Frustrating days and redemption

Yesterday was one of the out-of-the-ordinary days I’ve had here.

Rainbow, the current Extension Coordinator and MCVPTM went to MENAXPROS in Egypt in March.

Translation: (Rainbow, the girl that is currently doing the job I moved to Iran for, went to an international conference in March).

Unfortunately, she needed to apply for another visa to re-enter Iran when she wanted to come home. It was rejected, twice, causing her to spend nearly 3 months in Egypt. It’s understandably difficult to be a VP-anything (national director) remotely, even with the blessing of the internet.
Rainbow eventually decided to fly to Iran anyway, and apply for a visa-on-arrival. It’s not uncommon, and from what I can tell, the success rate of entry is usually pretty high.

Well, there was no success for Rainbow. Alireza, Neda, Saman and I spent almost 8 hours at the airport, trying to negotiate with airport people, Ministry of that-and-that people, anyone really, all to no avail. We ended up having to send for a taxi to pick up all Rainbow’s things from Neda’s place and bring it to the airport. (Imam Khomeini International Airport is about an hour from anywhere, and Neda lives on the other side of town).

We were unable to spend any time with Rain, except a few stolen minutes through an open security door. It was gut-wrenching to see her. I’ve never met Rainbow before now, and I felt so bad for her. I also felt terrible for her team. An MC team spends a year living in each other’s pockets, and the current team did not get to have the proper closure that a team like that should have.

Not only is this a totally crap situation for the current team, I have to say it’s also a crap situation for me and my team. Rainbow is current VPTM (doing my job), and so the month of May was meant to be spent with her, learning every aspect of my new role. Transition is such a vital part of a new leadership role, and we’d even discussed the fact that virtual transition online would be crap.

What’s done is done. I believe firmly in two things. 1. The world is as small as you make it. 2. Everything happens for a reason. I know they sound quite trite, but I have to keep repeating those clichés (Especially no. 2) whenever anything shitty happens like this.

We will make the best of the situation. We will overcome these new challenges. I will be successful in my new role. This challenge is only asking me to step up even further.

In other news, I came home today feeling entirely like crap again. Ghazal took me shopping for shoes. I have clown feet, and no matter which store we went to, we couldn’t find any in my size. Shopping is a nightmare in Australia, and it’s no freaking different here. Anyway. We did get some things I’d needed, and all of a sudden I was in a taxi by myself, with bags of crap, my handbag and my laptop bag.

I knew where I was heading, but I was so scared. I hate catching taxis by myself, because I can barely tell the driver to stop, and I never know how much they ask for (They don’t use meters here). I just chuck them a mid-sized note and hope for change.

After making it to my room I had a good sulk for a while. (The whole, ‘God, you’re useless! Can’t even catch a taxi’ kind of sulk.) I know it’s completely unreasonable, but I’m getting used to feeling the feeling, then getting the hell over it.

It’s amazing what a little autonomy and control will do to a soul. I washed my own damn clothes today. I did my own dishes with my own washing up liquid. Those two things are possibly the most routine things a person could do, and I know plenty of people who resent having to do it. But bloody hell – it felt so good just to be able to do something successfully, completely on my own.

So now I’m kicking back, reflecting on the new plans that are sure to lie ahead, and I’m feeling good about it all.

It’s all good :)