Caring is sharing

Complementary to Monika’s blog we, the CARE team members, have become friends. Weekly meetings consist of Sushi lunches, Mediterrean dinners and beer evenings (check out Oblomov: special beer, only three euros from 21.00 until 23.00). These gatherings not only fruitfully contribute to our teamwork, it is a convenient way to explore the city’s beauties and hidden places. Since we are all internationals (I consider myself as an international, since I moved from Amsterdam to Groningen, which is quite a big step, haha) we’re all curious to find new spots and enjoy the cities lovely atmosphere.

Besides our food addiction we’re making good progress in the research project. As Monika already mentioned, we divided the team in three groups, which works out quite well. With lots of energy and enthusiasm we started the projected after a fruitful and very welcome meeting in The Hague. I must admit that evaluating and rewriting researches by CARE, is not a hard job to do and it does not challenge us to give critical notes and perspectives on their progress, strategies and outcomes. Thus, the research is not exactly what I expected in the beginning. Luckily, with such a motivated group it is easy to catch up and stay focused. Furthermore I want to stress the flexible and cooperative collaboration with the Office Director and our supervisors of CARE. Aga and I scheduled a meeting in Utrecht with Wouter, our supervisor, in one week. He suggested a face-to-face meeting and was willing to meet in Utrecht, which is convenient for all of us. Moreover I think that ‘live’ meetings are more effective and more fun to do, than skype meetings. Meanwhile we stay in touch via email, to exchange documents, proposals and to give feedback.

Besides the knowledge and capabilities that we gain from doing – mainly – quantitative research, working together with CARE, gives us a nice insight of how (big) NGOs work in the sense of projects, scale of operations and collaboration with partners. With regard to our career/future, it is crucial to get to know the companies and institutions that you might work for in the future.

In the past two weeks we participated in two workshops, arranged by our lovely IRSP supervisor Tessa Wapstra, who’s always willing to help and to join us for dinner and drinks. One was focusing on research methods, specifically on indicators; What is an indicator? What is its aim? What types of indicators do exist? How to apply those indicators into our track records? It was a general, though contributing presentation to our understanding of doing research. The second one, held by a professor teaching English, focused on academic writing. The hardest part of doing research with four different group members, with different writing styles and skills, is writing a coherent and precise research report. During the workshop we became familiar with different styles of academic writings, do’s and don’ts, and a critical feedback (in the form of exercises) on our writings so far. Also the professor signed us in on Nestor, where we can find useful and extensive documents with tips and tricks.

Overall, I think we are doing a great job and are all willing to carry out this project successfully, through sharing food (Aga, thanks for the Baklava), knowledge and experiences. Sharing is Caring!