The BE BOLD project memoirs...Day 1

Nov 2nd

It’s the first day of me coming back to Ghana to live the BE BOLD project initiative. I’m feeling a mixture of tired, enthusiastic, courageous, spontaneous and bold. Yes BOLD! Why? Because it’s NOT THAT EASY! Simply put we all know how scary it can be coming down to Ghana to work for the very first time. I mean I just graduated and although the economy in Canada has not been the best place to find a job, I’m certain I would have found one if I tried just a little harder. Then I would be able to pay my rent, phone bill, food, eat out here and there and maybe even save a little something or NOT! I don’t know about you but I’m the biggest spendthrift ever so saving close to nothing might as well be nothing at all. It was a very big decision, but It’s only the first day and so far I feel like I just made the BEST decision of my life. Here’s why. Recently INEN Organized started working on their new project called the BE BOLD project. BE BOLD stands for Bringing Education and Building Opportunity for Leadership and Development. I’ll tell you more about the project later because right now I’m giving you the rundown of my first day experience of this initiative. You see I’m not the best of writers; in fact I despise writing diaries because well my siblings used to be the kind that never respected anyone’s privacy when we were younger so I never went past “dear diary”. This right here is necessary though. I hope to share my experiences with you through the most important events that happen henceforth specifically concerning making that move to your home country for work. If I’m going to be starting a movement (BE BOLD) to bring all Africans home I might as well live it myself right? Feel free to ask any questions or share your concerns right here with me. I plan to interview others and hopefully include some pictures in here.

Day 1

I arrived last night and I have a meeting at 3pm with the job I have been following up with since I was in Canada. A good friend of mine (bless her) referred me to them and so I sent them my resume and got an assignment a couple weeks later. My assignment was to write a proposal for a task (which ended up being 15 pages long !) and a 10 page PowerPoint slide outlining specific details of my resume that pertain to the job description all in 2 days. The proposal part was the hardest because I also had to include a budget for the event that I was organizing and in Ghana we don’t have a lot of prices just sprawled over the internet. People won’t reply your emails either! So I decided to call everyone to get the price quotes. It was hectic but I managed to do the best with it. Luckily they were happy and gave me a phone interview which I also had to call them for. YES YES I called them for it! Interview went great! In fact I was hinted at that I got the job! So I packed my belongings and said ASTALAVISTA BABY I’m off to Ghana!

Got here and had the interview at 3pm. I arrived there thinking it was me coming to sign papers and and finalize my pay, but NOOO it was another 3 hour interview. GUYS I have never been grilled so much by any company before!! Before I even finished what I was saying he would ask a rebuttal. It was the boss so if I wasn’t confident I would definitely have stuttered out of nervousness. Wheeeew! Then I was also sent to another supervisor who grilled me some more and told me he doesn’t like to work with women!!! So I convinced him that I can do the job. Lastly I was given a 1hour and 30 minutes aptitude test! INTENSE! Math questions, English questions and computer skills test! ALL ON THE SPOT ALL IN ONE DAY. Expecting a phone call by Wednesday. Meanwhile I’m sending off more applications out to banks and working on my business plan for INEN Organized Ghana and of course the BE BOLD project this Christmas. Wish me luck.