It's Been a Mois...

One month ago today (aka "mois" in French), I was boarding a plane in Milwaukee for Newark, NJ on to Geneva, Switzerland. At the beginning of 2022, I accepted a unique assignment, a six-month secondment with the American Red Cross to serve as a Sr. Officer, Private Sector Partnerships at the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC). I'm following in the footsteps of an amazing friend and mentor, Patty Flowers, who was the first to hold this position, for about six months virtually from Wisconsin and then from September 2021 - March 2022 in Geneva.

This position was created to help foster greater collaboration between the IFRC and the American Red Cross. As more and more corporations in particular are interested in working and engaging their employees globally, our team is working to build and grow partnerships that will support lifesaving programs through financial and in-kind support. Though I worked almost 12 years at the American Red Cross in a number of roles in both Washington, DC and Wisconsin, in these last four weeks I've learned so much about the IFRC and the Red Cross Movement as a whole.

Thankfully for me, our work language at the IFRC is English, though getting out into the city whether at the grocery store or a restaurant, I now have daily opportunities to practice French. I am grateful that the lessons and vocabulary learned over years of studying it in middle school, high school and a few years of college are slowly coming back.

Now that I've gotten a bit more settled in my role at work, in navigating the city and finding some early favorite places, I hope to share more with you here on what I am learning through this experience. So I hope you'll follow along!

One of my favorite things to do any time I travel is to make a Google Map with all of the places I plan to visit. I'll be keeping this updated throughout the trip and hope it may inspire you if you ever plan a trip to Geneva! All suggestions welcome, please share if you have any recommendations for me to add! (Link to Map)