Monday – interviews

Monday

We had a lazy Sunday, but were back in business mode today as we had interviews to recruit a new child outreach coordinator.

The walk through the slum always has surprises. Today I liked the ducklings paddling in a very muddy puddle in the middle of the path. Rachel had the honour of being escorted by one of the small children, she had a very sticky hand, but it is difficult to refuse as they look so pleased to be friends with a ‘Muzungu’ (white person).

We were due to meet Pastor Alfred at 9:30 to coordinate questions, ready to start interviews at 10:00. He arrived at 10:40 very apologetically (‘I had a long line of families at my door asking for their children to be admitted to the programme’). We began at 11:30, the candidates were all waiting, sat nervously on blue plastic chairs under the mango tree.

I am pleased to report that the process was quite formal, with agreed questions and scoring system. We interviewed four candidates, finishing around 2:30. There was a primary school teacher (who avoided the questions and could not say why he wanted the job), a bright new graduate who looked like Will Smith (he was doing volunteer work at the HIV Centre and was getting up at 5:30 to make Chaptis to earn money), an impressive social worker who could not summarise her career history (she had raised three children on her own and had come by motorbike taxi from 8 miles away), and a chap with a diploma in social work (but was working as a security guard). You can guess who we appointed and we probably did not need to spend 40 minutes with each candidate, but it is important to follow due process. Rachel and I are very excited as we think he (Silvest) will be excellent, as he is an ex-Compassion sponsored child and has a real heart for childrens work.

As we walked down to Alfred’s for lunch I looked back, the cook was washing up the pans. Her two small children were playing outside. She was singing quietly and was clearly enjoying her work, even though she must be paid just a few pounds for s very long day. Perhaps she was content in having a secure regular income, but it seemed more than that.

Outside the gate there were a mix of boys and girls playing football, another group were training by jogging round the outside of the pitch. There was a real sense of community. Even though I come for just a few weeks of the year, I am pleaded to be a part of this.