Crazy Catch-up 4/4

Staffing Changes.

Here at Sangam, staff changes are a frequent occurence in terms of the volunteers and interns. I've often commented on how strange it must be for the career staff to see us passing through and our time here having so much of an impact on us, whereas they're just carrying on as normal. This happens on another scale as well when participants or guests are really affected by a week or 10 days here, yet really they're just passing through our lives.

Anyway, at the moment we're going through some more major changes, and it's definitely adding to the craziness that's about to start.

Donna, who has been World Centre Manager for 3 years, has just finished her post, and she and her husband Sean are moving out of Sangam at the end of the month. They're off to start something new and exciting in China. Donna's replacement is our very own Jen; until now Programme Manager and my line manager. Here are Jen, Mina doing English-Marathi translation for the benefit of local staff, and Donna during the ceremony at Donna's leaving picnic:

 And here are some of the local staff playing cricket, also at the picnic. It was a really lovely afternoon with food, games, cricket, badminton, frisbee etc. A nice way to start the multiple send-offs that Donna's had to attend!

As well as the gap Jen has left by moving into Donna's position, Gwen who is Assistant Programme Manager flies home to Malaysia this week for a holiday and to renew her visa. This leaves noone in the Programme Management side of things! So while she is away, Mina (Community Relations Manager) will be Acting Programme Manager, and in the next 2 events, first I and then Jessica will be Acting Assistant Programme Manager! Scary stuff. We've spent quite a bit of time over the last month learning exactly what it is that Gwen does, and having her show us spreadsheets and folders and asking where does she keep this, how far in advance do she do that, etc. I think I'm ready; technically I'm already 'Gwenning' (technical term!) so we'll see how it goes. I certainly know what it is I need to do, whether I'll remember it all on top of my SV duties is yet to be seen, but I think these next 2 crazy events will prove how well the family of Sangam staff pulls together as a team and helps each other out.

There is also another hole in my Sangam family that is impossible to fill. Net and Ellen have gone. Although I'm now part of a great new SV team and get on really well with Steph and Emily, it's not the same. It never could be, nor would I want it to be exactly the same, but this leaves me feeling sad. Net and Ellen were the ones who got us through our first event after training. They were the ones who talked me through things I didn't understand, praised me, told me off, took care of me when I was ill, and befriended me. I'm making this sound really stupidly sentimental, but it's difficult to explain how well the 4 of us (me, Jess and the abandoners!) gelled together both at work and socially.

As I write this, I'm realising that perhaps I wrote more about these changes in a previous post than I thought I did. So I shall stop here. But I have one final photo for you; it is of Net and Ellen being as crazy as ever, playing on the climbing frame at the end of Donna's picnic, in order to complete their Sangam Challenge!

Crazy Catch-up blogs now officially completed. Today was the first day of the event and ran smoothly. A sign of good things to come, I think. Tomorrow I have a day off and will be either relaxing or panicking about work, depending on the moment.

TTFN