It's been a good week and I'm learning a lot. There are some aspects of the job that seem very familiar at first sight, but then turn out to be quite different (like the staff appointment process) and there are other things that are surprising, but then turn out to be very recognisable after all (like arriving at work today and finding everyone in traditional dress - it turns out that it is dress down Friday). The secretary has offered to take me to the tailor to have a shirt made for next week..
The Ministry of Health is under great pressure to reduce the time between a job advert being placed and someone taking up the post. It can currently take years, by which time newly qualified staff have often gone elsewhere. I've been doing a process map with the personnel staff this week and it's not hard to see why it takes so long, with approval of every appointment involving 2 Ministries plus the Public Services Commission. I'm not sure how possible it might be to change yet. It seems the controls were put in place to reduce the risk of corruption so there are a lot of concerns about losing central control.
In general feel I'm finding the groove now. Each day gets a bit easier; the journey to work is simply a matter of timing, and there's plenty of good natured banter to make the time pass (I shared a taxi this morning with someone whose son lives in Arabella Street in Cardiff). The humidity has also dropped and the weather today has been great. I've arranged to meet with some others for a beer at the beach in a while, though from where I'm sitting, I can see some grey clouds in the distance, so we may be rained off. This is just the tail end of the rainy season so its quite changeable - Sierra Leonians, seem to talk about both traffic and the weather, just as much as the Brits!
