In a fragile society like ours( African societies), finding a job is increasingly difficult. Oftentimes, we are hard hit with unbearable economic conditions, inevitable uncertainties, ugly edge of hopelessness, dismay, enwrapped with nimbus of disappointment. Daymare of joblessness greets us each passing day. This is exactly where we are now. In a place between hope and hoping against hope, between what has been and what is possible, between decidability and deducibility. All lies in our quest to find our individualised niche..

 

 

So on 18th May, 2012, I left the school world into the world of uncertainty. A very challenging world. Landed on a job on 19th May, 2012 as an amateur teacher in Etoile Royale. I had and needed to make myself productive for the service of this noble institution.. I would be in school by 6:00am and close between 4:00 to 5:00pm. It was my first time. So, I felt I had left a familiar world behind me and needed to adapt to this new world I now found myself. I did what I could under the circumstance.

 

 

A month or two later, there was a demonstration in the school. The staff went on strike demanding increment in salary. Meanwhile I had at the time pledged to render my services free of charge. During the demonstration, there was so much workload on me as I had to take up other lessons(subjects). Beyond that I needed to stand in for the position of an accountant. This was the position I dreaded most because I was just a high school graduate with no background in accounting.

 

 

Post the demonstration, new crop of workers were employed. The staff was restructured. We worked together as a team with the philosophical underpinning of total care, total education and excellence.

 

 

As time wore on, I was made the staff secretary. This sent cold fingers of fear down my spine. A shadow of fear that I cannot put into words. A high school graduate in the midst of professional teachers being made a staff secretary?!  Fear and doubt about my competence/ capability rode me like a jockey. I have never been a secretary in any association before but here was I to perform that role. After my first task one of my co-workers, Mr Jeremie Atakpa walked up to me and said, "that was marvelous. Keep it up "

 

 

I worked in this institution for one and half years, during which my employer insisted I get paid for all the months that I haven't been paid. I got paid and got extra money from my extra classes duty too which supported my university education.

 

It may sound easy but it wasn't easy.. There were moments my personal demon sat on my shoulders in his gray business suit and a fedora, and whispered in my ear to quit, to give up. But with grim determination, I persevered and persevered to the latter. As I write, I can never be unemployed. My service is always needed in this institution. Anytime, any day!

Dear cherished reader(s), I leave you with these reflective words :

" I do not know what I appear to the world, but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on a seashore, and diverting myself now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whiles the great ocean of truth lay undiscovered before me"

We have within us what it takes to be the best of ourselves to make this world a better place.

 

With this, Solidage Africa Foundation draws the curtains on "Youth Empowerment Campaign ".

 

SAF, making Africa a better place for all!

 

 

John Bosco Zielley writes from SAF--GHANA

(Author and Editor at SAF)