An Abrupt End
Hey Everyone,
After leaving some time for that last update to settle in, I think its about time to give you the skinny on what has been up with me.
First, India is finally a real go! The tickets cost me a fortune, but I am EXTREMELY exicted to be given the full tour with actual residents when I get there! I leave for India on the 12th, which means i have a week more than I had expected to be here in Kenya. A prospect which really excites me for several reasons. First of all I can start to get my start stuff packed up, decide what to do with my african drum (which at last check will cost me 200 CAD to get home) plan for some of my indian/european experiences and MOST importantly get out and get some more experience working within the slums and with the people who really need the help!
I am heading out to several locations with some of the other interns to see what we can do, and after that I will be selecting one of the NGO's we work with and give them my full attention up until the time I leave (And for the week when I am back in Kenya before I fly out to London). I am really excited to head back out and get with the people who I really came here to impact.
I have been talking with a lot of REALLY awesome people who have reminded me once again about creating positive impact in the things I do. With my final report done for Kenya, I have realized that despite the way I have been feeling about the whole job I have done everything that was requested. That made me feel really good, but made me understand the importance of ensuring that a solid plan is in place before you take any job. As well, if it isn't set by your boss in the first place, you should always set some form rewards system for yourself when you take on a specific task. Take yourself out for dinner, take a short holiday, do something that recognizes your achievements, because even when others don't recoginize what you have done... you still need to have a reward at the end of the tunnel to keep yourself truly motivated to take the past to and PAST fruition!
But the impact I have had here hasn't been the one I had intended it to be. When you go to Africa you have these aspirations of getting out to the slums everyday and making a solid difference in peoples lives... but sometimes that just can't be done.
I have been trying to put my finger on just why I wanted my impact to involve the slums and why, even though I have made an impact here in AIESEC, I still feel like there is a great void in my experience here in Kenya (and how I believe that this void will be filled when I spend these next weeks out with the street children).
My reasoning came to me last night as me and my two housemates sat down and talked about the amazing things we have seen in Kenya and the visible progress that is being made everyday here. The government seems to have a solid head on its shoulder, the economy is booming due to tea and coffee profits, and people seem to be extremely eager to be self sufficient and less reliant on the IMF and UN.
The reason I have wanted to be out in the slums has to do with this: Those in the slums NEED the aid, the other projects I have been working with thus far are those who APPRECIATE the help.
Everything I have done here has touched on some of my skills: Finance, planning, creating structures for programs and creating proposals. When you walk into any NGO here in Kenya, the first thing that the director will reccommend might go something like this:
"We have an AMAZING golf-day in the works and we would really appreciate your help in organizing the details!"
You: "Hmm... not quite my bag of tea, I could organize a golf day for HIV/AIDS at home... I was looking for something more hands on.."
It feels like few things I have done here have went to the people that actually need the help. Sure, in some indirect way you make that impact. More money in the door, more aid workers available. However, the work here in AIESEC I have done has certainly made me feel like I have only impacted the people who appreciate the help, not who needed the aid.
I wish now that I had taken the chance to go on an internship. More and more of the chats I have with the interns who are here to specifically work out in the rural areas have made me realize that I may have made a choice that did not offer me the type of impact I was looking for. I made the mistake of thinking that any trip to Africa would offer that direct impact that I was hoping for. As I said in the last update I would still change nothing about the experience I have had here. The experience here is something that cannot be replaced. However, if I was given the chance to go on ANOTHER experience to Afirca I would certainly seek to work out in the bush helping those who require the aid!
What did all of this have to do with the original title "An Abrupt End"? Regardless of how long you spend in a country, you cannot do everything you had your heart set on. There will always be more changes you will seek to make as you cross one change off of your list. And no matter how long you have spent in the country, how long you have known that the end is approaching... it still feels like an abrupt end. A time when you are scrambling to get all of those experiences in before you leave, possibly forever. Makes me laugh now... because all of the days where I sat in a bus thinking "REMEMBER THIS MOMENT... THIS IS AFRICA... LOOK OUT THE WINDOW! SEE THE BEAUTY!" and it still wasn't enough.
Remember your camera folks, the intense images you see when you are away will be lost in memory a short time after you leave no matter how much it affected you at the time. The pictures you take will not only be awesome to show your friends, but it will keep that ideal, that concept and the feelings you had at the time alive long after age and time strip your memory away. Sadly, and inevitably, the trip will come to an abrupt end... But take your pictures, make your friends and the multiple abrupt ends you will go through in your life will be overcome with the rush of a new adventure beginning.
Looking forward to living that positive impact that I always thought I would before I left and living up to the expectations all of my awesome friends have set for me...
Sincerely.
