When we last heard from Victoria and Albert, they were enjoying life in the Middle East; stationed in Egypt.
Albert was a photographer and was a member of the Foreign Press Association and was out and about quite a bit, snapping one photo after another. On a countback, we realised he was taking something like 40,000 photos a year, covering just about any topic you wish to name - and he loved every minute of it. It was during our time in the Middle East that Albert went from film to digital, which changed everything to do with photography - it turned all settings on their heads and it became a whole new skill-set. As well as clicking away, he also taught English as a foreign language and in his spare time, he taught photography at one of the many Orphanages. All in all, life was good; in fact life was great! In the mix, Albert was also responsible for quite a few short-termers and so our circle of acquaintances and friends was always widening.
As for Victoria, she had been Personnel Manager at a multi-media company, looking after expatriate staff. She was also responsible for recruiting, orientation, looking after them while in-country and then doing debriefs and exit interviews before they left their host country; either for home or elsewhere. She loved the work and meeting lots of new people - both national and expatriate!
However, the Office relocated to Europe, after a few years and as V&A didn't believe they were to go with it, she was recruited to another project. For 3 weeks she worked at a pottery project. The position was offered to her before she left for Home Assignment but by the time she returned, the whole project had had an organisational review and what had been available 4 months earlier, was no longer there.
However, even before she left, she had been head-hunted by a large ministry which was heavily into community development. She took a look at it and decided to accept their invitation to join the team.
Sadly, it was to be short-lived and yet at the same time, a long-lasting relationship and eventually a partnership was established with V&A's home church - but more about that later.
During those "out of office hours" times, Victoria helped with craft and art activities at one of the many girls' Orphanages which are dotted around the city. It was yet another opportunity to build very different relationships.
And so, this is a thumbnail sketch of what they did for 5.5 years - it doesn't sound like much when it's reduced to a couple of paragraphs, does it?
However, there is a promise of reflections in future posts, so if you're game, hang out for them.
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