Satu Minggu . . .

So I’ve got one more week in Aceh before I leave indefinitely. However, I am planning my return.

I am scouting out work opportunities and feel relatively optimist. I’m looking with some of the larger NGOs and international organizations – various Red Crosses (American, Federation, Norwegian thought they might have something for me . . .), MercyCorps, Save the Children, Coffey, IOM, and other UN agencies, as well as continuing to work on my supervisors here at UNORC to figure out a way around contract restrictions in order to keep me on with Solution Exchange. I would dare to say, they want to keep me, as I have proven my worth as a Project Coordinator and Editor, but the catch is that they are not allowed to hire an intern until 6 months after finishing their internship. There is talk of shorting this period to only 3 months in which case I would be taken on as Editor when the project is passed from UNORC to the UN Country Team in Jakarta. This is a great prospect because I know the work inside and out, am interested in the concept of Solution Exchange, and would get an actual consultancy with the UN (and get paid!). The down side is that I would have to move to Jakarta! It’s a minor issue, well it is a fact that I will swallow if I am offered the position of course (its a job, and a job with the UN!) but, on a day to day basis the idea of residing in Jakarta makes me miserable. I’ve only been there briefly but it was so congested and polluted. Life in Jakarta is driving from one over lit air conditioned building (mall, office or mall) to a most probably other character-less air conditioned space which would be called home. Yikes, that’s grim. I do have some good friends in Jakarta, my friend Rizki and some other great people who have recently moved there now that many development workers from Aceh are being transferred back to headquarters because the major works are closing in Aceh province.

Anyway, musings about undecided futures.

For now, the last week is chalk full with finishing up multiple responsibilities with Solution Exchange and passing on my knowledge to a few new interns who I will shift the burden to when I leave. My boss, Hawi, and I have affectionately named it the “knowledge asset transfer process”. (I am officially a development dork because that’s probably not humorous to anyone else reading this . . . sigh . . . )

Things to do this week:

• Finalize content for new Solution Exchange website
• Finalize SE brochures with head’s edits, format with Marcus and translate into Bahasa with Maya
• Collect 5 relevant resource portals/docs from each CoP
• Save and Test all editing to Eleanor for “knowledge transfer”
• Complete and PDF Quarterly SE Report
• Complete and PDF Quarterly CoP Reports

. . . . Just a taste of what I should be doing rather than writing on my blog (though this is important too for my supporters!)

There is also a full list of personal things to do before I leave but I will have time for those this weekend.

Back to work . . .

Ta

The boss man, Hawi