Mi Trabajo

So, I meant to do this in the last post, but sometimes I just get so carried away with myself. The job I will be doing in Colombia is for a program called Plan Desarme (literally: Plan to disarm) which was created by the United Nations. I will be working for ten weeks going into elementary schools and neighborhood centers to give presentations to students about how multiculturalism can be a tool for nonviolent conflict resolution. The nerve-wracking part is that these presentations need to be completed in Spanish! Luckily for me, I have a partner from the AIESEC EIA committee(The AIESEC from the area in Colombia where I will be living) named Andrea who I will be doing all of the presentations with, she also worked for Plan Desarme previously. Apparently Plan Desarme is very integrated into their LC and sponsors a lot of their events, which is awesome!

Tip for future AIESEC bloggers: start blogging before you start the job--start during the process where you're looking for a traineeship match. The process is usually not very fun, at least it wasn't for me, but a few funny stories came out of that time in my life. It starts when you read the traineeship postings in the AIESEC database that are sometimes posted in mixed-up english (now, I am not complaining, their english skillz are more advanced than any of my second language skillz) One job was: "Looking for: female aiesecer to shack up with," and further down the job description, "Bachelor: required." As I read this to my roommate Alex she yells, "Molly, what type of messed up sex scandal are you getting yourself into?"
Me: Well I think by the first part they just meant they only have housing available for a female, so they need a female to apply
Alex: Yeah, I got that, but why is a bachelor required?!
Me: a bachelor's...degree
Alex: hahahaha

Funny story 2 involved me having a small breakdown when I received emails that seemed to imply I needed to be, and was, fluent in Spanish for the job. One email said: "no more english, hahahahaaaa" direct quote, imagine the last part in a really evil cackle. Now, I wasn't trying to be a baby, I just didn't want everyone to be pissed when I got there and I wasn't fluent, and I didn't want my employer to be expecting someone different. I frantically emailed back saying, "I am not anywhere near being fluent, the job said it only required good Spanish, blah, blah, eeeeek." I soon received another email saying: "Could you put together a quick video of yourself talking about the Weapon Plan for the foundation and what you think you will be able to contribute to it." Spanish no longer was my priority as the freak out moved from minor to major and I yelled things like, "I am neither qualified NOR interested in creating weapon plans for them, weapon plan, WEAPON PLAN!? Seriously?!" to Alex (Since the furthest away we could get from each other in our dorm room was approximately 4 feet 8 inches she had the joy of experiencing all of these things with me). After sending another frantic email, this time to Sarah, all of the problems were fixed, because Sarah has magical powers: I was going to have someone with me who can speak Spanish and English which will help bridge any language gaps, and I didn't need to make the video since it was my exam time, and if I would have had to make the video it would have been talking about the UN-weapon plan, which is something that Plan Desarme talks about in their presentations. (the "un" part was kind of key to that email, whoops!)

so just to recap for myself and for others:
-I will be helping to teach nonviolence
-there are no weapons involved
-They don't think I'm fluent, only "good"
-I will be speaking mainly in Spanish
-I am not "shacking up" per se, with anyone
-I am a bachelor(ette), but it is not required for the job