Happy Birthday America

This is my third 4^th of July in five years that I have spent it out of the US of A. For a number of reasons it always makes me homesick. The first reason is that I never celebrate on the actual 4^th of July. Celebrations typically take place the weekend before or after. Second, I always have to work. Third, I don’t normally get to eat hamburgers, potato salad, or other great BBQ eats!

For the all the reasons spending the 4^th of July out of the US sucks, there is an aspect that makes it really fun, the patriotic feeling of being American in a foreign country. Don’t ask me why, but for some reason I feel more patriotic than I do when I am in the States. I typically try to avoid telling people I am American because of our stereotypes abroad but today I feel a pride that I typically don’t feel. Today, July 4^th, I am proud to be an American.

Often times it is also an opportunity for cultural exchange. My good friend who is German is totally surprised by how seriously Americans take Independence Day. She said that Germans typically don’t do anything and then followed up by saying, “maybe out history has something to do with that.” In Guatemala, many of my friends and colleagues thought Americans didn’t do enough to celebrate our independence. I guess it just depends on who you ask whether we do our independence day justice.

So as much as it sucks spending the 4^th of July out of the US, I have to say it is always interesting and different!

You do what? Where?

To fulfill my first reason for this blog I should explain what I am doing. To those of you who don’t know or haven’t read the About Me section, I am currently pursuing my Master of Public Policy focusing on International Development and Gender. My program requires students to complete a 10-week internship, so I am in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia interning with UN Women.

UN Women, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, was created to address serious challenges in the UN’s efforts to promote gender quality globally. It strives to be a champion for women and girls, providing them with a powerful voice at the global, regional and local levels.

Gender is an interesting area of development. Gender inequalities remain deeply entrenched in every society, including developed nations. Today most of the world’s women face huge barriers to equality, such as traditional views and attitudes, lack of access to basic education, health care, decent work and often face occupational segregation and gender wage gaps. Many women continue to suffer violence and discrimination, and women are continually under-represented in political and economic decision-making processes that could allow them to create change towards women.

My task this summer is to perform an assessment of the current status of women’s political participation and leadership in Ethiopia. I am working to assess not only the activities and results, but also the impact these initiatives have had. For example, if women were given scholarships to gain additional skills did that education result in better jobs. Or did a certain training result in increase enforcement of women’s rights.* Finally, I am trying to coordinating with other UN agencies to understand their current support of this issue and identify the gaps in support UN Women could potentially fill.

I am not going to lie; I feel a bit underprepared and a lot overwhelmed. But with that said, I am happy to be in an internship that allows me to gain practical experience, and develop a better understanding of development work. Not to mention I get to live in Africa for three months, BONUS!

Mom, I hope this helps you explain to your friends what I am actually doing.

*These examples are not real situations but fictitious situations from past experiences.