A New Job...

Yesterday I bit the bullet and advertised my blog to the world (to be more accurate, I emailed my friends about it and asked them to have a look!). Today, therefore, I thought it might be an idea to update said blog with some blog-worthy news. Although most people know this, I have joined the world of part-time work!

I had initially thought that I would take a few months off to really get to know Beirut, learn Arabic, and generally wind down from the intellectual powerhouse that was benefit fraud and error. However, events have a strange way of overtaking oneself, and I started work on Tuesday!

I think it is fair to say that I wouldn't have taken the job for the sake of having one. The work I am doing is interesting, and the work of the organisation itself is very worthwhile. I am a part time speechwriter, editor, media and PR strategist (I made that title up!) for the Lebanon office of the International Orthodox Christian Charities. Although it is a Christian charity, the work it does is purely humanitarian in nature and it serves both Muslim and Christian communities. Its work in Lebanon mainly consists of ensuring that children in the elementary public schools receive nutritious meals and undertaking capacity building work to ensure that when the charity completes its projects, the parents, teachers and children themselves are sufficiently well educated about the importance of healthy eating and a balanced diet. Jamie Oliver hits the Levant, you might say!!!

Anyway, the work is really interesting and pretty innovative. The charity works closely with the University of Balamand faculty of Health Sciences who provide a lot of the educational material, and I visited the University today to listen to a lecture being provided by an Educational Psychologist on how to set up effective Parent Teacher Associations. I say listen, I went and stood at the back and listened to a lecture in Arabic. For all I know she could have been lecturing on Pop Idol! I was assured by my colleague, however, that the lecture was very interesting and relevant. For example, children are currently able to buy food in schools, but the shops are often owned by friends of the Principal, or Directors of the school. They are really only interested in making a profit and the food is not cheap. The PTA, when established, because it has to be independent of the Directors/Principal etc, will be able to lobby for healthier snacks to be brought into the school without any conflict of interest. Make sense? Anyway, that is one of the empowerment activities that is being undertaken at present.

Another reason that I took the job was that I am the only ex-pat in the organisation. Hopefully as a result I will make lots of Lebanese friends and get to know more about the country. Finally, my job will involve going to visit schools and reporting on the work of the organisation. This means that I will get to see parts of Lebanon that I would not normally visit - and the less wealthy parts too.

All this will be achieved between 8am and 12noon Monday to Friday. Vive le part time work!!! Oh, and it is a Bank Holiday on Tuesday too!!

More information on the work of the IOCC can be found at http://www.iocc.org. There isn't much to see about the Lebanon work as yet. Maybe in my strategic/media role, I will see if I can update the country page...

Right, off to get some rest. I was up till 2am playing darts. I love darts!