Pearl #14 ~ Excerpt from Walking With Inkas

This is an excerpt from my travel blog, Walking with Inkas, and was originally written on May 25, 2006.

The First Week, Part II, and Beyond

SUMMARY:

Finished the check-in process at the Embassy, which involved running all over the Embassy, scheduling appointments and meeting almost everyone, including the DCM (Deputy Chief of Mission), who's second in command after the Ambassador. Asked for work to do and am now on my way to becoming the Microsoft Access guru at the Embassy (never learned it before)! Attended a reception at the DCM's house, where I had my first Pisco Sour and met Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for WHA Charles Shapiro. My friend Rotney came to visit for a night. We met the President of Peru (Toledo) and had an Ambassador sighting to make the most of Rotney's short time here and start the week off right.

FOR DETAIL LOVERS, ONLY:

Those of you who saw me during my student days (not so very long ago) may recall that one of the easiest ways to locate me was to stand in the middle of campus and wait for me to run by. There always seemed to be an errand to run, a class to get to, or a meeting to attend. The first couple days at the Embassy were the same, so I quickly felt at home.

After my initial meeting at the Ambassador's house, I returned to the Embassy and dove right into the rest of the check-in process. I met with the IPC and ISC people to get my internet log-on information; I met with the RSO people to get my badge and be submitted to more security information then I ever cared to know (although earthquake protocol and numbers for decent taxi services were much appreciated); I met with the Health Unit only to discover that the typhoid, etc. vaccines that I got before leaving the States were not enough if I want to chill out in the Amazon (and I do)--I'll need yellow fever and malaria vaccines, too. But most of all, I met with the DCM. Now for those of you who don't speak Embassy-eze, DCM stands for Deputy Chief of Mission, and is the second highest position at the Embassy, after the Ambassador, of course.

Phyllis (The DCM's first name, and yes I'm dropping names right now) is really down to earth and I found it very easy to talk to her. By the time we met on Tuesday afternoon, I had been pretty much all over the Embassy and had a good idea of the culture and operations. However, I was beginning to wonder if I was ever going to be given real work to do. Jared, the other intern, apparently had all kinds of projects to work on and receptions to attend, while I seemed to be left to my own devices, wandering the building and working through my check-in sheet. Part of the problem was that my supervisor was just returning from a family funeral and my unofficial sponsor was new to our department, making my entry into the internship a little disorganized. So when the DCM asked what I was hoping to accomplish professionally, I told her that I'd like to get some more hands-on HR work, and that I planned on mentioning that to my supervisor when I finally met her the following day. She took this information and gave me a couple of concrete examples of projects I could possibly help with, for which I was very grateful. I left our meeting feeling confident that this would not just be one of those paper-pushing/photocopying internships that you sometimes hear about. I'll spend my summer working hard, and will have solid experience to fall back on when I get home.

Being tossed in relatively on my own wasn't all bad, though. Like I said, I was able to get to know a lot of different people in different departments, and used my status as a Midwesterner as a contact agent. Those of you from Minnesota are well-aware of Wisconsin pride, but it's a bit foreign to most of the employees here, since many of them are from eastern and southern parts of the state. They seemed to get a kick out of my loyalty to the Packers and apparent comfort with being labeled a "Cheesehead".

I had to change one habit by my second day, though. Although the climate here is much like what I left, but with less rain, I could not seem to convince people that I wasn't cold as I wandered around in short sleeves. I quickly learned that for my own peace of mind and others' physical comfort (they literally got cold for me), I should always have a light jacket or a sweater with me when donning my "summer" shirts. Unfortunately, I only have one jacket and one sweater. Fortunately, many of the outfits I packed are long-sleeved. Even better, there's plenty of shopping to do in Lima, including lots of apparel made from the oh-so-soft baby alpaca wool that's native to the country. Monday is Memorial Day and I don't have to work (we get both American and Peruvian holidays). Guess what I'll be doing, wink wink?

On Wednesday, I finally met with my supervisor. She promised to find work for me to do, so I was thrilled when I was asked to help the Financial Management Office (FMO) with a project involving benefit distribution. Well, at least that's how I define it. It doesn't have as much to do with HR as it does computer application development, but it's related, so it's a start. And many of you know that I'm a computer geek wannabe, so I'm content for the moment. The crux of the project is that I have to create an application in MS Access that will make utility payments for all of the Embassy housing more efficient. Right now, they're using MS Excel, which is alright but can take forever to fill in data by hand, which also makes it more mistake-prone. There was just one problem with this project being given to me: I don't know how to use Access. But neither did anyone else that was involved, and since I'm the one who has the time to learn right now (and the interest), I'm their girl. 

I'm actually having a lot of fun staring at the computer screen for hours at a time, reading the Microsoft Access "One-Stop Reference" book as if it's the latest New York Times Best-Selling Novel. Like I said, computer geek wannabe. And I've been wanting to learn Access forever. I'd say I just got my first internship-based transferable skill. Ha.

continued in Pearl #16 . . .