in nearly a hundred countries, with their main focus being work with and for children. The UK office is responsible for fundraising and obtaining grants to run programmes in countries all around the world through the national offices in those countries. My job will be to manage the relationship between the UK office and the national offices in Bolivia and Honduras and make sure that UK-funded projects in those countries are running smoothly. I will mainly be working out of the Head Office in Milton Keynes, but with frequent trips to these countries to meet and build relationship with the people there and see the work on the ground for myself.

Rachel and I are now beginning the process of looking for somewhere to rent in Milton Keynes.

We got a lovely send off at the station (despite the early start) and thoroughly enjoyed the trip down to Lima on the second highest train route in the world. It was a familiar route, since it largely follows the road, but much more slower-paced which gives you more time to appreciate the stunning views.

As a final send off and to get in with the Peruvian custom of throwing a baby shower whilst they still could, our friends David and Charito and Cesar organised a lovely evening with a few friends that we thought we’d share with you.

I got back late last night and immediately I’m back in the thick of things with a length meeting this afternoon to further discuss the ramifications of my ex-boss’s retirement. There is going to be so much to do over the next 2 weeks before we leave for Lima!!

More paperwork surprises – I managed to beat my record from 2 days ago and was in and out the government office inside 2 minutes with the bit of paper in my hand saying that we are free to leave the country. Now just the question remains of what we’re heading back to. Job searching continues, but it’s highly competitive. I managed to get feedback from one of my unsuccessful applications and was told that my application was excellent, but I was 1 of 117 candidates!!

Whilst waiting for documents to be processed, I went down to Chincha today to say our goodbyes to the folk down there. I got to see nearly everyone I hoped to see as I did my rounds. Generally, folk were sad to hear that we were leaving, but very excited to hear about Rachel’s pregnancy. I also got to spend some time with our friends whose marriage is in tatters. Time was short and it’s still in tatters, but at least I was able to have a frank talk with the husband and gave him some things to think about. He has promised to come back to me on the points I raised and has started reading a book (minor miracle!) which should help him understand himself better. We finished the day off with Chinese take away, during which my taxi-driving friend, Daniel (known as Biry Biry) presented me with two replica football shirts – one of Peru and one of Allianza, his team – which was a lovely gesture.

Down in Lima again in order to take our volunteer, Francesca, back to the airport (successfully done) and get started on the lengthy (why doesn’t that surprise me?!) paperwork process to leave the country next month. I was pleasantly surprised today though to find that I was able to pay  the administration fee and hand in all the bits of paper within 5 minutes and that there were no nasty surprises, like needing 5 different documents stamped in triplicate on top of the ones I was submitting.

So, today marks the 12 week mark in terms of Rachel’s pregnancy!!!! It’s more high risk being in the high altitude (if you weren’t born there) and Rachel has been told that she can’t leave the altitude until at least week 15, but scans show that the baby is developing well. We have managed to make friends with the top gynaecologist in the area (it’s great – we get free consultations and he takes us out for meals!!) and are getting excellent treatment. We’ve already had a couple of scans done, with the photo below taken at 10 weeks and 4 days old. Apparently, baby size hardly varies around the world until the baby has 20 weeks, so our gynaecologist was very surprised to discover that the baby was already over 12 weeks in terms of size, even in a land where Paul is considered a giant!!

It finished a couple of weeks ago now, but we still thought we should share with you the joy which was the large-scale 4 days and nights party in our park. All this footage was shot from our flat…

Video: Party In Our Park

Yesterday, my boss and the President of the charity here, announced his decision to retire. He’ll be around to help smooth the transition, but has relinquished control with immediate effect. This means that I have suddenly got very, very busy and helping sort of the future of the work here has to take precedence over the stove project. I’ll still try and get out occasionally to a finish a few off, but I won’t be able to do them all myself before I leave as well.

© 2023 Paul and Rach Elliston Suffusion theme by Sayontan Sinha