Big News
so i've decided it's time to spill my Big News on my livejournal (which i've now neglected for way too long): i'm going to India!
When i was in Ghana, i met a number of young people who were there living and working as part of CIDA internships. CIDA is the canadian international development agency, and they fund a number of internships (co-ordinated by Canadian NGOs) for young people who've just finished their degrees to work for six to eight months with an NGO in a developing country. Since then, i've known that was what i wanted to do in the coming year, hopefully in south asia. since about march i've been looking through the listings and sending off application after application. i missed a number of deadlines which co-incided with my thesis due date in april, but even so i've applied for quite a few, and been met with rejections, or even more depressingly, often just silence. i thought my opportunity had already passed, when i saw a couple more postings in early august and sent off applications. i made it to a phone interview for one, bombed that (phone interviews = satan) and pretty much gave up again, when i got another call for an in-person interview for the other one i'd applied for. i was terribly, horribly nervous because i knew it was my last chance to have my plans for this year actually happen, so i spent the weekend before researching the organization, going over old course notes on topics related to the job, looking up relevant statistics for the area, shopping for clothing that made me look vaguely yuppie, and generally being a huge nerd. At that point in time, i had literally no plans for my future beyond last thursday, when my summer job was due to wrap up. even my day planner had expired the week before and i hadn't bothered to replace it because i had no future to put in it. but after all that build-up i left the interview feeling pretty good about it, so in a gesture of optimism i got myself a new agenda thing. they called me the next day and offered me the job. I have possibly never been so excited ever about anything.
I'm not going to name the organization that hired me, cause i don't want my LJ turning up in google searches about it, but it's a small organization which focusses on literacy and works in Canada and india. I'll be in Varanasi, a city in northern India in the province of Uttar Pradesh (one of the poorest, least developed parts of india, with very high levels of gender inequality) working on the organization's children's literacy programming. it seems i'll mostly be doing things like conducting research on the efficacy of what they're doing so far, and figuring out ways to expand their reach, especially through developing stronger relationships with the communities they serve. i'm also supposed to get to work directly with the kids occasionally on fun stuff (obviously not teaching them, as i too am illiterate in hindi, but maybe doing crafts or something) which would be super fun. besides this being really exciting in terms of the fun of getting paid to go to india, this is actually the sort of thing i want to do career-wise, making it even more of a big deal.
anyhow, i start work at their toronto office next week, where i'll be for all of september, and then in october i leave for india for six months. it's hard to start preparing without knowing anything about my departure date, or how/when they're paying me my stipend, or any other specifics (i'll find that out when i go in to the office next week), but i've done random things like buy myself a "teach yourself hindi" set of CDs. so far i can tell you my name, where i'm from, and that i'm tired, which is a pretty good start, i think. haha.
all my favourite people are coming back from being away now, and others are leaving to go away for a long time, so i suddenly have a very active social life, which has helped me put anxiety about this on hold, but it's really pretty crazy.
anyhow, i guess when i go i'll try to write here about what i'm doing (although obviously i have to keep job stuff somewhat confidential).
yay!
emily
When i was in Ghana, i met a number of young people who were there living and working as part of CIDA internships. CIDA is the canadian international development agency, and they fund a number of internships (co-ordinated by Canadian NGOs) for young people who've just finished their degrees to work for six to eight months with an NGO in a developing country. Since then, i've known that was what i wanted to do in the coming year, hopefully in south asia. since about march i've been looking through the listings and sending off application after application. i missed a number of deadlines which co-incided with my thesis due date in april, but even so i've applied for quite a few, and been met with rejections, or even more depressingly, often just silence. i thought my opportunity had already passed, when i saw a couple more postings in early august and sent off applications. i made it to a phone interview for one, bombed that (phone interviews = satan) and pretty much gave up again, when i got another call for an in-person interview for the other one i'd applied for. i was terribly, horribly nervous because i knew it was my last chance to have my plans for this year actually happen, so i spent the weekend before researching the organization, going over old course notes on topics related to the job, looking up relevant statistics for the area, shopping for clothing that made me look vaguely yuppie, and generally being a huge nerd. At that point in time, i had literally no plans for my future beyond last thursday, when my summer job was due to wrap up. even my day planner had expired the week before and i hadn't bothered to replace it because i had no future to put in it. but after all that build-up i left the interview feeling pretty good about it, so in a gesture of optimism i got myself a new agenda thing. they called me the next day and offered me the job. I have possibly never been so excited ever about anything.
I'm not going to name the organization that hired me, cause i don't want my LJ turning up in google searches about it, but it's a small organization which focusses on literacy and works in Canada and india. I'll be in Varanasi, a city in northern India in the province of Uttar Pradesh (one of the poorest, least developed parts of india, with very high levels of gender inequality) working on the organization's children's literacy programming. it seems i'll mostly be doing things like conducting research on the efficacy of what they're doing so far, and figuring out ways to expand their reach, especially through developing stronger relationships with the communities they serve. i'm also supposed to get to work directly with the kids occasionally on fun stuff (obviously not teaching them, as i too am illiterate in hindi, but maybe doing crafts or something) which would be super fun. besides this being really exciting in terms of the fun of getting paid to go to india, this is actually the sort of thing i want to do career-wise, making it even more of a big deal.
anyhow, i start work at their toronto office next week, where i'll be for all of september, and then in october i leave for india for six months. it's hard to start preparing without knowing anything about my departure date, or how/when they're paying me my stipend, or any other specifics (i'll find that out when i go in to the office next week), but i've done random things like buy myself a "teach yourself hindi" set of CDs. so far i can tell you my name, where i'm from, and that i'm tired, which is a pretty good start, i think. haha.
all my favourite people are coming back from being away now, and others are leaving to go away for a long time, so i suddenly have a very active social life, which has helped me put anxiety about this on hold, but it's really pretty crazy.
anyhow, i guess when i go i'll try to write here about what i'm doing (although obviously i have to keep job stuff somewhat confidential).
yay!
emily