I will try to sum up the past three weeks in as digestible a format as possible. I met the group of 6 other interns (and a few bosses) at the Vancouver International Airport on the morning of June 13, and spent the next 18 hours getting to know them better as we carpooled up to Smithers (a tiny town in the far north of my province). We were all wiped due to moving and partying in preceding days (we had been told to pack as if we were going for 8 months) so the overnight drive just about killed me. After crashing on the floor of our new office for 3-or-so hours, we hiked 8km up to a mountainside cabin and began the orientation exercises. There were a combination of intellectual and physical challenges, complicated by intentional sleep/food deprivation to simulate extreme stress. We were constantly on show for the group of 5-or-so observers (executive director of the NGO, Internship coordinator, board members, etc.), and were extremely mindful of the need to work as a team and maintain our cool. One of the challenges was that a single climbing rope was strung up between two trees on either side of a ravine (over a river), we were given all the equipment required to cross it, and told we had until 2pm the next day to get all 7 of us across. Please keep in mind that we had hardly slept or eaten in the preceding 3 days, and add to that the fact that 2 of the 7 had never even seen a climbing rope or harness before and I have a debilitating fear of heights. We were also woken up at 2am every night in order to write a policy document for One Sky. Damn, just writing about it now highlights the absurdity of the situation, but I understand that they had to put us through hell in order to judge our suitability for these positions.
We just barely survived the “Mountain Exercises” (as they are now referred to) and then had to prepare individual presentations and all the meals (thank goodness for my catering experience) for One Sky’s Annual General Assembly which occurred over the final 3 of the 10 orientation days. Our final group task was to construct an outdoor meeting space with a choice between:
1) getting $30 and finishing it by a set deadline
2) using only found/donated materials and having no deadline
We opted for choice #2, and ended up constructing a gigantic octagonal table out of castoff birch logs and lumber –using donated nails, borrowed tools (etc.) that one of the interns managed to sweet-talk out of a building supply store. It has a bench running all the way around, and seats 16 people comfortably!
Friday, June 25 was our Evaluation Day. We had spent the preceding day composing individualized reports on each of the interns and ourself, including as objective a review as possible of each of our participation/strengths/weaknesses/personalities during each orientation exercise. The bosses collected and synthesized everything, matched consistencies between what we said and their own assessments, then sat us down individually and went through a list of character strengths and flaws (blow by blow). It was the most challenging 1.5 hours I’ve ever had to endure, and there were some intimately personal issues addressed which will provide me with food for thought for a long time… This was the day when I finally warmed up to the Big Boss (named Mike Simpson), and can now say that I trust and respect each of the One Sky staff with all my heart.
Since then, we have attended a mind-blowing series of strategic meetings based on the projects/countries we’ll be working in, and have been responsible for brainstorming and planning various aspects of One Sky’s mandate and goals for each project. Our input has been valued and largely integrated, which is extremely satisfying but also a little nerve-wracking. They have a lot of faith in our abilities, and our workloads are still fairly heavy until each of our departure dates. To give a sense of the team, the breakdown is:
· Greg: planning a Renewable Energy Conference for the end of November, will be living with me in Calabar
· Evelyne: HIV/AIDS program assistant, helping with policy advising+public awareness, will also be living with me in Calabar
· Rebecca: construction/training/implementation of sustainable water filtration systems in rural Nigeria
· Adrian, Solarin and Kevin are going to Sierra Leone, and I don’t have the brain power to summarize their jobs here –the infrastructure in Freetown is relatively low-budget and modest compared to Nigeria (due to funding discrepancies), and their daily routines and responsibilities will understandably be quite different from ours
We are attending a frank "Sex, Drugs and Reggae" Overseas Policy meeting in a few hours, then Evelyne will be giving a brief HIV/AIDS seminar. Greg, Adrian, Evelyne and I will be driving back down to Vancouver for the weekend, then going over to Victoria for a week-long "cultural sensitivity training" offered by the Feds. I'll be staying with my best friend Jade (and my favourite of "the boyfriends", Dave), which is very exciting. I'll get to pop in back at home for one night (and there will be an enormous Family Dinner for fun) and then we're spending all of July 18 driving back up to Smithers.
