International Aboriginal Youth Internship

Dear Editor:

Last November, as I was waiting to sign a lease for a new apartment, I noticed I had a voicemail. When I listened to the voicemail, I had realized that I was not going to be moving into a new apartment just down the road, but a whole new continent.

The Atlantic Council for International Cooperation (ACIC) had me in for an interview for a position as a Community Engagement Assistant about a month earlier and I was chosen for an internship, with me going down to Iquitos in Perú with another fellow intern. Two other interns were going somewhere in Bhutan, and two others were going to Castro in Chile. Each one of us was also with another organization: the girls heading to Chile were representing the Institute of Island Studies at the University of PEI, the Bhutan pair was with GPI Atlantic, and with the Atlantic Policy Congress of First Nations Chiefs Secretariat in coordination with the Aboriginal Health Human Resources Initiative (AHHRI) as Community Engagement Assistant to promote health careers among youth in the Atlantic.

After working and preparing for departure throughout January 2012, my colleague and I flew off on a 10am flight to Lima, Perú on February 13. On our first night, the hotel was disgusting – no water, the outlets didn’t match, the heat was unbearable, there was a sudden earthquake – but it was only for a night. The next morning, we flew out to Iqui ...

 

Tags: ACIC, AHHRI, South America, travel