The Pearl of Africa

(de gauche a droite : Uganda/France/Inde/Canada/Nigeria/Etats Unis/ Uganda!)

Lake Victoria, Entebbe!

Je ne suis pas une brillante journaliste comme notre Rickie national mais je vais avoir ma chronique dans la newsletter d'AIESEC Sciences Po!


Mon premier article retranscris assez bien mes premiers mois ici et l'importance que prend AIESEC dans ma vie de tous les jours.


Ne vous etonnez pas si mon anglais est bien meilleur que d'habitude, ma roommate australienne a contribue au chef d'oeuvre!

Sarah in the Pearl of Africa

Africa : Drought, starvation, war, political instability and travel warnings?

or Uganda, the pearl of Africa : lush, heaps of bananas, peace, the same government for 26 years (!) and thousands of tour companies.

Guess what... I choose Uganda!

I've been in Uganda for my internship with UAP insurance for just over three months and in this short space of time I have discovered the meaning of "the AIESEC global competency model".

We usually talk, discuss and analyse this famous model but living it is a whole new experience!

Indeed you need quite a lot of emotional intelligence when you come back from an exhausting day of work and discover that there is no water at all in your house, and that the outage is not exactly temporary... ! cleanliness is relative!

Aaaaaahhhh relativity, you also learn the true meaning of this word when you live with at least ten different nationalities! My global mindset is still to be perfected and I am sure that my Chinese housemate will help me with that.

Not only do I live with different nationalities but also with the entire MC of AIESEC Uganda. Being surrounded by them inspired my Australian roommate Sigrid and I. We decided to take the lead and go for marketing calls selling exchange. This is proactive learning since obviously we've never done that before!

I have also learned a lot outside the MC house, in my job for instance, I work for an insurance company and trying to make insurance work sexy is not easy. It requires a really strong entrepreneurial outlook and I’m working on it by assisting with the creation of a new micro insurance product to cover agricultural risks.

Micro insurance and micro finance are obviously linked to the last but not the least of the competencies : social responsibility. Well, I am also working on this one thanks to the NGO I volunteer for. We are starting a micro credit project and our core idea is to promote the growth of … mushrooms !!!

Life in Africa is hectic, crazy and fulfilling in itself but AIESEC gives it another dimension ! The East African pioneer conference in Rwanda will be another dynamic and overwhelming African AIESEC experience, but I'll share stories from that next time!

Ugandanly yours