I was asked to write for the "where are they now?" section of our IOMBA alumni newsletter.
Here is what came out..
Here is what came out..
Monday, March 18, 2013
Friday, March 15, 2013
Quick update on an inspiring development
The most amazing thing happened this week. At least I found it amazing, so here it is.
On Monday I finally had the meeting at the Israeli embassy, which I thought would lead to an immediate start of my working there, but it turned out that due to a complex paper trail, I would only be able to start in April.
This made me quite confused: what am I supposed to do for three whole weeks now? I was really counting on starting working, and now I had about 25 really long, really empty days to fill.
The next day the insight came to me: I'll post on the Yangon expat google group that I'm looking for something to do, and see what comes up.
This was my ad:
The responses were amazing! I got about 15 of them, including:
- Building a website for a catholic HIV organization in Myanmar
- Helping with a school production of Animal Farm - the musical
- Teaching 6th grade
- T.A for kindergarten
- Reading someone's novel which he just completed and wants a second opinion on
- Helping to organize various charity events
- Helping to write articles for the local yellow pages
- Writing reports on water and microfinance
.. and the list goes on. In return, I was offered anything from "coffee, friendship and gratitude" (my favorite) to "an honorarium" (Also not too bad).
It's maybe not that surprising since I offered my time for free, but still - I was somehow inspired by the whole collaborative spirit of the thing.
I love it when weird ideas just work!
And now the coming two weeks - which I was so disappointed and confused about - have turned into a great opportunity to try something new! (Guess which option(s) I chose..)
Now off we are for a weekend at the beach! *sigh*, things are really going my way recently :)
On Monday I finally had the meeting at the Israeli embassy, which I thought would lead to an immediate start of my working there, but it turned out that due to a complex paper trail, I would only be able to start in April.
This made me quite confused: what am I supposed to do for three whole weeks now? I was really counting on starting working, and now I had about 25 really long, really empty days to fill.
The next day the insight came to me: I'll post on the Yangon expat google group that I'm looking for something to do, and see what comes up.
This was my ad:
The responses were amazing! I got about 15 of them, including:
- Building a website for a catholic HIV organization in Myanmar
- Helping with a school production of Animal Farm - the musical
- Teaching 6th grade
- T.A for kindergarten
- Reading someone's novel which he just completed and wants a second opinion on
- Helping to organize various charity events
- Helping to write articles for the local yellow pages
- Writing reports on water and microfinance
.. and the list goes on. In return, I was offered anything from "coffee, friendship and gratitude" (my favorite) to "an honorarium" (Also not too bad).
It's maybe not that surprising since I offered my time for free, but still - I was somehow inspired by the whole collaborative spirit of the thing.
I love it when weird ideas just work!
And now the coming two weeks - which I was so disappointed and confused about - have turned into a great opportunity to try something new! (Guess which option(s) I chose..)
Now off we are for a weekend at the beach! *sigh*, things are really going my way recently :)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)