Well this is exciting!
Here I am, writing my first ever post for my blog about my very imminent travels to Colombia with The Humanity Exchange. I’m leaving on Tuesday 1st June (very early in the morning may I add!) and will be flying via Miami into Medellin to arrive at about 10pm that night.
After initially applying for my internship way back in February sometime, I have been through an interesting process to reach this point. Making contact with The Humanity Exchange was step one along with specifying what my interests were and what type of internship I would like to do. The roles available in Colombia immediately sprang out at me and I decided to go for an internship with Amichoco, an NGO in Medellin city (North West Colombia) which has around 4 million inhabitants at present.
Luckily, Amichoco seemed to be keen on me too and after a skype interview with Maria from the organisation’s planning department, I was accepted as an intern for the summer!! Now that was exciting… the only problem was how to fund this trip of a lifetime? Working for the university I attend had brought me some income but not enough… luckily Kingston University had the Phillip Russell* travel scholarship available and I decided to apply. I got my written application in with minutes to spare (I like to live on the edge!) and then had to sit back and wait.. and wait….and then waited some more. One day when I was just checking my e-mails I opened one and yes!! I had been shortlisted to the final six applicants. Cut to a very nerve wracking 15 minute presentation in front of a panel of 6 people in which I’m pretty sure I appeared like a blubbering wreck. I was so nervous I was stuttering and getting mixed up – I wanted this so much, more than anything I had done before. I walked out of the presentation,cringeing and kicking myself for being so nervous. I was sure I’d messed up. I went back to uni with my head hung low and tried to do some work. I started planning what I was going to do with my summer instead of going to Colombia.
And then… my phone beeped. I had a voicemail message. I bolted out the building and listened to it. It was asking me to call back and so I did straight away. When I was told I’d got the scholarship I literally wanted to scream and I was bouncing around like a crazy fool! That day was a great one. I was like a cat who’d got the cream and my dream of interning in Colombia was now a reality. And all with only one month till I was planning to fly out there. PANIC STATIONS!!
Ok, ok, I think I have typed enough for now and I’m off to make some fish and chips for dinner (YUM!). This blogging is quite contagious though and I’ll be back to tell you about what’s happened in this last month whilst I’ve been planning my trip.
Ta ra for now,
Nic x
