#fnfbproject

[gnh-ivanamarelja-blog]

Thank you!

As my last blog post I would like to thank all of the people who were involved in my internship. GNH teachers and supervisors for giving me the opportunity to work with the project. My internship hosts who were supportive and engaged in the project, and providing me with incredible knowledge and ideas for my future career and education.  

Lastly, thank you guys for following my journey! 

[gnh-ivanamarelja-blog]

Challenges

The greatest task throughout my internship was the cultural differences and perceptions. There is high prevalence of mistrust towards foreigners as well as their own government institutions which complicated my access to supermarkets for data collection. Each time I wanted to enter a supermarket I had to explain and almost persuade the store manager to let me do it and I often had to pretend I was local. This perception was also reflected in the tons of paperwork that had to be approved before letting me enter e.g. laboratories at the institute or follow a hygiene inspector out in the field. 

To overcome some of these tasks I really had to be open-minded, culturally sensitive and extremely patient and use my communication skills to the fullest.

Though I did not come across any specific challenges I could solve by myself the main challenges during my internship included:

-          Loose timing/poor time management

-          Challenging transportation and infrastructure

-          Working culture, mindset and hierarchy

The loose timing and challenging transportation was a major issue during my internship as my task was to go out in the field and collect data. When combining those two issues with the general public skepticism and unwillingness to cooperate, even the most straightforward tasks became somehow problematic. The hierarchy was something I got used to during my internship and could therefore adjust my way of approaching retail managers, drivers, inspectors, etc.