23 October 2014
Saara Shanti Kumar
3671 Hudson Manor Terrace, Apt. 15K
Bronx, NY 10463
Food and Agriculture Organization
United NationsLiaison Office for North America
2121 K Street NW, Suite 800-B
Washington, DC 20037
To Whom It May Concern:
I am writing to provide a reflection of my internship experience in Libreville, Gabon this past summer with the FAO Regional Office for Central Africa. I extend my deepest gratitude to the individuals who made this experience possible for me and my fellow interns.
When I was presented with the opportunity to travel and learn under the FAOin the early months of 2014.I could not refuse. I was the youngest of the four interns that were sent from my university and therefore had the least academic experience with agriculture and development. I was assigned to the internship position entitled “Agricultural Policy and Investment” under the supervision of Mme. OdileAngoran. Upon arrival at the FAOSFC office in Libreville I was presented with three options of focus for my two-month internship. The first option was to compile information on the various crop and food prices in the region and contribute to a database on this topic. The second option was to research the history, formation, and goals of CAADP/PDDAA (Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme) and evaluate how the goals were being met in various countries in the sub-region. The third option was to examine the dynamics of the FAO banana cooperatives in the Remboué region through the topics of farmer finances, annual investment in the land, profits, and spending. I chose to focus most heavily on Option 2 (CAADP), yet was interested in Option 3 as well and chose to also write a much shorter report on the topic of dynamics in the Remboué.
Our first week in Libreville was devoted to helping us settle into our apartment, our daily office duties, and the city itself. M. SankungSagnia was incredibly welcoming and warm to us, and served at the beginning as a much-needed translator in meetings that were conducted in French. Each of the interns had varying French language skills ranging from over seven years of study to no experience at all. I had a moderate amount of French language skills, but was very hesitant to speak. As the internship went on, I became much more confident with the language, which was one of my goals for the summer. Because so much of the social and professional interaction in the office occurs in French (and all interaction in outside places such as supermarkets, taxis, restaurants, etc. occurs in French) I would recommend that only students with at least minimal French language skills apply for this internship, as the one intern who had no French skills did suffer somewhat. However, my fellow intern who had absolutely no French skills dedicated some time to reviewing French vocabulary in the evenings, and by the end of our two-month stay he had picked up a remarkable amount of informal French.
After the first week we started work on our projects. The interns where given supplies and computers and allowed a great degree of autonomy over our time. I found it difficult at first to allocate my time efficiently and was worried that I was not spending my time on the right tasks. When I approached my supervisors to ask for help they directed me to relevant FAO databases such as the ADAM Report system and specific files that had been compiled by FAOSFC. Their help was very useful and helped me to focus my research.
Our first mission was scheduled about three weeks into our stay in Gabon. In preparation for this trip we were each asked to create survey questions for the banana farmers whose fields we would be visiting. I created a lengthy survey that covered many topics such as the time and money spent on each farm task, the ways in which profit was spent or saved, and what factors the cooperative members believed to be detrimental to group cooperation.Led by M. KoumbaMouendou Descartes, two other American interns and I piled into an FAO vehicle and head out to the town of Bifoun. For the next week we travelled each day to different banana farms in the Remboué and conducted our interviews. I quickly found that half of the questions that I had prepared were either irrelevant or unimportant, but some of the questions sparked extremely valuable discussions with the cooperative members and coop presidents. I learned a great deal about the priorities and needs of different farmers and found that these varied greatly between the cooperatives. Visiting the Remboué region for that one week is an experience I will never forget. I remember it constantly as I resume studies again during thisfall semester. I cannot forget what it felt like to witness the difficulties of agricultural labor in the heat and humidity of the rainforest, nor can I forget the feeling of literally stepping into the footprints of forest elephants as we inspected a banana field that had been destroyed by a herd. The mission was truly humbling and inspiring. As I reflect upon the conversations I had there and the people who let me interview them about their lives, I am continuing to uncover lessons, both academic and personal.
