One of the things that most attracted me to the Rotary Peace Fellowship was the chance to do the Applied Field Experience (AFE) in the summer between academic years.  We can do the AFE in whatever field we want though it can't be in our home country or in Japan.  The idea is to gain real-world experience in international relations and also develop a research-based project that can turn into the foundation of our M.A. thesis.


I knew from the beginning that I wanted to at least apply for a Department of State internship at one of the U.S. embassies abroad.  I had talked to a few other Peace Fellows who had done one and they had a very positive experience.  The other bonuses about doing such an internship now is that you have to be a full-time student to be eligible and also because the internship is unpaid.  While this would ordinarily be a huge roadblock, the benefit of being with Rotary is that the organization funds the AFE entirely so we are able to have the freedom to do whatever project or internship that we want - a pretty incredible opportunity! Other popular internships with fellows are interning at the UN or with an NGO.  

I had talked to several people before applying to an embassy internship because I knew they could be difficult to get.  My coordinator advised me to choose a country that wasn't a popular destination along with one that had a language requirement.  We settled on applying to Angola and Mozambique, two countries in Africa that have a Portuguese language requirement.  The application was due back in October and in early December I had interviews.



I found out last week that I was accepted at both embassies and ended up choosing Mozambique.  The internship is ten weeks from late June to late August during which I'll be working with the Public Affairs section of the embassy. This means that I get to focus on community outreach, English language education and international education/academic advising with students who are interested in studying abroad in the U.S.  I'm really excited and am already looking at ways to brush up on my Portuguese before leaving in June.

Though I was accepted, the actual process of making such an internship happen is far from over.  First, I have to be cleared in a federal background check which can take up to six months.  Though I'm not worried about passing, I'm worried about not getting cleared in time to start which is common for some interns who have traveled or lived in other countries quite a bit.  Getting a visa to Mozambique as an American in Tokyo can also be a bit tricky and I've already looked into that process.  Besides the piles of notarized and officially translated documents needed, Mozambique requires four consecutive blank pages in your passport, which I currently don't have.

Luckily, Sean noticed at the last minute that the U.S. embassy in Tokyo is still offering add-on visa pages to your passport, but only until December 31 of 2015 because of a new policy.  We managed to snag one of the last appointments for this and are headed there tomorrow with fingers crossed.  While Sean and I are really excited to receive quite a few visitors this year and next, I'm guess that visitors in Mozambique might not be so prolific.

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