Using French!

This week at work is exciting because I'm getting to use French skills! I've been able to practice at various stores and with people I meet and whatnot, but it feels good to use it in a professional setting. Granted, what I'm doing isn't all that sophisticated, but you have to start somewhere, right?

I got back to work on Tuesday and didn't really know what I was supposed to be doing since it'd been a full week since I'd been in the office. The other intern was editing our paper on Safe Motherhood and the programme news for June is already done so I couldn't think of anything there was for me to do. I asked my boss if she had any work for me and she said she'd have something for me after lunch. So after eating my sandwich in the park she asked me how good my French is. I kind of jumped at the chance and didn't know if it would be better or worse for me to exaggerate my French. Like, she must know I'm not fluent since I don't really speak French in the office, but I don't want her to think I don't know anything! She asked me if I thought I could handle translating French to English to clarify what she meant. I'm comfortable with that, especially because it turned out I needed to summarize as well so I could take some liberty with words as well.

Soroptimist International of Europe has a partnership with Soroptimist International of America, which conducts its business mostly in English, not French or German like we do. So I got to translate a Soroptimist Club in Benin's funding request for disaster relief. One of the schools near this club has been closed due to funding, lacks toilets and a lot of students end up skipping lunch while school's in term since they either can't get or can't afford lunch. I've never read so much justification for toilets before--I just thought the statement "There are 700 students and no running water" would suffice, but this document was about 5 pages long.

The club was also proposing to sponsor 4 girls whose family's main income comes from begging. These girls either have to miss school or "board" with tutors where they're more often than not abused or molested. For about $8600 this club is going to 1) install toilets and running water 2) build a cafeteria and provide meals for 11 cents each 3) sponsor the 4 needy girls and 4) help make development in Benin sustainable. Seems pretty efficient to me.

Something I noticed while reading through the project reports is that American Soroptimist Clubs spend a lot more per woman benefited but African clubs provide services to more women. I guess this makes sense since usually the African clubs are undertaking community projects and American clubs usually sponsor specific women. I just thought that was interesting to see and wonder if it affects how the clubs and headquarters themselves run.

So that's what's going on at work. Tuesday and Wednesday I didn't do much, but that's okay since I had a pretty busy long weekend. Today I went and visited an apartment that would be nice to stay in, but it's still unclear if my mom could stay with me. If she can, then this is a great deal. If she can't, that means I'd be paying $1200 for two weeks of lodging. Tomorrow I'm visiting a "pavillion" that Mommy and I could rent while she's here. I kind of irritated the renter with my incredibly useless cellphone so hopefully that doesn't affect its availability. Next time I travel abroad, I'm going to figure out a different set up for this cellphone deal. Having a UK number in Switzerland is pretty useless and it's even more useless that it doesn't ever accept incoming calls.

Other than that not much else to report. I got over-charged for bananas today at the grocery store but didn't really get why so I just let it go. It was during a busy time at the grocery store and I don't think I could've explained myself. I sort of made up for it by buying 4lbs of pasta for about $2. I'm set for the month. Also, other mundane news: my feet were absolutely destroyed by all the walking I did this weekend. It's hard to wear anything other than my flip flops and bandaids won't stay on for very long--not even moleskins!! Ugh. I wish I had better feet. Thanks Dad.