Last days in Germany

Today was my last day in Germany. I am going to leave to Kenya tomorrow! And: To be honest I am not sad leaving the current german weather behind 😉

During the last days I had the chance to say goodbye to my parents and my friends in Darmstadt and Hanau. Today I was busy with getting the stamp on my university-holiday-certificate  (Yes! 500 Euros saved :-)) and finally putting the stacks of clothes into that backpack…

I don´t want to complain about the size of the backpack. If it was bigger I wouldn´t be able to carry it anyways. I just tried it on (22,5 kg) and I can tell you it´s heavy enough. As 20 kg (I love egypt air) are not so much I am happy to be able to fill half of Benjamin´s backpack as well… 28 kg luggage sounds way better for a 17-week stay!

Thanks to all of you for your good wishes. Keep your fingers crossed for a good start in Nairobi.

ICLS in Nürnberg

During the weekend I was a trainer on an Intercultural Learning Seminar in Nürnberg. 10 AIESECers took part who all want to go on an international internship. The delegates were talking a lot about cultures, culture shock, their expectations towards their internship and what not.

But also for me as a trainer it was a great opportunity to think about the internship and my stay in Africa… What might come up and how can I maybe deal with it… Those of you who know Hofstede´s culture dimensions and who know me might already have guessed: My low score in “power distance” and high score in “Individualism” will make my stay in Kenya especially interesting 😉

To the 10 lovely delegates of the weekend: Keep me and each other up to date where you go and what you experience there!

Qual der Wahl / Spoilt for choices

I have now booked a flight for the 8th of July from Frankfurt via Kairo to Nairobi. As I will start working on the 21st of July I have around 10 days for travelling before I start my internship in Nairobi… Great 🙂

Should I go to the indian ocean and relax on the seaside or start right away with a hiking trip to the mountains? To understand my severe problems you could have a look at this pic or this 🙂

Medical preparation

Reading the webpage of the Auswärtiges Amt helped me for the first steps… The I went to see the Gesundheitsamt: Vaccinations again typhus, measles mumps & rubella, Hepatitis A & B, rabies (Tollwut), yellow feber, meningitis and finally the Malaria medication.

It will take some weeks to get all that done…

I am going to Kenia

Just on Tuesday I received the Paper saying “Manuela was accepted for that internship in Kenya”. So now its sure: I will go to Nairobi for an 3-month development internship starting in July 2008.

For first pics to increase your anticipation look here: http://www.christoph-grandt.com/reaalbums/kenya/

Keep coming here for news and pictures from my side. Looking forward to your comments and messages 🙂