My Experience As A Water Warrior

My name is Axella Umuhoza Mugeni, a high school graduate, doing an internship at water access Rwanda under the program called Water Warriors.

Before my Internship at Water Access Rwanda, as any high school graduate in their gap year, I was just sitting at home doing nothing, stagnant in my mental, personal, and professional growth.

My day was for many instances spent watching movies and sleeping all day.

However, with my internship, things got busy. My daily was about helping all departments in whatever urgent matters. I was specifically involved in finance-related activities where I recorded all daily water sales, filed receipts, etc. Like any new person in this, it was so hard adapting to the work environment but with the help of the team, I adapted myself quickly. The internship was also very focused to growing my basic and soft skillset.

My internship journey was indeed fruitful. I learned different skills namely: planning, organizing, analyzing, professional competencies, effective communication, managing relationships, and teamwork. Furthermore, I developed time management skills, Microsoft office use skills (Word, Excel, Publisher, and PowerPoint), touch typing ( reached a 58 wpm typing speed), reading speed (370 wpm), decision making, problem solving, being flexible and working effectively as a member of this amazing team.

The MOST interesting part of my internship is the part when we went on the company retreat. Here I learned different skills while also enjoying myself with my teammates. It was my first time going on a night fishing tour and seeing lake Kivu so close with my own eyes.

The LEAST interesting part of my internship: I will rephrase this into difficulties where I went on my first long trip to Rubengera in western parts of Rwanda with other team members to conduct a Geophysical survey (VES). The place was so hot which made me sleep while at work as can be seen in the picture below. I am not good at traveling for more than three hours but the experience was worth it.

In a nutshell, I would like give my advice to future interns especially water warriors at Water Access Rwanda to go for it and fully embrace this chapter in your professional and personal life because for me it gave me a chance to extend my knowledge and get an idea of what I want to focus on in my University studies.