Counting Down the Days of Summer

It is funny how much changes in the course of three weeks.  At the beginning of August, I wondered to myself how I would bide my time through the rest of summer.  Pivo Fest was over, money was low, and work with my organization was not exactly busy.  I figured I would count down the three weeks until my vacations at the end of August, but like waiting for a kettle to boil that only worsened the situation.  Now here I am, less than a day from my first vacation in August, and I a have more work than I ever thought I would during this summer.  In a way it feels great, and it makes these two upcoming vacations feel more deserved, but I only wish that this workload would have come sooner.

I often worried about the first summer during my Peace Corps service, because I wanted to continue to use my time to make an impact.  Macedonians take their summer holidays, especially the college students with which I work.  So I worried that I would be sitting in an empty office or at my home for most of the summer, watching movies or surfing Facebook aimlessly.  Luckily for me June was busy with IST and YMLP, and July continued to be busy with PlanCo and Pivo Fest.  But August brought about that tedium that I dreaded.

Rescuing me from this boredom were two projects that we organized for the summer.  Both projects would bring six volunteers from other countries to manage and implement activities in the Prilep area.  The first project is called Your Choice, which is a continuation of past projects.  Through this project, we have two interns, one of which is teaching Italian, and the other is teaching German to Macedonian students.  The other project is called I Promise, and its aim is to both increase the level of awareness for environmental protection among the youth and to promote our organization, AIESEC Prilep, to the young people.  I have been more involved with I Promise, and planning this project has not been too stressful.

However, planning the logistics to house and feed six interns for six weeks has taken a toll on all of us.  Since summer began, all of our members decided to take the holiday seriously, thus leaving our Executive Board, or Angela, Mihail, Pece, and me, with the responsibility of organizing these projects and planning for the year ahead.  Our LCP did all she could to set us up with a new bank account, with organizing the concepts of the project, and with finding the interns before she left for a two-week vacation to Paris.  However, during her absence, it was up to the three remaining members of the executive board to prepare the final details for the projects.

We had a few obstacles facing us only a few days before the interns arrived.  Keep in mind that we guaranteed in the job descriptions for this project that accommodation and one meal per day would be provided free of charge for each intern.  Thus, finding money or sponsorship to pay for these would be difficult to find for six foreign interns.  However, we were not allowed to fail. 

Luckily, the dean of the faculty promised us 200 Euros to pay for accommodation for the interns.  It was our job to find an apartment that would charge that much (including utilities) for only six weeks.  We were unsuccessful in finding a place until a few days before they arrived.  Luckily, somebody offered to rent the second floor of their home, with six beds, a kitchen, and utilities, for the price we requested.  Moreover, the owners of the apartment are very kind and have even offered to wash the clothes for the interns.  We were lucky to complete the most important task for the project only days before the interns arrived.

Finding food was much tougher.  The first time we approached restaurants to be our sponsors, many denied us saying that feeding six interns, even for two weeks, would cost them too much.  I proposed that we re-wrote our partnership proposal to offer more to these restaurants.  The first proposal mentioned that, in exchange for their support of our projects, we would advertise their company by including their logos on our posters and website.  However, I suggested that we also mention that, with our youth organization that will (hopefully) include over 30 students, we would prioritize their venue for all formal and informal events.  Additionally, when we host sponsored, pre-professional events, we would utilize their partnership by prioritizing them for catering.  The signs of success regarding the change of terms for partnership were instant.  Most restaurants continued to deny us, but one kafana, or traditional Macedonian restaurant, contacted us to meet further regarding the partnership.  They mentioned in their message that a partnership seemed profitable, and they were interested in learning more.  Also, another company had offered to give the interns vouchers for free lunch at its bakeries.  Thus, our interns will be fed one meal per day for the duration of their work.

Some of the interns on their first night in Prilep

Our summer interns and the EB of AIESEC Prilep

During the past few days, we have essentially been chaperoning the interns through the town.  However, these interns are very mature, and they have taken a liking to each other and to Macedonia very well.  We could not be luckier to have six interns who embody the AIESEC way.  However, this leaves me less time with work for my functional areas.  Throughout the rest of the year, I will manage the Outgoing Exchange functional area of AIESEC Prilep.  Essentially, I will be in charge of interviewing Macedonians who are interested in pursuing an internship, and with my soon-to-be team (fingers crossed), assist them in finding the perfect internship for the pre-professional careers.  AIESEC international was supposed to launch a new online platform for finding internships, but it has been postponed to November.  Thus, the more flexible and reasonable system has been delayed, and we must continue with the archaic ways of raising an intern for an AIESEC internship.  My mind has been mentally preparing in the background for the challenges I will face in the next three months.

Additionally, I have volunteered to manage the soon-to-be members of four who will be a part of the Team Management functional area of AIESEC Prilep.  We currently lack a vice president to manage this functional area, so both our LCP and I will manage this functional area through the next year.  Team Management (TM for short) is the worst performing and simultaneously most vital functional area of our organization, so a lot of energy will be dedicated toward this area for the upcoming months.

Transitioning from a more relaxed work schedule to one that is slightly more stressful has certainly made me exhausted.  Two nights ago, I was unable to stay awake past 10.30PM!  But all of this work has truly brought benefits to our organization and to the two other members of the Executive Board.   Let me divulge- as we were sitting together with the interns during their first night, in Prilep we were discussing the benefits of joining AIESEC for young people.  Sure, it is a lot of work for no pay, but the intangible benefits that both members of the EB gained while preparing for these projects were outstanding.  Our VP for Marketing created many online promotions, convinced the local television station to air our commercial, printed an article in one of Macedonia’s newspapers, and was just short of succeeding in attracting 40 students for the German and Italian classes.  The VP for Finance and External Relations met with the dean of the faculty, met with the representative for Environmental Affairs at the municipality, and established two partnerships with restaurants in Prilep.  I doubt they would have otherwise attempted what they had accomplished in the course of four weeks without joining AIESEC.

Despite all of the successes we achieved among our Executive Board over the past four weeks, we still have a much to strive for in the coming months.  Thus, my mind will not be fully at rest during my two vacations.  But, at least I will have something to escape (even if momentarily!) while relaxing on the Albanian coast or exploring the former Ottoman capital.