First week Working in Woking

Ahoy from the United Kingdom!

Ok - here is a bit of background:
I have been extremely swamped at work over the last two weeks and to add to the matter, I have no internet access at my apartment (and no phone.) I am cut off from the world! However, i do occasionally get a chance to come to the office during off hours and use internet.

First week in Woking, Surrey (city, county):

Here is the flat (apartment) above. As you can see its pretty nice, so we're very lucky to have a flat like this for the 3 months here on such short notice. However, as I said above, too bad we dont have phone or internet. Another annoyance is the Washer/Dryer, oh my does it suck. I miss my gigantic washer and dryer at home where I could wash all my clothes for a week or two in one or two loads. The ones here are much smaller and could only take in about 5-6 articles of clothing and take 2-3 hours time to wash and dry (in one.) Another thing we're missing is a microwave. Oh how nice it was to have a microwave and be able to pop things in and out comes dinner. Anyways, something unusual is that we have two bathrooms as my roommate and I share the apartment but get to have our own baths, niiice, I like!

Ok on to the town itself, Woking:

Well, the best way to put it is that its almost like old town Alexandria. Small, charming, and most of the stores and entertainment options within a 10 minute walk. Can't complain, apt to work is about a 10-15 minute walk. Grocery store (morrisons) right across from us. Here is a pic of the town center. Woking is about 45 minute (40-50 miles) south west of London. I live and work here so don't really need to go into the city much.

Btw - you may have noticed the metal statue and the plane (unless your blind.) These were put up in honor of HG Wells, the author of the "War of the Worlds". Interstingly enough, Wells lived in Woking in the late 1800s and that is when he wrote the book! I believe that in the book (or movie) the Martians first land in Woking!!!! Also, Woking has the first and oldest Muslim Mosque in all of UK.

Work:

Accenture Development Partnerships (ADP) - www.accenture.com/adp

Summary of what ADP does within Accenture: "Nonprofit organisation that provides high-quality consulting services to donors, non-governmental organisations and other nonprofit entities working in developing countries."

Basically, affordable consulting for non-profits/NGOs that concentrate on doing good in developing countries around the world.

My piece of the pie: Plan International - www.plan-international.org

I work for a non-profit child aid and support organization that helps children around the world with everything from development education to basic needs such as medicine and care.

Plan focuses on five key areas (from the site):

Education - All children, young people and adults deserve access to learning and life skills that enable them to realise their potential
Health - Everyone has the right to grow up healthy
Habitat - Improving living conditions to provide a safe environment for all
Livelihood - Working out ways for families to improve their income
Building relationships - Creating a worldwide community working to improve children's lives

What I do / will do for Plan:

I am here to help Plan with their Global web strategy. They want to increase awareness of their objectives through the rich medium of the web. This will help them with raising awareness, increasing sponsorships, and will make it easier for Plan to get the right information out to their supporters including breaking news and developments around disasters and relief like the recent Tsunami. Time is short (12 weeks), and there is much work to be done. Pressure is on as the work We do here has an impact at a scale greater then just improved efficiency and presense for an organization, it will hopefully trickle down to helping reach Plans goals and objectives aimed at improving the lives of children around the world.

As I explained, its been rather busy here and I havent had much personal time on the web, however, I will try and update this blog as much as possible!

Cheerio!

Cheers,

Houman