Each day I stare at a painting purchased from a local Nepali Artist. It is a watercolor representation of every day street life in downtown Kathmandu. I love watercolor. Something about undefined and imperfect shapes helps to blur the lines of reality making immersion within the art much easier. It brings me back, keeps me […]
Category Archives: CARE International
January
26
Managing emotions from a life-changing experience in Africa upon return to Europe: how to reset priorities in front of Europeans’rush and pressure at work?
posted by adelbarre
Being back to Europe, back to a closed office with another pace at work and in drastic climate conditions changes is a real challenge after more than 6 months volunteering experience in Africa. I was feeling a kind of “freedom” when I was in Africa, why? Free from a closed office with a great chance […]
January
17
A different kind of Christmas…..
posted by rebekahkturner
So when I’ve thought about spending Christmas away from home it usually involves a beach, hot sun and a barbecue….but this year, my first abroad, was a somewhat different kind of Christmas. Being a predominantly Hindu country, Christmas is not widely celebrated, except by the expat and the minority Nepali Christian community. […]
January
09
Life surprise: meeting an ex-GSK Pulse volunteer on my last volunteering day!
posted by adelbarre
How can life surprise us? I am ending my volunteering experience by spending these last days in GSK Johannesburg before flying back home…. and in the open space, next to me, is sitting an ex-GSK Pulse volunteer! The chemistry was immediately there when we introduced each other! As usual, Africans are so friendly in this […]
January
09
A trip less ordinary…
posted by rebekahkturner
As part of my assignment I had the privilege to visit the CARE-GSK project in Bangladesh. Now to be honest, Bangladesh has never been somewhere high on my list of places to travel. I guess all I really knew about it was that it was the most densely populated country in the world (apart from […]
December
21
Last moments in Africa & getting ready for 2018 ?
posted by adelbarre
This week, I was part of the last sales challenge with the team! We suffered from the heavy heat to go door-to-door to each shop in the compounds, trying to push key products! This time, we carried with us a lot of promotional materials on GSK Aquafresh toothpaste to support shops selling this product to […]
December
13
A Decade on…
posted by rebekahkturner
I first came to Nepal 10 years ago. The political situation was unstable and the King was under house arrest. Few Westerners graced the streets outside Thamel and the new found democracy was playing out in regular strikes and road blockages – travelling could be a nightmare. When I realised it was exactly 10 years […]
December
07
Enjoying the last weeks of volunteering in Zambia
posted by adelbarre
WOW… It is December, already? I can’t believe it… Time flies…But paradoxically, I have also witnessed time going through every single second as well as long moments of patience! Both professionally and personally, I am making the best of every single minute in this marvelous country of Zambia and enjoying it as much as I […]
November
17
Remembering…
posted by rebekahkturner
Wherever you are in the world there are some occasions that you never forget and for me one of those is Remembrance Sunday. For those of you who are unfamiliar with this, it is the day that we remember all those who have fought in the armed services and have either died or been injured. […]
November
10
Visiting GSK Consumer in Johannesburg & back to Market activations in the Lusaka peri-urban compounds
posted by adelbarre
Mid-October, we had the chance to fly to GSK offices in South Africa. In Johannesburg, both GSK Pharma and Consumer sit in the same building. This is a very nice and green business campus shared amongst several companies. We had the opportunity to meet our main point of contact, Kovilin, regarding the follow-up of Live […]
November
02
LivingWell in Zambia, chapter 8: Namibian safari
posted by KirstyKakanskas
Because you can’t get too much of a good thing, I decided to take another safari trip – this time to Etosha National Park in the north of Namibia. The terrain is very different; Namibia is very dry and there are huge salt pans in the area, meaning sparse foliage and very little water, which […]
November
02
When in Rome (well India)…
posted by rebekahkturner
It has been festival time in Nepal and during one of the long weekends, I decided to make the trek (in a plane) over to Delhi to visit my Knowledge Centre (KC) colleagues. After spending a couple of months in Nepal, it was amazing to see how my perceptions of normality had been altered. As […]
October
26
Hide and Seek…
posted by rebekahkturner
Sometimes there are things in life which are hidden from us, we see a piece of the picture and take it as the whole. It is only when these hidden things are revealed to us that we see the full picture and everything falls into place. And so it is here in the Kathmandu valley…for […]
October
22
Far West: Part 2
posted by rebekahkturner
In Western female society, we’re used to hearing the crazy, terrifying and sometimes humorous birthing stories of our friends – days of labour, emergency C-sections, husbands pulling out smelly food in the delivery suite – kebab anyone?! But even in the midst of the most difficult births there is the presence of highly qualified staff […]
October
12
Organizing Sales Challenge with Teams!
posted by adelbarre
Our team faced drops in sales last month. Morale in rural areas is quite low: communities do not have a lot of money due to an unfruitful harvest. And without cash, unfortunately, they don’t buy healthcare products, priority being given to getting food first for their families. In order to recover from a bad performance […]
