OK, before everyone gets the wrong picture: I AM WORKING HERE! I am assisting the Conference of Churches with their negotiations with the government about Grenadas options. The Country is in very high debt and IMF is already on it to suggest measures to get some money back in the treasury. Right now we are organising an workshop with international participants about debt relief options for the country. What am I doing exactly? Good question, I ask myself everyday... We rarely have meetings, so all information is passed on in mails or on the phone with the effect that not everyone has all informations. And meetings tend to pop up spontaneously. So getting a mail in the morning with a "reminder" that "the meeting" with the minister starts in half an hour is something I have to get used to. Or that a conference is set up at 9 in the evening, stuff like that. Being constantly on standby doesn't leave as much leisure time as it might seem.
Funny thing: the venue of the workshop was changed on Tuesday after we (I) sent out all invitations. Always a great idea, especially if you (me!) have no email addresses were you could send the new information to. So the last two days I was pinned to the phone to ask several secretaries to put me through to the secretary I needed, to get an email address which quite often didn't work, to send out the agenda, the new venue info and half of the time the initial invitation too, since it was lost on the way from the front desk, where it was hand-delivered to, to the desk of the minister. Great. And there are a lot more stories like that. Will this teach me patience and keeping my calm? I am not sure. Right now it drives me up the wall constantly. And every one of my decisions is double checked with one of the guys I am working with. Feels awesome!!! So this is just a glimpse of what my work days look like. Do I want to write about it all the time? No, that's why I am writing the fun stuff. Believe me, it is an internship and that is exactly how it feels, I am just not 16 anymore...