Wass is dass “Mission life”?

I’ve read about mission life, I especially liked the book “Emergency sex” about a women’s experience working for the UN in conflict zones. I’ve been keen on it for years (referring to the mission life, naturally, although emergency sex sounds like something I could use more of). I hear colleagues use the term “mission life” a lot so am observing and starting to figure out what it's all about. I'm sort of on my own mission to make sense of it. There’s a lot of loneliness, longing for loved ones. Looking forward to leave (of which there are a generous number of days), talking about leave plans, reporting on actualized leave experiences. This basically means that you spend a week stressing to wrap up work ahead of going on leave and when you return you’re catching up on the piled up work. So in between leaves there are a few weeks of “normal work”.

And since there’s such a massive rotation of leaves you’re most likely to be filling in for a colleague on leave while doing your own work, a lovely double-tasking situation. The massive staff rotation means you’re probably starting your new job with a very limited handover. I’ve been on the job for already two and a half months and I’m still discovering new responsibilities. Some mission tasks have a sense of urgency while other things would make Kafka laugh out loud. There’s a mix of “temporary permanence”, most likely from the very short mandate periods (one year and only recently two years). Some colleagues have limited contracts and seem to be focused on squeezing the experience to the core, while others have been here forever (eight years?!?) and have either become cynical or have no other place to call home and are still going strong.

The social aspects are most significant, at least for me. Longing to make new friends, to be included. High school dejavu? I’m like a sponge looking to soak up human connections. Gotta find me the colleagues I can “vibe with”. I'm already making good progress on "project find my people".

And restricted freedom of movement is killing me! And all the rules and regulations. I’m struggling with getting used to having to get approval for private weekend travel outside the city limits, for simple work outputs and initiatives. I feel like a rebellious teenager. A colleague said, “I’ve stopped fighting it, it hurts less that way”. Ok Jess. Just go with the flow.

Many colleagues have worked at other missions where it's "real mission life" (Somalia, Iraq, Afghanistan), according to them our Georgia mission it's "civilian life". I guess it's somewhere in between, a hybrid of sorts.

Mission life? Yeah it’s a mix of adventure, opportunities, loneliness, personal growth and storymaking. I'm still a newbie, and I have a lot more to figure out. But hey, right now I wouldn’t trade it for the world.