Af-riikka

I thought of comparing a bit the different work environments I have been exposed to lately: the European Commission in Brussels, and the project Jappoo/Woomal by the Senegalese scouts where I am working at the moment in Mboro, Senegal. This post is thus dedicated to all my fellow colleagues at the Commission :) The climate conditions and surroundings are certainly different when compared to the grey skies of Brussels. There won't be a drop of rain in Mboro before June, for sure, and the daytime temperatures hover around 30 degrees – in the morning only 21-22 degrees with a bit of wind and clouds. During the 30-minute walk to work on the straight road to the center of Mboro from my house, I encounter approximately three cars, four horse or donkey carts, a few other people walking and one bicycle. Not much traffic here. This morning, for example, I passed by a woman who carried a huge pile of firewood on her head, had around a 3-year-old child on her back, and a teddy bear in her lef...

I hate leaving. Especially when you've spent five months in a city that has proved to be at least an experience dozen times better than you had expected; or when you've met the most active, greatest and friendliest people Europe has to offer. In short someone is applying and wondering: should you come for a traineeship at the European Commission in Brussels? Yes, you should. Work-wise I was lucky to be in a unit that was less about procedures and more about the content: the quality of aid. I had the possibility to see how the European Commission cooperates - or at least tries to coordinate - with other international donors or UN agencies. I was also lucky to have enough time besides my duties to participate in events and trainings that were often more useful for me personally than for my unit, strictly speaking. During the five months I created, edited and read countless of excel sheets both for work and traineeship activities, organized half a dozen of cakesales and three spee...

I am ashamed to admit that I only started reading the main francophone Belgian newspaper, Le Soir last week - and only due to the fact that it was available free in Exki, a common chain of lunch take-away food near the Commission. The Commission sandwiches are less appetizing after a while, and I haven't had much time for proper lunches lately due to trainings, choral concerts and actual work. The main topic in paper of last week's Thursday was the possible lawsuit against the publisher of Tintin, a.k.a the national symbol of Belgium. Bienvenu Mbutu Mdondondo, a Congolese student in Belgium accuses the album "Tintin in Congo" (known in Finnish as "Tintti Afrikassa") of racism and wants it to be transferred from bookshops to museum displays. He pressed charges in Belgium in 2007 - still pending - and in France in 2009 ( Figaro article on the issue in French). Mdondondo has proclaimed to be ready to go to the European Court of Human Rights, if needed. Previ...

Time for another hobby post - last spring I wrote about my leisure activities in Finland ( in Finnish ), and I figured it would be time to do that in Belgium as well. Already six weeks (or seven?) have passed, and I have had plenty of time to slip into some kind of routine life rhythm. Dancing classes which I started promisingly in the beginning of October were annoyingly cut for some weeks because of a very persistent cough, which is now slowly fading away (I hope!). I have been able to go to flamenco classes for a few times, ballet and last Sunday also for a sabar class (Senegalese dance). A in the title of this post refers to another favourite sport of mine: the annual football league of the trainees is about to start. I was hesitant to join the team of our Directorate-General first, because it looked like I would be the only woman. In the end, that was a requirement for the team to play - to have at least one female player on the pitch during the whole match - and I'm now one o...

Warning: this post includes a lot of complaining about little things. I can't help but be constantly reminded by a friend of mine who also did an internship at the European Commission and later on worked there as a consultant for a few months. Samuli warned me: "On the face of it, everything seems to be working in Belgium. In reality, nothing works. Oh, so true. It is strange how differently and SLOWLY things function (or don't at all) in Belgium. Luckily I have been spared from taking care of all these practical things such as acquiring an internet connection, electricity and gas contracts or other, seemingly simple issues. In the end they are not that simple. Most of the things take one month. Having an internet connection? 4-6 weeks. Electricity? 2 weeks, at least, if the former tenant has called in his/her electricity contract in the apartment. Fridge? About 3 weeks. There are all these minor things that just don't make sense. For example, there is an automatic lau...

I went to Brussels for a week, and what did I get? First, the thing I went there to look for: an apartment, or rather a room in which to stay for five months. I made the decision already after seeing four different rooms during the first two days. Finding an affordable (read: less than €500 with all charges) furnished room for a short-term rental in a city with thousands of trainees coming there every year was not THAT straight-forward. It was still a lot easier than finding a place to stay in Helsinki right now. Not my house, unfortunately, but an art nouveau house of an architect Victor Horta, now a museum in Ixelles (a part of Brussels where I'll live). I'll have a smallish room with two little roof windows, facing some gorgeous art nouveau buildings across the street, in a house with five other trainees of various institutions. I'd assume it's around 20 minutes by public transport to the EU Commission buildings, and perhaps 30 minutes by foot, if I'll ever feel...