A Game Plan for the Future

The past couple of weeks (well, all of July post-Cape Town) have felt similar to Peace Corps in that the days crawl along, but the weeks fly by. What ended up being one of my primary projects - a spreadsheet detailing all US government health projects in Zambia - has pretty much concluded. The mapping team at USAID Washington was able to take that data and create fairly easy-to-read provincial level maps from the spreadsheet. My portion wasn't really the hard part (the software did that), but I do feel like the series of maps could end up being an important tool to have around, at least until the fiscal year ends and some of the programs change. I'm making major progress on another front - talking to anyone and everyone about my future. One of my goals for the internship was to figure out where I should start out in global health, and specifically, if I belonged more on the administrative end (USAID) or in a more hands-on programmatic role. I'm still not entirely sure, but I do have a better understanding of the advantages of each. Over the past six weeks, I've had to chance to have one-on-one time with several people from USAID Zambia, USAID Washington, CDC, Peace Corps (of course), and a USAID implementing partner. State Department staff have also been quite willing to share what they love and hate about being an expat (having a housing allowance is great, finding quality schools for your kids is not). One thing that hasn't changed after all these discussions is that I still want to work for the US government - whether that's in USAID, CDC, or Peace Corps. The work is important, the benefits are pretty difficult to beat, and, honestly, if I'm going to live anywhere overseas, I'd prefer to be associated with the US mission. Happily, with the advice I've received, I've begun to chart out a course of fellowships and jobs to pursue in the fall, once I'm again entrenched in school. I also feel really fortunate, upon reflection about the job search ahead of me, that I get to figure this out on my own and not worry about a family or spouse having to follow me wherever I want to go. For once, it seems like it's better to be single. Finally.