A little less cryptic
So a bit more on the cryptic post of yesterday. With a little background first.
India was perhaps an opportunity to run away. Itchy feet because of friends going and working overseas. A shaky time at work. Church being painful and exhausting. Singleness and a new year. Plus, I saw an opportunity to work overseas with skills that I already have.
Every time a friend ups and disappears to Africa or Asia for months and years at a time, I wonder, should I go? I look at Christian agencies, and realise I generally can’t afford them. And am also not sure if I want to pay to go and volunteer - surely that’s not what volunteering’s about? But anyway. So I usually end up looking at VSO. And getting depressed because I have no skills they want. I’m not a teacher or a doctor or a nurse or a dietician or… Or anything they want. In fact, when I had my interview with Oasis, I struggled to come up with anything other than I could do the admin and I like kids.
Aside from that, I find myself wondering what kind of career I could have that, should I ever get to that stage in my life where kids happen and I want to work part time, would work around family. And that is a little more grown up than being an administrator. Though I do a bit more than the average office administrator, I’m a little bit stuck - Jo of all trades, master of none.
A few months ago I was seeing in the news articles about a shortage of midwives, and wondered to myself if maybe I should look at re-training. Then decided I wouldn’t.
TEFL has been another option - train to teach English to non-native English speakers, either here or overseas. Loads of opportunities.
So Saturday night I was out with a group of friends, one of which has taught TEFL in Prague. And I, off the cuff said, ‘Maybe I should learn to teach TEFL’. And thought nothing more of it.
Whilst on the train on the way back to my friends’ house where I was staying the night, she said to me something along the lines of this:
“When you said you thought you should learn TEFL, I wondered if maybe you should become a midwife.”
That’s weird, I thought. Nobody had been talking about kids, giving birth or midwives at all during the meal. So I said: “That’s weird, I’d thought about that a few months ago.”
She then went on to explain that she had a friend who had trained with the idea being to work overseas, not here in the UK.
I just think that’s a little bit weird, so I’ve asked her to get in touch and see if I could meet or even shadow on of her midwife friends to find out a bit more about it. And I’ve just finished printing out the careers leaflet.
This is another door. It doesn’t mean that India is out of the picture. But it could mean that. Certainly in the short-term it would. Training is a 3 or 4-year degree. And would cost a bomb! But as with all of these things, if God wants it to happen, He will make a way. And if not, He will close the door.
So I’m pushing at another door.
