Oxford the beginning

First Days

I arrived in Oxford on June 28 with no glitches along the way.  My plane touched down at 1:40 pm and I made it through customs and the airport in time to catch the 2:20 bus to Oxford.  When I arrived at the park and ride stop that we had agreed on as my meeting place, I found out that there was no pay phone, so I had no way of letting Penny and Sarah knw I was in town.  I approached a kindly looking couple, explained the situation and asked them if they would be wiling to make a local call for me.  They agreed and left a very nice message on Penny's home phone and caught her on her mobile. (Pronounced with a long 'i') Penny and Sarah had not expected me to make the early bus and were still at the office.  They arrived shortly and whisked me away to a lovely dinner a Penny's and then to the apartment they had arranged for me to stay in until my room was available on Saturday. 

Friday I walked to the office for afternoon tea.  IFES really does live up to its commitment to be a student led indigenous organization.  the international office consists of 17 people, 18 now that I have arrived and we are looking forward to 19 when Daniel's visa is finally approved.  The communications department is consists of four five permanent people who do everything from write grants to communicate with field staff around the world to maintain the website.  My first assignment was to write the blurbs for Canada and the US for the updated web.

House hunting

Before I left Madison, I had searched the web and set up to rent a room in a house in a section of Oxford called Cowley.  The big draw was that the house was also the home of two dogs.  SAturday Penny came to take me to my new home.  As we wound our way through the streets of Oxford, it became evident that the house was not in Cowley, but another section that was not at all convenient for bus travel.  So I was back to square one, needing to find a place to stay and needing to vacate my current room in five days.

I started looking on Monday and found two places to look at Tuesday afternoon- one within walking distance of the office a single room in a building with two other occupants, co-ed, no dog, and a room across the street form Sarah with a very nice family, also no dog  and about 2.5 mile from the office.  Tuesday I also found another possibility in a section of Oxford called Wolvercote.  I single woman was renting a room in her home and she had a dog.  I went to look at it on Thursday and agreed to take it on Friday. 

The Office

I arrived for work on Monday June 2.  The first week I met everyone and got the feel for the place. (The group photo of the office shows the following members of the communications team from left to right: Anja (pronounced Anza), a native of Tunisia and the resident multilingual translator.  She keeps in touch with IFES staff around the world, gathering reports and encouraging the workers.  Sarah, a native of Canada and the primary writer.  She just completed the IFES annual report.  Andy, a local who is engaged to be married in October.  He keeps track of major donor communications and web statistics. The individual photo is Penny.  She has taught a Berkeley and lived in Canada.  She is the grant writer.  Pablo is also on the communications team.  He is in charge of the web and lives in Argentina.