November 1 – 5: Doha, Qatar
On October 31st, I boarded my flight to Doha with a backpack full of luggage and my hopes full of dreams for the project that I had been working on with my team from the WISE Learner’s Voice Program. This program gave me the opportunity to work alongside teammates from various countries of the world, Yemen, Afghanistan, South Sudan, Cyprus and Qatar to name a few, on a project that aims at addressing the lack of primary schooling in refugee camps in Kenya. Our project is called PANTOK, meaning family in the Sohaili dialect.
Over the next 3 days we polished our project proposal to be presented at the WISE Summit. Excitement in the form of nervousness, tension and pressure was up in the air as we gave the project the best we could. After all, this was what we had been working on for an entire year and we had to perform. On November 3rd, we presented our project, along with other teams from the program, in front of investors, government officials, UN and other non-governmental advocates. Our project gained the support we expected and we benefited from the suggestions from the experts. Then after came the moment that most of us knew that this might be the last time we, as a team, will be together.
The next day, we said goodbyes as I embarked on my journey to Paris where a lot happened.
November 6 – 9: Paris, France
Paris is a wonderful city with magnificent buildings and architecture surrounding the Seine river. The Eiffel tower was definitely the main highlight of my trip. Having only seen it in the movies, being right underneath it with my head bent upwards as my eyes opened wide in awe to its glimmering light and grandiose presence is an entirely different feeling. It might just be that I am the first in my family to behold its beauty up in person and I aim to take my family there someday to have them share a part of what I have felt. The other highlight of the trip was the Prado Museum which felt more so like an underground city. Unfortunately, I was only able to speed through 3 quarters of the museum in a day. Believe me, it is huge. I went through the ancient Greek, Egyptian, Italian and the Islamic quarters. Masterpiece by masterpiece from the great Michaelangelo, followed by ancient mummified pharaohs and cats, followed by the Mona Lisa. That was probably the most exciting day of my life.
There is one more reason for it. That was the day when my bag was stolen on the train back to my friend’s place. What was in that bag was very important – passport, laptop, phone, backup drives and my dear ipod. So that day I waited in hopes of my bag being found at the train station, the next day I went to the Nepalese embassy in Paris to ask them how I can go back to Germany. After reporting to the police as I had been instructed, I boarded the bus back to Jacobs for 13 hours with no music after having missed almost 10 days of class. Nevertheless, these 10 days were worth it, every second of it!