Introductions circle the room
as everyone recites greetings, their name and the organization for which they
work. Aware of the one Mzungu in the room, the guests speak English. My turn:
“Habari zenu. Ninaitwa Hannah Beckett. Nafanya kazi International Justice
Mission.” I switch back to English having just exhausted a quarter my Swahili
knowledge, though building rapport.
“Your English is conc,” Kenyans tell me. Short for concentrated, “conc”
means I speak in a strong, fast-paced American accent.
Today the twenty-five
stakeholders gathered at Remand represent various organizations providing social
services in the prison (spiritual, medical, educational, legal aid etc.). The following
two hours' discussion focuses on how to improve coordination between CSOs and
the prison service in order to serve prisoners holistically. As IJM’s
representative at this meeting, I get to talk about our work and how CSOs and the Kenyan Prison Service can better partner together.
Snag a suit, say you work for an international NGO and there you have it... instant gravitas. No one knows I am just an intern, not to mention a waitress only six months ago. I love this about my work with IJM— an abundance of opportunities and constant supply of challenges.
Snag a suit, say you work for an international NGO and there you have it... instant gravitas. No one knows I am just an intern, not to mention a waitress only six months ago. I love this about my work with IJM— an abundance of opportunities and constant supply of challenges.
The last three months have
flown by and busyness characterizes my time here thus far. When I return home
from work I just spent the last nine hours interacting, listening, talking,
planning and problem-solving. Mentally exhausted, I consciously have to switch
off my brain from continuing to think about work and relax, so I also postpone
the blogging.
That said, it is nice to be
back and I will try to make up for the paucity. Let’s start with work…
I love it.
I absolutely love my job. I
do not even excel as an Executive Assistant (improving though, I hope), but enjoy
most things about my role. I have an excellent boss who genuinely cares about
the work, the staff and seeing change in Kenya. Because he serves as the
Casework Director, I get exposure to all areas of our work and ongoing cases. Though
rarely boring, my days can seem routine: taxi, coffee, greetings, stillness,
devotions, work, lunch, work, coffee, walk, grocery, home//repeat.
I do not get to go to prison
every day, sadly (strange statement, that), but I do enjoy a large variety of
tasks. Roughly fifty-percent of my tasks pertain to the daily activities of
scheduling, editing, meetings, organization and follow-up. The other fifty-percent, and
the half I prefer, relates more to long-term projects like research, external
partnerships and improving casework processes. I particularly appreciate the
hands-on involvement I have and feel more confident to voice ideas, suggest
improvements and propose projects than when I arrived. (Event planning stands as
the one exception to my above statement. The soul-sucking, stress-inducing duty
of office visit and event planning contravene every part of my personality.)
However, without a doubt, the best part of my job is my interaction with fellow staff.
Before arriving in Nairobi I
looked forward to getting to know my coworkers and that experience has brought such
joy. The dedicated,
professional and fun team astounds me at how hard they work and what they
accomplish, sometimes in difficult circumstances.
Our lawyers, for example, routinely endure Nairobi traffic and sit for hours in court, only to hear a
judge cursorily dismiss them because he has not expended the necessary time
to write the judgment needed for case resolution. Our investigators may spend weeks
planning an arrest only to encounter a tip-off that spoils the entire
operation. Despite this, the staff perseveres without despondency.
Since I arrived three months
ago IJM has achieved convictions of two perpetrators of child sexual assault,
seen the release of twenty-five innocently imprisoned Kenyans and celebrated the
restoration of five of our clients. This represents only a small portion of the
daily work done by the group of people I can now call my friends as we joke,
laugh, lament, struggle, pray and achieve together. In future I will share more
work experiences and successes, but in the meantime... did I mention I love my
job?
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*Civil
Society Organizations
