Yusuf

 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 m

Live is going on. Live in the new city is a huge change for me. I never realized that one day I'll be working in SariPul Province. So far, I loved most of the things about the city. There is just the matter of price of living here. It is considerably expensive here; well, the rent not the food. Food is the same as in everywhere else in the country. Here I could not find some place cheaper, so I took a block for 4500 Afs per month ($50).  There is the matter of learning for me here, which is worth a lot more than just 50 bucks. I had three hours of online with our MEAL Manager in Kabul on Thursday. He discussed really useful topics about report writing. No one had taught me these stuff before, so I simply did not know any of the rules about writing a report. However, I learned some very good things which will help me a lot whenever I am writing a report or anything at all.  Yesterday, I went jogging outside my apartment. The streets around the building where I am staying here are pr

And Yet the Life Goes On I have been meaning to write for the last couple of months, but I never got the chance to do so. there is a lot of stuff I want to write about and I honestly do not know where to begin. Nevertheless, I am going to have to begin from somewhere, so here it is: In the last five months while I was working for Save the Children International, a lot of things happened. I got to meet with a lot of good and useful people; I had so much fun working with the FSL team in Andkhoy District of Faryab Province; I found so many good friends; I earned some money and I saved some for my higher education; I fell in love with a beautiful girl and got my heart broken by her; I traveled a lot and got to visit places that I had never before; I learned a lot of things from my supervisor M Alem Abrar, the kindest and the sweetest person in the world and at the end, I left it before even my contract was over.  Now I am with International Medical Corps in a new city far away from home. I

And it is yet to happen…   I want to write here a little bit about the events of the last couple of days. So turns out among three reference letters which were supposed to be sent to Save the Children International by the people who I had worked with previously, one had not been sent. It was from my school principal Abdul Rahim Timur. I have been waiting to receive a call from them and yet the reference check wasn’t finished for them to call me or proceed with the next step of their recruitment process.   After a lot of patience, I got really restless, so I texted the HR guy from SCI on Monday, two days ago, and asked him if everything was alright regarding my application, which was my way of saying what the heck happened dude, you are killing me here, I have been dying to receive a call from you and yet you never called. I was not expecting his response, not even remotely. He sent me this message, “Mr. Timur has not replied yet”. DARN! I was really furious at the time, I called hi

  Job interview at Save the Children International   The past three weeks have been extremely busy for me. A lot of things happened. I got four potential job offers and I took three of them. I got a surveyor’s job in MAAO (a national NGO). Later I realized that was not the job for me. I had to say no and leave the WhatsApp group they created for all the surveyors. I also got another job as an English teacher, which turns out to be quite enjoyable. I have been teaching English for the past three weeks at Aydin Yulduzlare Private School. One of the reasons why I turned down MAAO’s offer was that it did not seem reasonable to abandon school and all my students for a surveyor’s job. I just want to make it clear that the surveyor was actually a data-gathering job. I would have traveled to different districts of the province and find out about vulnerable people and record them back to the main office so that they would be considered for help. It all seems cool and good but it w

Written test yet for another job Yesterday I received a call stating that I have been shortlisted for the position of Surveyor in MAAO (a national NGO). I got happy to receive one phone call after applying for all those jobs for the last four months. I did not know what to read or prepare for. The position was for a surveyor; what kind of surveyor, I did not have the slightest clue. However, I knew that these NGO surveys are all being conducted through a mobile application called KoBo. I had downloaded a video about how it works a couple of days ago. I just watched that video twice and this morning went for the test almost empty handed.   They told me that the test will be at 9:00 A.M, but we did not get started with the test until it was half past ten. I had to wait for an hour and a half till they started calling names of applicants and organizing them in different rooms. Much to my surprise today was the coldest day of this winter so far. So I was really cold, my h

Fifth week of unsuccessful attempt for acquiring a passport Today was the fifth Saturday, I tried to apply for passport. Five weeks and I still could not been able to even submit my application for the damn thing. Truth be told, I am completely and utterly lost. I don’t know what to do. With these religious fanatics in power nothing seems to have order now in the country. I wake up at 5:30 this morning and was already on my way to the passport department at 6:30 A.M. I arrived there around seven and waited in the line until half past ten. It was extremely crowded and messy. It seemed like the whole city has gathered there to get passport. The passport department is supposed to start its operations at 8 O’clock in the morning. However, the person in charge of the department arrives at nine with in his fancy vehicle, followed by another car as some sort of security. They would not start operation until boss takes a shower and has some long breakfast. At least that’s what