From Tuesdays to Fridays, I wake up at 6:30, do my bed, take a shower, have breakfast, dress up for work, shout at nick “hurry up we will be late for work”. Every day is another exciting day for me. Knowing that I will meet someone important, knowing that I will learn new things everyday from the meetings and panel discussions we hold. I always look forward to another day and the opportunities it presents. I take my bag, open the door and start walking down the streets of Bethesda, from home to Bethesda Metro Station. A 10 minute walk, The time is 8:00, I’m on my way to the train station, I have to be at work at 9:00, it takes me 40 minutes to get to farget North Metro Station and from there, I walk 10 minutes and I arrive at work at exactly 9:00, most of the time I’m the first to open the office.
The council for a community of democracies (CCD), a Non for Profit, situated in Farget North 1800 str, 1801 building. An NGO that focuses on promoting democracy in the world. our office is small but our vision is big and my boss, Mr. Bob Robert Lagamma, the president of the organization. I walk inside the office he greets with a smile and says “Ayanda we have some news on democracy in Mauritania, they are going to sign an agreement creating a transitional government before presidential elections in July, do you mind writing an article on that for the organization” “not at all Mr. Bob” I replied. I sit down in my desk, switch my computer on, Google Mauritania, read about the agreement and in few seconds my fingers start typing, time progresses and I’m done, I send it to Bob for editing, he comments, “this is good Ayanda, thank you for your work”, “no Sir” I replied “thank you for having a SAWIP Intern in your office, we really appreciate it.” The following day my article is posted on the organization’s website page on the left side with other interns articles on democracy, under the “Democracy in the news” column, titled “Mauritania reaches power sharing agreement.”

This is the type of work I do almost every day and the experience is amazing and the knowledge I have learnt is incredible. Mr. Bob is a very nice man, he has spent some time in South Africa during the presidency of cde Nelson Rolihlahla Madiba Mandela working as a Foreign Service Officer with the United States Information Agency serving in nine countries in Africa and Europe including Italy, South Africa, Nigeria, Senegal, Togo, Cote d’Ivoire. Sometimes we have lunch and we would talk for 1 to 2 hours about the politics of Africa, his very informed and he knows almost every country in Africa and he would tell me about their politics, how did conflict start, who was the cause and how did CCD and other organization promoted democracy in such countries and as we having lunch, sitting on a small table sitting opposite each other he would asks about the languages we speak, “south Africa has 11 official languages” I reply “and which one do you speak Ayanda”, he asks “Xhosa sir”, I reply, he gets so excited when he hears the clicks, sometimes I think he just wants to hear me clicking. Everyday when he leaves office he says “Ayanda, thank you for your work, we really appreciate it but I’ll see you tomorrow” he waves his hand and walks out of office, I remain seated on my chair, nodding my head, waving back and wishing him a good night. As I’m sitting on my desk finishing my article I think to myself, this is a relationship an employer and an employee should have I’m very fortunate to work for the Council for a Community of Democracies, the wealth of knowledge I have gained is overwhelming and I want to continue working on democracy in South Africa and with this mountain of knowledge I will be able to contribute to building a democratic Azania (South Africa)
To be continued…