“I raised a PO for our DSA for the FT of this week to one of our IP’s, but the CD and the DCD are out so they cannot sign the PO”. Not too long ago this was just as much like ‘abracadabra’ to me as it is to most of you readers now, but after three and a half months as an intern within the World Food Programme I kind of get the hang in it. My 6 months internship being already halfway, I feel the urge to reflect on the three months that have passed. The workload is low this week due to the holidays, so enough time available for this reflective update.

1600 km above me there are tens of thousand of people on the run from the bloodshed in North Kivu. WFP Zambia where I am doing an internship with TNT’s global experience programme, is trying to feed its northern neighbour. The situation is dire, we have to act now. The problem is availability of food in the region.

Dit weekend krijgt het Purchase for Progress project, waar ik tijdens het komende half jaar aan zal gaan werken, een gezicht. We gaan de bush in, op zoek naar de kleine boer. Zij zijn degenen die WFP probeert te helpen door meer direct van hun te kopen.

This weekend the Millenium Development Goals (MDG) Race was held in Lusaka, Zambia. As starry-eyed idealists me and my intern buddy veron are present. We signed up for the ‘health walk’. But the actual race is about the MDG-run. Yesterday night late the idea of participating in a maize-suit to represent WFP was born. Veron would make the suit, I would run in it.

During my intern in Zambia for the coming six months I will be helping in the development of a new WFP project: Purchase for Progress. This initiative is taking WFP local procurement programma just one step further by empowering small farmers to market their products. Here is a short introduction on what Purchase for Progress is about.

After a 28-hour flight I set foot on Zambian soil. When I step out of airplane the heat strikes me. A fresh breeze and a gold Zambian sun triggers a smile. Good to be in Africa:) For the coming six months I will be doing an TNT-sponsored intern here at WFP Zambia.

Hello! Today is Eid-el-Fitr, the celebration for the end of Ramadan, so the streets are calm (only accosted by one street vendor) and the office is almost empty. Although there is still no work (we resigned ourselves to the fact there wouldn’t be until we leave to Dori, which is scheduled for Thursday the 2nd) I did want to be there for some ‘internet-ing’, as I couldn’t make it yesterday. I was not feeling so well, although I was not actually sick- just no energy whatsoever, so I just lay in bed for the entire day. It’s a lot better today, and I will go to the UN doctor tomorrow for a quick check-up.

Hi everyone, yesterday we had both lunch and dinner at home for the first time. We had been going to the restaurant for lunch, and having some snack in the evening (the portions served at the restaurant are massive so that combined with the heat it doesn’t leave you that hungry in the evening), but we went to the supermarket the day before so we could cook. It was nice to be able to just relax at home, and in the evening it was fun to be cooking in the kitchen with the other two interns, and then have dinner altogether.

One of the biggest challenges here is undoubtedly shopping, or rather not shopping! Although we are only five minutes away from the office, the way is bordered with little souvenir/jewellery/crafts shops whose owners enthusiastically (to say the least) encourage us to step in their 2 square meter kingdom of 'bon prix' (good prices), even if just 'pour le plaisir des yeux' (for the pleasure of the eyes). The walls are lined to the ceiling with masks, necklaces, statues, batik paintings, camel-leather boxes, and more and more and more.

Hello! Since there is not much actual work yet we’ve spent the last few days reading many documents about the activities of the World Food Programme in Burkina Faso. It was a bit dry at first with the official country programme, but it got more interesting once I got the basics, and once I started with things like field mission reports, which are much more concrete and which also give an idea of what kind of field missions I might be involved in.