DIY Development Internship

I had a wonderful experience interning in Kenya. One thing to know is that there isn't much guidance. Like the headline states, it's a very do-it-yourself kind of program. While you receive some guidance from the program staff, they're not with you everyday in your field placement. I'm not sure how it was for everybody, but based on my experience and the other interns in my group, our host organizations didn't provide much guidance either. They were eager to help and extremely excited to have interns, but expected you to be an expert on everything. Coming straight out of undergrad, I, unfortunately, was not. However, what better way to learn and gain experience than to be thrown right in and expected to find a problem and solve it on your own.

It's was an incredible experience. Not just because of the internship, but living in a developing country with the locals. My host family and neighbors constantly reminded me how excited they were to have someone from the US in their village who was there to get to know them as people and to help them. Apparently, most people from the US and Europe that go to Kenya are only there for the animals and the landscape. So while the internship was intended for work experience and to help the people in the community, it was way more than that. Not to be too cliche, but it was a life changing experience and I feel like the community members and my host family helped me way more than I helped them.

I won't sit here and lie, saying that it was a piece of cake. There were lots of tough things to deal with such as the language barrier, many shocking/uncomfortable cultural practices, lack of time management and structure in working conditions, the food, and the living conditions in general. There were also the obvious "issues", if you will, of being the only white person in a village and being fairly isolated, but again, I wouldn't trade the experience for the world. All the absurdities, all the awkwardness, all the frustrations, all the loneliness, all the hardships were completely worth it and resulted in an amazing growth experience, both personally and intellectually.

I would highly recommend this program to anyone who has an interest in development work but doesn't have much or any experience living abroad, isn't sure they want to devote 2 years to the Peace Corps, or just wants a new life experience.