A snapshot of the office in the Zona Colonial in Santo Domingo.
Hi all!
My name’s Michaela and I just arrived in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, where I’ll be working as the new media assistant for El Centro de Orientación e Investigación Integral (COIN) for six months.
I’m originally from Ottawa, but I’ve been living in Halifax for the past five years or so where I studied international development and contemporary philosophy and worked for an alternative weekly newspaper. Part of what drew me to this position was the opportunity it presented to test out all of the theory I learned in school and try putting it into practice — hard and fast — and to combine some of my diverging interests.
All of us interns had a two-day training session in Ottawa a few weeks ago where we got to meet the awesome people at ICAD and each other. I thought it was cool to hear what everyone was expecting from their placements and what will be expected of us.
I’m really looking forward to a crash course in working with groups marginalized by HIV/AIDS (not to mention a crash course in Spanish). I have no doubt that at the end of these six months I’ll look back to this post and laugh at how much I had to learn! At this point I don’t know a lot about what kind of work is needed in my position, but I’ll be sure to keep you all updated on the process. Currently we’re just working on getting our accomodations sorted out and all that other ‘first things first’ stuff. What I do know: everyone in the office seems absolutely wonderful (and to top it off, there happens to be air conditioning!). I’m feeling really lucky to be here and excited to get started.
Latest posts by Michaela Cavanagh (see all)
- First International Forum of Public Policy, Drugs and Vulnerability a great first step - December 10, 2013
- Dispatches from Sugar Mountain - October 3, 2013
- Weeks 1 and 2 - August 13, 2013