Chalo! I hear this phrase thrown around almost daily in conversation here and I love it for both its simplicity as well as its flexibility in meaning. Most often it’s used to mean “let’s go,” as in “let’s go for a walk. Chalo!” You could also use it to express relief at having finally finished a task, like “chalo yeah, it’s finally done.” It slips … Continue reading To the Field, Chalo!
I got to wear my teacher hat this past week of my internship. Well, sort of. I was scheduled to do a skill share regarding life skills in Cambodia, where i would present the research I had been doing for the last two months, along with my recommendations for the pilot project and the framework. I thought a few of my colleagues from the program … Continue reading Teacher hat, elections and more
10 weeks down; 2 to go – and I still feel like I’m just getting started. I’m finally making a life here in Beirut, but I leave so soon, and I am pretty bummed. So here’s a bit of a glimpse into the life I’m creating here. _____________________ I started Arabic classes a few weeks ago; and though I still can’t get passed the basics … Continue reading A Beiruti in the Making
Салом (Tajik for hello) from Khorog, Tajikistan! Disclaimer: this post will be more about the travel, adjustment, and transition period; I hope to make the next posts more work-centric. Distance wise, it should only take a 5-hour flight to get from Bangkok to Dushanbe. However, because of the limited flights and a fun 18-hour layover, my trip to Dushanbe took over 32 hours door-to-door (and … Continue reading Just Smile and Wave
Work, work, work,work,work…. (picture Rihanna singing this lol ) On my last post, I mentioned that I was supporting the development of a handbook on Lifelong Learning. The past Thursday and Friday the staff, interns and me, met with the authors of the handbook to revise the chapters they have written. Those couple of days were long and intense as we discussed every single component … Continue reading Stories from the other side of the world
God [Allah] willing! It’s a phrase I hear many, many times a day here in Jordan, from practically everyone around me. Sometimes it seems hopeful, sometimes it seems like an excuse, sometimes it kind of just seems like “like,” a default word to fill the gaps when you don’t know what else to say. I’m not usually one to think that things are ever out of my … Continue reading Inshallah
Reflections from the first month in Geneva. Hard to believe that I am already done with four weeks of internship. In the past few weeks I have had opportunity to learn a lot as well as explore the city. Geneva has started to feel more like home now, especially since I figured out the most essential things that make a difference between one’s home town … Continue reading Réflexions de Premier Mois
2 months into my internship, I got to the part I had been waiting for the whole time- field trips. I was tasked with visiting 20 schools in 12 days, across 2 counties and across a 100 km radius. The project I was meant to observe is being implemented in 43 schools across Mombasa and Kwale. Since I was not conducting an evaluation of the … Continue reading Of field trips in far away places
I’ve been in Lilongwe for ten weeks and while I feel relatively well adjusted, I keep encountering the same refrain: “You haven’t experienced Malawi until you’ve visited the lake.” Not wanting to pass on the scene everyone kept talking about, I decided to take a short trip to finally visit the famed “Lake of Stars.” For blog readers unfamiliar with Malawi, the eponymous lake makes … Continue reading Malawi: Lake of Stars
The country head of Geneva Global – Uganda (GG-U), where I am interning for the next two months, likes to tell her new team-members to hit the ground running like “a paratrooper dropped from a parachute into enemy territory, ready to take and return fire even before (s)he lands”. What she doesn’t say (maybe because she thinks it is a given) is that the organization … Continue reading Work, fun, food, life – an internship
