Due to the fact that I am a first time blogger, please excuse the lack of 'creativity' with the blog as I honestly have absolutely no clue what I am doing on here! Haha! However am hoping to use this blog to keep people up to date on the adventures yet to come throughout my internship.
For those of you who don't know, I just accepted a seven month CIDA (Canadian International Development Agency) internship in Morogoro, Tanazania, with Youth Challenge International! While in Tanzania I will be working on a set of environmental initiatives for a local non-governmental organization known as the Faraja Trust Fund (http://farajatrust.org/). The primary focus of the organization is to work on HIV/AIDS based initiatives and from what I gather this is the first time they are going to branch into environmental/sustainability based initiatives. Therefore, naturally, my title for this position is the Environmental Sustainability Project Officer, as my role encompasses a broad range of projects. In particular though, thus far my role is intended to focus on two things (which is described more thoroughly below this text, since the job description is readily available on the web I may as well add it below!):
1) To support the UN reduced emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD) initiative in Tanzania.
I am really looking forward to working with this organization and obtaining more knowledge about humanitarian/global health development initiatives while learning how to bridge those initiatives with environmental ones, in hopes of creating more sustainable development practices!
Currently I am excitedly anticipating my start date, which is now less than a week away, and for the first time ever think I have completely finished my packing over a day before departure! Haha! Due to the fact that I am notorious for moving every four to eight months, I find myself leaving almost all of the packing until the very last minute every single time! So I am hoping that this act is an exceptional good luck omen, signifying that things will run smoothly for the whole internship.
Anyways, to finish off this brief introduction to me and where I will be going shortly, I thought I would conclude this blog with a few things you will discover about me throughout my blog:
-'!' exclamation marks will likely be EVERYWHERE! I rarely feel a '.' period is suitable in expressing my sincere enthusiasm about things so I hope your not overwhelmed by these!
- I may or may not have good internet access, so if posts seem like they are short or have been cut off, they likely were.
- I learn languages easily and have already been studying Swahili. This will likely mean two things with reference to my blog: a) I'll probably have a difficult time spelling things properly in English after a while (especially when in a rush) and b) There will likely be smatterings of Swahili words here and there (hopefully always with an explanation to their meanings).
- I tend to sign almost everything unprofessional I write with "Lots of Love'.. just thought I would make people aware that although I sincerely hope you are all doing well, its not targeted at anyone in particular (I've once had an odd run in with signing a group email this way so I thought I would save myself and sadly explain).
- Lastly, I don't like spending a lot of time in front of a computer but think this is going to be the best way to keep up people up to date on my adventures. So once again, if sentence structure, grammar, and word choices seem a little odd (or non-existent) its probably also a result of trying to rush and type this out rather then sit around and perfect my wording!
I hope you all sincerely enjoy following my blog! And remember, I hope to hear from you all too so feel free to respond or send me messages whenever you want!
Lots of Love!
A few more details on what my job description (at this moment) includes for those interested:
* Introduce appropriate technologies and train communities in conservation farming
* Train communities on food preservation, marketing of surplus and water harvesting technologies
* Design and implement awareness raising, sensitization and training activities with staff and community members on small scale irrigation and climate change
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