I ended up working around the clock especially closer to the date of the conference. Two and half weeks before everyone flew to Brussels, I was told that I needed to go as well. Aaaahh!! I had no passport! My passport was ready exactly 2 days before I flew to Europe and I arranged for someone to cover for me at the school while I was away.

Working at the European Union was a nice experience. I got to shake hands with and talk to delegates from all over the world and officials from the UN. If you go there at the right time, you might even share an elevator with Kofi Annan and his ten bodyguards. But, security was tight. No one could pass the lobby without a UN security pass. That was a souvenir I still kept.

My contract ended with the ILD before 2002. I also quit my teaching assistant job in the summer of 2001. Then the following year was a major shift in my life.

» read next