Last days with International Medical Corps-Afghanistan

 Last days with International Medical Corps-Afghanistan 

So, these are my last days with IMC-Afghanistan. I joined IMC, at the beginning of July-2022. And I had intended to stay, at least for a year. However, turns out I was not going to stay in Sar-e-Pul city for long; fate had something different for me. I was able to be accepted into World Vision International-Afghanistan, as a Monitoring and Evaluation Officer in my own home city. The written test for the position was, like two months ago. I don't know why they took so much time to conduct their interviews. Since I was not able to attend the interview in person, I requested them if they would take my interview through Skype, and luckily they agreed. My interview went well, you know, like not really well, but well enough. It seemed that my co-applicants' were not as good as mine. A day after my interview I received a call from WVI-Afghanistan country office in Herat city. The guy, who introduced himself as HR Officer, told me that I have been successful and that I need to send them my references. I called my line manager from Save the Children International right away. I told him that I had beaten the Jalal Abadi( Farhad Qazizda. He was a colleague of mine in SCI from a southern city of Afghanistan. He is one the nicest people I have ever met. He had also been shortlisted for the position and we attended the written test together. He is currently with SCI in Faryab Province).

     Two days later they sent me my offer later, which I am not going to lie, was really impressive! Their monthly salary scale was as high as my supervisor's in SCI-Afghanistan. I replied to their email saying that I accept their offer gladly and I will try to be as useful as I can to the organization. 

    Telling my line manager here in IMC-Afghanistan was the hard part. I did not know how to tell them that I am planning to leave the organization after just four weeks of employment. Nonetheless, I had to let them know and after gathering a lot of courage, eventually, I did. Their response surprised me. There was no anger, no disappointment, especially IMC's site manager here in Sar-e-Pul province, Dr. Khalilullah Khalil. I thanked him for being so understanding and supportive. He told me that I should be wherever is better for me. That I should think about myself, and my development. So, I officially resigned and they accepted my resignation. 

    In the beginning, I mentioned my joining date with World Vision International would be on August 11, 2022, and I told IMC's HR that August 10, will be my last day. However, then WV's HR insisted that they need the Monitoring and Evaluation Officer faster and there are a lot of tasks have been pending. Therefore, I had another challenge to overcome. This time I needed to tell my line manager in IMC that I am changing my leaving date, which had already been approved by the country office. This time around also, Dr. Khalil acted professionally and supported my decision. Every step of this recruitment process, I have been both excited and upset. I am excited because I was getting this incredible job with a great salary scale, and I am upset because, this is forcing me to leave such an amazing supervisor, who would have taught me a lot of technical and managerial skills, had I stayed longer. 

There are also the MEAL manager and MEAL Coordinator in the country office, who have supported me a lot over the course of my employment with IMC-Afghanistan, especially, Mr. Hanif Alemi, the MEAL Manager, who taught me quite a few things and encouraged me to boost my capacity and learn new things. I am really going to miss him a lot. I don't think I would ever find such a line manager again. He is very kind to me and it is hard to tell him that I am leaving the organization despite of everything he has done for me. I wish circumstances were different. But no one could predict what is going to happen next in the country. Right now I have to earn as much money as I could and get the hell out as fast as I could. Inshallah, in a year or two I will apply for my master's degree somewhere in Europe. I am really hoping to be successful in getting admission and visa. 

Today is Tuesday and two days later, Thursday is going to be my last day here in this incredible office. These days are very hard for me to pass. I can't concentrate on my tasks anymore. My mind keeps wondering about lots and lots of things. I am writing this post; so that I would be able to concentrate for a while. Yesterday I read a book all day; because I wanted to distract myself from overthinking. I think I am getting homesick. It is not like I like my home or city or something, but I just can't seem to figure out why I am feeling the way I am. 

    To sum it up, I have only 2 more days with IMC-Afghanistan, and I am not happy about it. I met some of the most supportive and amazing people here. And I am most certainly going to miss each and every one of them. I am looking forward to rejoining IMC someday in the future, maybe this time for a higher and better position. I will work hard on my capacity building in World Vision, Inshallah, to make myself worthy of a better position. 

    On a completely different note, 

last week I received a call from an unknown number. When I asked who was it, the caller said, "Did you delete my number?". I recognized her voice. I was stunned, I didn't know what to say. I told her of course I did. There was no point in saving your phone number anymore. I asked her why she called me, and she said "first of all congratulations on your new job, secondly, I need a resume template, and I would appreciate it if you could send me one?". I told her that I have been waiting for your call for the past two months and now you are calling me for a resume template?! Are you serious? Now that I think about it, I might have sounded a little angry there. There were a lot of mixed feelings inside me at that moment. I was feeling happy, angry, excited, and sad all at the same time. I told her that I will send her a couple of resumes, and she can choose among them for herself. I was really impressed by how maturely she was acting after all the things we have been through. We said goodbyes after just a couple of minutes; because frankly, there was nothing to talk about anymore. That night I sent her like a hundred CV templates, and that was that. I have not heard from her again. There is a part of me that wishes that she should stop calling me entirely. Being stuck in one place is not a good feeling. She is moving on with her life, and I think I deserve to do the same with mine. However, I would not be able to do that if she keeps ringing my phone once in a while.  

May this never happen to anybody else,

Best regards, 

Faramarz Majedi