On Thursday I had been five months in Nigeria.
On Friday I said goodbye to the warm work atmosphere of the Finnish Embassy, and was touched by the beautiful goodbye party the Ambassador hosted for me and Anna.
On Saturday I cheered for USA in the British village, and was happy for finding some Magners cider.
On Sunday I had a very relaxing day with the usual amazing pancake breakfast.
And on Monday I started as an intern at the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.
I will be working with issues related to anti corruption, cyber crime, anti-human trafficking and smuggling of migrants. Especially, I will be involved with a project improving the communication between West African airports in order to combat cocaine trafficking. The project and my new boss were featured in one of the Nigerian newspapers.
So I changed the small embassy work environment for a grand UN house that hosts all the UN agencies of Nigeria. Our office of about 20 people is beside UNESCO and UNICEF. I changed the easiness of working with Finns for working with a handful of international staff and a number of Nigerians. And I changed the embassy mindset on trade promotion for a global perspective to crime and drugs.
On my first day I took ‘basic security in the field’ and ‘advanced security in the field’ courses in order to get the appropriate security clearance. Besides learning on spotting suspicious envelopes, the language of radio communication and the planning of a convoy, I was told what to do in an earthquake, how to find water in a desert, how to read North from the stars on the different hemispheres, and how to wear clothes in layers in the cold. So, I should be now properly equipped to work with the UN in Nigeria!
fake nigerian girl 
Cool stuff Ilona — good luck with your new endeavours!
kiitos Joni! :)
ensimmäiset viikot vaikuttavat erilaiselta, mutta huippumielenkiintoiselta.
hyvää juhannusta, ja nähdään elokuussa!