This marks the end of my internship. This is it. Going back to Philadelphia to complete my last semester. Today as I reflect back on this internship experience as a whole – I really think I have come out with some great working and personal relationships. Unlike my fellow IEDP classmates, I really did not think too much about having an ideal internship. I had … Continue reading Au Revoir La Suisse
Someone currently living in a serene island of Koh Rong Samloem in Cambodia told me that when he left his native country, never to go back, and decided to settle in a place very different than the one he came from, learning a new language and relearning new ways to live was like being a newborn again – everything is exciting but you are also quite vulnerable. My move to Cambodia for this internship was not as drastic of a change as his, but I could definitely relate to being wide-eyed excited about learning new things every day and at times feeling completely out of place. Continue reading Learning, leaving and looking back
Although I have 4 more weeks of my internship to go, this will be my last blog post. My two months in Addis and at IICBA have been fantastic so far and I’m looking forward to what this last month will bring. As I reflect on the time I’ve already spent here, it’s very clear what the best part of my internship has been – … Continue reading I’ll take 3 more months, please.
It feels a bit weird to be submitting this “final” blog post now. While a lot of my IEDP classmates have already finished their internships and returned home or gone back to Penn for another semester, I still have two weeks left to wrap up here in Delhi. Or maybe I should say gear up, because there’s a lot to be done before I leave … Continue reading Sawaal Achchhe Hain
A three-month internship is a rather peculiar affair. It is short enough to ensure that you do not end up with anything concrete. And, just long enough to make you feel that you should have come away with something more solid. Continue reading He came, he saw…
On the 9th of August I attended an International Youth Day event organized by 4 organizations working on youth empowerment in Kenya, and funded by the EU. The theme of the event was “Nafasi Kwa Vijana” or “Safe spaces for youth”. The whole perfectly encapsulated my experience working in Mombasa for the last 13 weeks. It was hot, chaotic, partly inefficient but through it all … Continue reading A bittersweet symphony
Grace*, a 15-year-old, is happy with the kind of joy that comes from finishing a big exam. She attends a `community school’ in Amuru district in North Uganda – a school that the local community set up for their children because the nearest Government primary school is over 40 km away. The community school is still not exactly next door – Grace wakes up at … Continue reading An ode to data – Part 1
“LET’S GO!” This was the theme of last week, when my parents came to visit. And just as well, because life at the office has been, in the words of Larry David, “pretty… pretty… pretty” slow lately. This is largely due to the fact that practically everyone is on leave! UNESCO has a fairly generous vacation policy, which it seems like most people take advantage … Continue reading Yalla: Explorin’ Jordan
Today is my last day in Uganda! It’s hard to believe it has been three months – in some ways I feel like I have been here forever, and in other ways they time has flown by. I think the friendliness and hospitality of my Ugandan friends and colleagues made me feel at home quite quickly here, but at the same time I am always … Continue reading Saying Goodbye to Uganda
I’ve written and rewritten this blog three times now. First, sometime during my second to last week of my internship, then on my last day at my internship, then again on my flight out of Beirut; and it’s not that I don’t like what I’m writing or that my last two weeks were uneventful (quite the opposite), I think it is just that posting this … Continue reading Merci Ktiir, Lebanon
