Internship

I am enjoying our internship, although the work is sometimes mundane. The mix of people we have met there is so diverse and I am learning a lot just from interacting with them. The IT guys that come fix my computer when the internet goes out (which was 3 times on Friday) always teach me new Kiswahili phrases. Sumari, one of the custodians that works on our hall, greets me in the morning and attempts to have a full conversation with me in Kiswahili that can be pretty challenging. There is also Nelson, the copy guy, who is so friendly and always asks, “Habari za kazi?”, “How’s work?”. There are 2 French guys on our hallway that always tease me about my hole in the wall office and about our robbery experience at the Ethiopian restaurant.

My favorite UN character right now is a little Indian guy that reminds me of King Julian from Madagascar, the movie. We were in a staff training the other day about making yourself marketable for life within and outside of the UN where the facilitator went over interview techniques. During the training, “King Julian” kept yelling out random comments. Out of the blue, he asked Eunice is she spoke Chinese and told her that he didn’t. During a discussion about who to put down as a reference if you can’t put anyone that works for the UN, he suggested that you might put the name of one of the accused people on trial. It was actually pretty funny and he kept me entertained during the training. I felt that the training was a little inappropriate for the audience but the people in attendance seemed to really like it (there were about 60 people in the training and only half of them had chairs to sit in). I assumed that a group of experienced UN staff members would know not to put sexymama21@yahoo.com on their resumes but maybe not. The facilitator also stressed the importance of hygiene, and I quote, “Deodorant is important!”.

Our supervisor, who is from Tunisia, and has just returned from vacation there, has also taken us under her wings and is trying to give us as much experience as possible while we are here. She even got our internship extended for the rest of the time we are in Arusha, even though we will only be able to do it part time when we start classes. This means we have 4 more months of access to the UN library, the Duty Free shop, and can actually participate in the language classes offered by the UN. We thought we were going to miss out on those b/c they are in recess right now and do not start again until September. 6 months of UN experience will also look great on our resume! We are continuing to work on the Witness Protection project related to residual functions that will need to be carried out once the Tribunal closes, along with project management where we are compiling a report of various projects being carried out to raise awareness about the work of the Tribunal and to strengthen the Rwandan judicial system. Our supervisor makes me feel like I am really a part of the team and it seems she values our feedback. She has also promised to teach us how to cook some new dishes and take us on some day trips once things get less hectic.