My EduAction experiences in Brazil (March- June 2012)

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Esther Njeri Mwangi
Aiesec USIU
Nairobi, Kenya      
Project-EduAction, Porto Alegre
Brasil 2012

1st of March, 2012, at 6pm, I arrive in Sao Paulo for my Internship with EduAction (Gerdau)/AIESEC. I was among the last trainee to arrive at the hostel. We had the training workshops on 2nd and 3rd of March which took place in Sao Paulo, where we met our other colleagues who are now working in other cities of Brazil.

The workshops were meant to help us get to know more about Gerdau, EduAction, and Aiesec Brazil. We also had a chance to meet our colleagues from different corners.

5th of March, 2012 we arrive in Porto Alegre. A big number of the Education team, carrying the Brazilian flag, Education and Aiesec banners; waiting for us at the arrivals, perfect first impression. I then knew I will have a great time here. The trainee house just made my first night, beautiful with our flags hang next to the dining table and everything else neatly put together, just incredible.

The next day (6th)our Portuguese classes’ kicked off. We had a class a day at either 2pm or 7pm in the evening the entire March.  We have been learning Portuguese so as to be able to communicate with the youths in the schools we shall be working with; as well as other people as it is the official language in Brazil.

We just started the workshops in schools this April. For the first week of April, we have been going around some of the 11 schools on a Global Village tour. We dress in our diverse traditional regalia from the different countries, display our traditional foods and tell the students all stunning tales about our countries.

I personally got two other responsibilities besides EduAction. The first is I write and put up the trainees (my colleagues and I) experiences of the work place and everything related to our work here on the Education Brasil blog.  My other role is with the AIESEC local Committee in the External Relations and Strategy team. I totally love these two extra experiences giving me an opportunity to learn more, pretty exciting.

We also get time to explore Brazil during some weekends that we have free and I must say it has been a tremendous experience so far. I have had an excellent time here, the different jobs description were at first very challenging, but I have learnt to master them and I enjoy doing them now. I am looking forward to work with the children in the schools and further master my Portuguese which has been my biggest challenge so far.

With the experiences I have gathered so far, I am almost sure I have all it takes to give EduAction my all and to make sure I have also enough in stores to better my future episodes as a career lady and bring more good back home. So help me God

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