United Nations in Uzbekistan

My very first day at the UN Information Office. That day I was sitting at the table, staring at the computer sitting in front of me and a sheet of paper with a list of tasks. I tried to do some translation but it didn’t work, because I felt like a deer caught in the headlights. I remember looking up and seeing a co-worker’s hands flying across her keyboard, and thinking ‘that’s what they mean by translation’. In a moment a man rectangular glasses with metal frames appeared in front of me, and he gave me questions to answer one by one. At the time I found this hard to cope with, but now as an intern, I am aware of the importance of moment when I applied to be an intern at UN Information Office.   

These thoughts come to me every time I walk into the office early in the morning, and I see the white door with the English words ‘UN Information Centre’. The life and work at the UN Information Office is fascinating, and to be frank it is so much more than I expected. In this place the whole day’s work seems to last sixty minutes, because the work never stops and the number of tasks to achieve continues to grow. This is not because no-one in the office is interested in doing the work, but rather it is because the office is full of people who are amazing productive. This is an office where the tasks you do have real meaning, where you accept true responsibility for the tasks you have been set, and where you can grow as a person. When I talk about responsibility, I talk about self-sufficiency. From my earliest days at the office I tried to do the work as quickly as possible, and because I was not very familiar with the work of the UN Information Office I was often embarrassed when I asked for help. However, for me this was a great lesson in ‘self-determination’. I soon realized that my work at the UN Information Office was a great opportunity to explore, to look at things from a different angle. However, despite the beauty of my words about the UN Information Office I would be lying if I told you that the internship is a fairy-tale. Indeed it is very complicated, and can challenge you on a minute-by-minute basis.                             

In conclusion I would like to add that no matter what I do or say, working at the UN Information Office is all about progress, about the merits of hard work, and about the love of doing a job well!