aiesec...the biggest family in the world :)

óla @gt!

sorry i haven´t posted until now, but just wanted to drop a quick line to say hey and tell you guys about something i´ve noticed here that makes me miss you guys so much yet feel like you´re right here with me :D for those of you who don´t know me, my name is johanna (or tater tot as some call me) and i´m currently into my 3rd month of my traineeship in salvador, brazil. check out my blog if you want to learn more about my experience here so far, but today i wanted to talk about something a little different.

i hang out with brazilians a lot here, but because this is aiesec, there are always people from all over the world around too, which is awesome :) right now we´ve got reps from canada, colombia, ecuador, norway, england, and the u.s. (that would be me, ha ha). some of my fondest memories in @gt (and i´m sure many that i´ll make in this next year) involve getting together with aiesecers to check out new foods, celebrations, movies, dances, etc. from other cultures...it´s a great way to explore the world from your own backyard, and you´d be amazed at how much you can learn and experience (check out the holi post on this blog for a great example). i´ve always loved that about our lc at gt, and i´ve missed you guys like crazy, but have been soooooo happy to find here that the lc here is the same way! just goes to show how alike we all are, right?

this past sunday was colombian independence day, and with the help of our 2 colombian trainees and their other colombian friends here, this past weekend was a celebration to remember. the picture below was taken at a colombian independence day party organized by colombian ex-pats living in salvador. note that in this picture only 2 of the people are colombian, yet all are aiesecers - and that, my beloved lc, is what makes us the biggest family in the world :D

beijos do brasil!

@Masr yoheb @GT.

Dear AIESECers of GT,

I have signed many emails and conversations to you as "Love from Egypt". And, although I love you incredibly, I wanted to explain to you that that love is by no means limited to me. AIESEC in Egypt loves you, too. From the exposure of our members through MENALDS in Morocco and MENAXLDS in Tunisia, to meeting up with Egyptians around the world (especially Mohammed and Ma'andi in our own city) - AIESECers who hail from Atlanta are loved over here.
I just returned (literally JUST walked in to my room and fired up my computer to chat with you all) from National Planning Meeting and National Interns Gathering 2008, a simultaneous conference for the leadership of AIESEC Egypt to plan their national and local directions with the brand new EB teams, both on the LC and MC levels, as well as interns from around the country (and around the world for that matter) to meet and develop themselves and their traineeship experience by increasing their position in the global network.
I was a Faci for the intern's track - and I can't tell you how many people either knew a member of AIESEC at GT or of our LC (very often through Bebot - which we danced anytime the music came on), and how much it meant to me that I could talk endlessly about how proud I am to be an AIESECer from GT. So continue to be the incredible organization that you are, the incredible people you contain, dear @GT.
You're kind of a big deal out here, people know you.

Love from Egypt,

Maddie

Waiting for the world to change: probably a bad Idea

For centuries the battle of morality was fought between those who claimed that your life belongs to God and those who claimed that it belongs to your neighbors - between those who preached that the good is self-sacrifice for the sake of ghosts in heaven and those who preached that the good is self-sacrifice for the sake of incompetents on earth. And no one came to say that your life belongs to you and that the good is to live it.

You know that point where you’re waiting for the bus, and you know the distance isn’t very far for you to travel, and you can either wait for the bus or walk? I do, and I would love to see a mathematical proof about the subject, because there is defiantly a crux upon which it becomes pointless to wait any longer. There is also a point where you get so frustrated that it’s probably better for your mental health to walk- and when you decide to do this the bus will undoubtedly pass you in the next two minuets- in this situation I recommend the following: smile, take a deep breath and shout: “I’m walking, and I’m all the more happy because of it!”

AIESEC spouts ideas of revolutions, of impact, and the peaceful fulfillment of humankinds potential. Ideas all worth fighting for, in their greatest and smallest aspects, but they are ideas you HAVE to fight for.

Here in Kenya there is a word “Jobo” which very closely relates to work, but is not just the surface aspect of work, but the idea of your life being encompassed and consumed by your work (kinda like AIESEC). When you are joboing, your work becomes your life, and to be honest it’s a wonderful feeling. On the side of Joboing Is… waiting, something that as the late Dr. Suse emphasized: is a place you don’t want to be, and waiting happens here all to much.

When you wait you aren’t doing much of anything, it’s a very reactive position, and instigates almost nothing; it’s driven many of my fellow workers here on the brink of insanity. Ergo when someone sets up a time for a meeting, I have to bring a book, or my laptop and continue my work and not expect anyone to be one time, it’s very depressing in it’s own right.

If you wait for a regime to fall, or for your grades to improve, or for you to become older, or for the economy to get better you just proving that you *are not good* at what ever you do and you can’t overcome the obstacles that exist, go you.

I’ve become very proactive here, and I’ve gotten allot out of it. I’ve also gotten in trouble because I step on peoples toes when they feel I’m doing their job (and I feel they aren’t). But I wouldn’t have it any other way, because in the end, if your experience (and by that I mean life) is screwed up because some one else didn’t do their job, blaming them doesn’t help you in the long run, no does it?

So go change the world, go run with the lions, and go mess up a few orderly situations to see change, and go fight to good fight and reap the rewards of your victory. Do it because if you don’t, no one else will. If we all lived like that, and didn’t depend on others to change the world for us, “Waiting for the world to change,” then this would be a hell of a lot better place.

*If you thoughts this was un-organized, sporadic, and not thought out enough, good for you, maybe you should write something about it- If you’re not on this blog and would like to submit a relevant article, then send it to me at sean.kolk@gmail.com , because I’m open to criticism, as long as you actually do something with it and not just *wine in a very annoying manner* like everybody else.


*The post has been edited because little children read the amazing content on this blog to further their world view, and broaden their global view- and because of this should not be exposed to dirty and unsavory words*