About halfway through my stay, my supervisor, Mme. Angoran, informed me that I would be accompanying her to Chad for a conference on the progress of the country through the CAADP processes. I had travelled to Gabon expecting to live in the capital city and visit one or two rural areas, so the chance to travel to yet another country in the sub-region with an entirely different character, history, climate and population thrilled me. I accompanied Mme. Angoran to the capital city of N’djamena where I attended the CAADP conference and met with other FAO staff from many nations including Cameroon, Senegal, Cote D’Ivoire, Chad, among others. I cannot describe how valuable it was to meet these people and have this experience. They were all trained in different disciplines from economics to engineering, they each spoke multiple languages, and were very kind to me and accommodating of my limited French skills. I had the coincidental pleasure of meeting a woman who had received her graduate degree from my university while I was at the national FAO office in Chad. For a young student such as myself, hearing these people speak about the work that they were doing was inspiring and motivational. I equate my week-long experience in Chad with exposure to the type of work that I would like to do in the future.
Once I returned from Chad it was time to configure and present all of the information I had gathered regarding CAADP into my major report as well as compile the results of the mission to the Remboué.Under Mme. Angoran’s direction I created profiles of each of the eight countries in the Central African sub-region and evaluated how CAADP funds were being allocated to meet each of the nations’ CPF (Country Program Framework) goals. My major report also included a history of CAADP, its implementation process, its varying progress across the continent, its structural critiques, and its future implications. The office component of the internship culminated in a presentation to the staff in which these reports were synthesized into a spoken presentation with a supporting PowerPoint. Despite a language barrier existing between some of us, we were able to conclude with an insightful question and answer period.
Under the supervision of M. Sagnia, M. Descartes, and Mme. Angoran I was able to draw out the most poignant results of the interviews I had conducted in the Remboué and pinpoint the differences behind how the various banana cooperatives viewed the viability of receiving bank credit, the pros and cons of chemical fertilizer, and the actual spending or investment of money after the harvest.
I learned a tremendous amount from both of these projects that were so different from each other in scale and goals. It was very meaningful to me when I was told that these reports would be useful to the ongoing work of the office and would be shared with the Ministry of Agriculture in Gabon.
I remember feeling confused as to what was expected from me or what the plan for the week was at certain points in my internship. In retrospect, I appreciate this uncertainty as part of what it means to work in an office or on a project where you are responsible for setting your own timeframe of work. This was different from a college work setting in that it was much more disorienting but also more humbling. Once I started asking more questions I began to feel worried that I was interrupting my supervisors’ work with too much pestering. However, I was never turned away from an office door when I knocked for help or clarification. The time and effort that the individuals in the FAOSFC office took out of their day to help the other interns and myself was truly remarkable and I am very grateful for it.
It is tempting to say that I would have tried to better prepare myself for the difficulties of living and working abroad had I known what life in Libreville was like before I arrived. Though the initial transition period was exhausting and at times scary, I cannot say that I would change anything about it. Perhaps I am glossing over difficult memories with nostalgia, but I remember even in moments of intense worry or doubt, I knew I was learning invaluable lessons. The difficult situations I experienced in Gabon – ranging from not having screens on our windows to keep out mosquitos to running into some serious mishaps and delays with our flight at the Libreville airport – have provided me with an intense sense of awareness and humility. I found reasons to be thankful for these mishaps in both the short and long run. For example, when all the power in Libreville went out due to an electrical failure (a fairly common occurrence), the other interns and I spent the night sitting outside with the family that we were renting our apartment from and watched the stars emerge after the lights of the city vanished around us. Bats flying between the trees occasionally obstructed our view of the stars. About five seconds after the power had gone out, our landlord had come running from his home to our front door with a huge flashlight for us to borrow. It was an uncomfortable night without electricity to power our fans, but it made for such a pleasant, significant, and connective memory. I hope this personal anecdote helps to convey what I really mean to say: that the inconveniences of life in a country such as Gabon may be difficult for Americans to cope with – but, it is possible and likely that as time passes these difficulties become part of normal life and will highlight the true beauty of the country: its people and their willingness to help those they care for.
From my first night in Libreville to my last, my experience in Gabon was characterized by the warmth of the FAO staff and the local family to which they entrusted us. The internship program has had a successful few years, and I recommend that dedicated, self-motivateduniversity studentswho are willing to adapt to physical, linguistic, and cultural challenges continue to participate in the program. There are a great deal of academic and professional lessons to be learned in the sub-regional FAOSFCoffice. I am both proud and humbled by the fact that I was able to work alongside my supervisors and their projects. Lastly, intrinsic to the concept of an international experience, there are infinite opportunities for personal growth and the formation of inter-continental relationships. I am so grateful to the people who opened their offices, homes, and hearts to me. They will always be welcome in mine.
With gratitude and sincerity,
Saara Shanti Kumar
Cornell University
International Agriculture & Rural Development, 2017