Expats Beware: Zambia-Part 5
The Final Countdown
Well, it’s time to bring this train into the station. I’m going to wrap it up with some chat about the Job itself which was also quite challenging. Not going to be easy to inject any humour here but I will do my best.
I was appointed as the Commodity Contracts Manager in the Materials Management Department. A sizeable department with 4 main areas of operation, namely my area, Service Contract Management, Daily Buying and Stores.
My brief was to source the best Suppliers, negotiate pricing and other terms, and conclude long-term contracts.
I was given a local Zambian guy as my assistant and he was brilliant. When I left (more about my leaving later), I recommended him for my post, but I don’t think that happened.
When I started, there were only half a dozen functioning contracts. When I left (a year later), there were well over 100, so I believe that I succeeded rather well. One of the measures that bears out my opinion is that the workload in daily buying dropped by about 30%. When I joined, there were 10 people in the buying department. When I left, that had been reduced to 6.
In the meantime my wife had had more than enough of the considerable challenges that we had faced and went home after about 6 months. I didn’t blame her one bit and, in fact, envied her, but work is work.
About 6 months later, Vonnie was attacked in our house in Johannesburg by 4 armed men, and I rushed home for a week. The following link details the horror of her experience:
On the day of my return I was asked to leave as management considered that “my heart was not really in it”.
So home I went.
As a matter of interest, within 6 months of my departure, the Manager who asked for my resignation was fired. Some poetic justice perhaps?
I did warn you that there would not be much humour in this last installment.
Did anything good come out of all this?
I thought you would never ask.
While we were there we managed to get ourselves a Pointer puppy from the CFO. She was the only highlight of my first stab (ouch) at Expat work.
In fact, when I left Zambia, I took her with me, and she was much loved by the whole family for the following 15 years. Sadly, she passed last year.
And yes, that is her photo that adorns this Post!!!!
Links to the first 4 stories in this sad saga:
Thanks for reading. Any comments would be more than welcome.
