Getting started!

There is a story I have to confess! Monday was my first day at work, I walked to the office full of excitement to start my internship. As I was walking in the street, I noticed that no one was there- roads were deserted. I arrived to the office. It is huge. It took me twenty minutes to figure out where the door was. Indeed, all of the doors were closed. As I kept turning around the building, I met two people wearing the badges of the organisation. I asked them where the door was as it was my first day as an intern. They smiled and told me that the good news is that this is the door but the bad news is that Monday was a holiday in France! I walked back home, a little sad, but happy that I figured out where the door was. I ended up visiting the main monument of the city and walked around to get a sense of where I am.

On a better note, Tuesday was my actual first day at work. The entrance of the organisation is overwhelming. Everyone is walking fast, very fast. I got into the office and waited for my team. They arrived and showed me “ my office”. I think that the organisation has a lot of empty offices as many employees were dispensed because of a budget crisis. A team member introduced me to the people in our division. I started to feel that I can belong here. I met my supervisor and discussed my work. It is an intense work period because there is an international event taking place in September. As in August the work tends to slow down, most of the preparation needs to be done now.

The work day starts at 9 and finishes at 5:30 ish. The lunch break lasts for about an hour where interns and employees go to the cafeteria on the 7th floor. Lunch time is the only time where I get to interact with other interns including my own classmates. Everytime I come across an IEDPier, I rejoice!

My work consists of preparing for the International Literacy Day as well as preparing the applications for the International Literacy Prize for the jury.

As the organisation is going through an intense internal structuring, I asked to attend internal meetings to be able to understand how things will change.

This weekend I am hoping to discover the city and take some photos! Today, we are having an IEDP dinner and we’ll think of our fellow IEDPiers across the globe!