The week in review and World Refugee Day

After lots of anticipation I arrived in Oakland, California and began training at FORGE headquarters on June 15th. After the first week of training I can assure you that I am LOVING it! Training is a pretty tight schedule with two sessions a day and pages and pages of reading before, between, and after each session. It is all such interesting material and I'm eating it up! We are learning about the history and conflicts in the countries that produced the refugees we will be working with (mainly Angola, DR Congo, Rwanda, Sudan, and Burundi) and FORGE's unique Collaborative Project Planning approach that embodies the FORGE mission.

I am training with two other Project Managers: Jeremy, who will be in Meheba with me, and Sara, who will be in Kala camp. As well, Mateo has joined our training as he will be spending the next few months being FORGE's pro bono attorney helping to set up FORGE's new work in the DRC. We all get along great and the FORGE staff is wonderful.

This past Saturday was the 9th annual World Refugee Day. FORGE hosted a benefit in San Francisco at Mr. (Urban Barber Shop and Lounge) in honor of the more than 2 million refugees around the world. The event was a success and was the first time that I was able to meet past Project Managers and hear about their great experiences. Bellow is a photo of me with Jeremy, my partner in Meheba.
This photo is quite misleading as Jeremy is actually about a foot taller than I am, but was kind enough to come down for a photo :). If you'd like to see more photos of the event, go here.

This week has been full of firsts and full of excitement. I know that as the training goes on I will continue to have confirmation about this step I am taking in going to Zambia. While I am loving training, I can't wait to get on the ground!! Less than one week!