After leaving some time for that last update to settle in, I think its about time to give you the skinny on what has been up with me.
First, India is finally a real go! The tickets cost me a fortune, but I am EXTREMELY exicted to be given the full tour with actual residents when I get there! I leave for India on the 12th, which means i have a week more than I had expected to be here in Kenya. A prospect which really excites me for several reasons. First of all I can start to get my start stuff packed up, decide what to do with my african drum (which at last check will cost me 200 CAD to get home) plan for some of my indian/european experiences and MOST importantly get out and get some more experience working within the slums and with the people who really need the help!
I am heading out to several locations with some of the other interns to see what we can do, and after that I will be selecting one of the NGO's we work with and give them my full attention up until the time I leave (And for the week when I am back in Kenya before I fly out to London). I am really excited to head back out and get with the people who I really came here to impact.
I have been talking with a lot of REALLY awesome people who have reminded me once again about creating positive impact in the things I do. With my final report done for Kenya, I have realized that despite the way I have been feeling about the whole job I have done everything that was requested. That made me feel really good, but made me understand the importance of ensuring that a solid plan is in place before you take any job. As well, if it isn't set by your boss in the first place, you should always set some form rewards system for yourself when you take on a specific task. Take yourself out for dinner, take a short holiday, do something that recognizes your achievements, because even when others don't recoginize what you have done... you still need to have a reward at the end of the tunnel to keep yourself truly motivated to take the past to and PAST fruition!
But the impact I have had here hasn't been the one I had intended it to be. When you go to Africa you have these aspirations of getting out to the slums everyday and making a solid difference in peoples lives... but sometimes that just can't be done.
I have been trying to put my finger on just why I wanted my impact to involve the slums and why, even though I have made an impact here in AIESEC, I still feel like there is a great void in my experience here in Kenya (and how I believe that this void will be filled when I spend these next weeks out with the street children).
My reasoning came to me last night as me and my two housemates sat down and talked about the amazing things we have seen in Kenya and the visible progress that is being made everyday here. The government seems to have a solid head on its shoulder, the economy is booming due to tea and coffee profits, and people seem to be extremely eager to be self sufficient and less reliant on the IMF and UN.
The reason I have wanted to be out in the slums has to do with this: Those in the slums NEED the aid, the other projects I have been working with thus far are those who APPRECIATE the help.
Everything I have done here has touched on some of my skills: Finance, planning, creating structures for programs and creating proposals. When you walk into any NGO here in Kenya, the first thing that the director will reccommend might go something like this:
"We have an AMAZING golf-day in the works and we would really appreciate your help in organizing the details!"
You: "Hmm... not quite my bag of tea, I could organize a golf day for HIV/AIDS at home... I was looking for something more hands on.."
It feels like few things I have done here have went to the people that actually need the help. Sure, in some indirect way you make that impact. More money in the door, more aid workers available. However, the work here in AIESEC I have done has certainly made me feel like I have only impacted the people who appreciate the help, not who needed the aid.
I wish now that I had taken the chance to go on an internship. More and more of the chats I have with the interns who are here to specifically work out in the rural areas have made me realize that I may have made a choice that did not offer me the type of impact I was looking for. I made the mistake of thinking that any trip to Africa would offer that direct impact that I was hoping for. As I said in the last update I would still change nothing about the experience I have had here. The experience here is something that cannot be replaced. However, if I was given the chance to go on ANOTHER experience to Afirca I would certainly seek to work out in the bush helping those who require the aid!
What did all of this have to do with the original title "An Abrupt End"? Regardless of how long you spend in a country, you cannot do everything you had your heart set on. There will always be more changes you will seek to make as you cross one change off of your list. And no matter how long you have spent in the country, how long you have known that the end is approaching... it still feels like an abrupt end. A time when you are scrambling to get all of those experiences in before you leave, possibly forever. Makes me laugh now... because all of the days where I sat in a bus thinking "REMEMBER THIS MOMENT... THIS IS AFRICA... LOOK OUT THE WINDOW! SEE THE BEAUTY!" and it still wasn't enough.
Remember your camera folks, the intense images you see when you are away will be lost in memory a short time after you leave no matter how much it affected you at the time. The pictures you take will not only be awesome to show your friends, but it will keep that ideal, that concept and the feelings you had at the time alive long after age and time strip your memory away. Sadly, and inevitably, the trip will come to an abrupt end... But take your pictures, make your friends and the multiple abrupt ends you will go through in your life will be overcome with the rush of a new adventure beginning.
Looking forward to living that positive impact that I always thought I would before I left and living up to the expectations all of my awesome friends have set for me...
Sincerely.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Links to this post:
Create a Link
<< Home