Introduction

First of all, the title of this blog is deceptive; the only thing that's true is that I'm in Kenya. I'm not on a 'gap' - I'm still doing my regular job,  and I'm not here for a year. But since I never had a 'gap year' and a change is as good as a break, I'm calling this my gap year. 

A bit about me

My name is Ebere. I'm on the right side of 45 ( so right, I've started planning my 50th birthday!); I'm a women, correction, I'm a Phenomenal Woman (see why http://www.oprah.com/spirit/Phenomenal-Woman-by-Maya-Angelou; http://youtu.be/VeFfhH83_RE); mother to the most amazing daughter anyone could pray for; wife to a very long-suffering husband; a public health physician; and a stage mum (did I mention that said amazing daughter acts, sings and dances?).   

Why am I in Kenya?

I'm still asking myself that question! But here's how I got here. This is a long story, over 2 decades in the making. You might wish to skip ahead a bit. 

I've been a public health physician now for coming up to 20 years, working almost entirely in Yorkshire, the best county in England! I, like many other expatriates in Britain,  had a 'five year plan'.  In fact, I've had many '5 year plans'. You may guess from my name that I'm not a born Yorkshire lass, I'm a Londoner! Actually, I was born in London to Nigerian parents of Igbo ethnicity and spent most of my formative years in igboland in South East Nigeria, so awum onye Igbo. But I digress, back to the 5 year plan. 

 

My first '5 year plan' started right after graduating from medical school; I was going to spend a few years in specialist training in internal medicine in the U.S. or the UK. Three of those 5 years went according to plan in the UK (I also got married, which wasn't in the plan, but was a fantastic bonus). Then I realised that I actually didn't want to spend my life in internal medicine and I had no idea what I wanted to do. I resigned from my training programme! I did locums for a while and decided to study for the Diploma in Tropical Medicine & Hygiene from the Liverpool school of Tropical Medicine while deciding on an alternative career. During that course, I was introduced to community medicine and communicable disease control and I found my professional home. 

Second 5 year plan - specialise in communicable disease control. Again, this went more or less according to plan, with the added bonus of becoming a mother along the way (did I mention my amazing daughter?). Qualified as a consultant in communicable disease control and have worked in this field ever since. 

There was a third 5 year plan which was to take my public health skills and work in international health. That plan was suspended so I could be mum to said amazing daughter. So third 5 year plan stayed on the back burner for over a decade. Amazing daughter is now getting ready to fly the nest, so a year ago, I dusted off 5 year plan no 3 and decided to work towards getting into international health:

Step 1: Spring 2014, I went back to the place where I had my first career 'eureka moment' the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (it's an amazing institution see http://www.lstmliverpool.ac.uk) and applied for the international health consultancy course, directed by the wonderful Dr Vicki Doyle (http://www.lstmed.ac.uk/learning-teaching/lstm-courses/short-courses/mg01-international-health-consultancy//).

Step 2: Get the family's support. That was amazingly easy! Husband said 'what took you so long, you've talked about it long enough'; daughter said 'go for it mummy!'

Step 3: Stop procrastinating Ebere (have I said how brilliant I am at procrastination?)  and make a public commitment! At TedXeuston (surely everyone knows about TedXEuston http://tedxeuston.com , curated by my brothers from another mother Chikwe Ihekweazu & Ike Anya?) I committed to move work in international health on the African continent within the next 5 years (5 year plan no 4). 

Now, moving into international health is not easy when you are not in the first flushes of youth and would rather not work for peanuts - I have responsibilities, bills (did I mention amazing daughter is an actor? somebody has to feed her ...). Jobs available at entry level don't pay much if at all and higher paid jobs want people with 10 years experience in international health. So I bought a lottery ticket and hoped to win enough to take an unpaid job. Shock- horror, I did not win the lottery!! Just as I was about to give up in despair, my current employer advertised an internal secondment to work in global health with the opportunity to work in Africa or the Caribbean. I applied - first job application in over 10 years (thank you Vicki and Emma from LSTM for the CV writing tips) and I got the secondment!

And that's how I got here! 

The actual logistics of getting from job offer to physically arriving in Nairobi will be the next instalment.