Work

After Gilly and I cam back from the needs assessment trip, we locked ourselves in a meeting room of VSO (air-conditioned!! this is not much of a torture, is it?) to complete the interim report to be presented to the executive officers of the Union. Gilly already started to work on several sections, and according to what we heard and observed in our previous trip, we have added some more items on the list, such as training and services to members. I assisted her with the completion of the report, and I had some input to it. I felt thrown into the task initially, but going to the consultation with Gilly really gave me good insight of the situation.

We worked on the report for two days, and on Wednesday it had to be presented to the executive members. Although at that point I already worked nearly a week and half, this was the first time when I went to their office and got formally introduced to the staff and executive members. Since it was my first meeting, I did not have to do much. I gave a short introduction about myself, my role, background etc, and I assisted in a participatory exercise after the presentation. Gilly did a fantastic job in presenting the summary of needs assessment, and it was very well received by members.

People have decided to call me michi, which is quite fine with me. I actually enjoy variations of my name, how people pronounce it or place an accent differently. What I do not like it when people are not sure about my name (I know it is hard) and as a result kind of feel awkward to speak to me. There is one person who is totally convinced that my name is Michelle, and I have given up on correcting him…

I felt relieved to finally see the people whom I would work with and the office.