where oh where should i go?

As part of my program, my classmates and I will spend next summer abroad working with various organizations.  We're more than interns, but not quite staff - we help out with project evaluations and needs assessments and resource building and other various things, mostly things that organizations have been wanting / needing to do for a long time but have not had the time or resources to be able to do so.

We don't have to have our International Public Service Projects [IPSPs] confirmed until mid-March of next year, so at this point in the year we are just beginning to research organizations / projects / places that might be of interest to us.

As of now, I have many different issues I'm interested in working on - education, children's and human rights, and sustainable development - and also many places I am interested in going:

London.  I've always wanted to live there for some amount of time, and I figure a 10- to 12-week stint is pretty good.  Plus there are a ton of organizations there working on sustainable development.  And next summer are the Olympics.  In London.  What could be better.

Ladakh.  What an experience it would be to live in the mountains of Kashmir for 3 months and have the opportunity to travel in northern India.

New Zealand.  I've always wanted to go, and with the stipend from the school, I might finally be able to afford to get there.

Greece.  Its been on my list of places to go since I was a child.

Belfast.  This is one that wasn't really on my radar until I spoke to one of my classmates last week who got his Masters in History there, and he mentioned that he has friends in Belfast who do a lot of work in human rights.  I figured it would be worth looking in to.

So now I need to start researching the places and the possible organizations in a bit more detail, but I would love some input about any of the places.  And also suggestions of other places I might have not thought of.

You might be wondering why there are no mentions of Africa in my list.  That is partially for two reasons:

One is that I have always wanted to go to Africa, but I want to do more hands-on work, as opposed to evaluations, so I am saving it for another time in my life.  And two is that a lot of students usually end up somewhere in Africa, and I would like to work somewhere different.

So that's that.  Thoughts / comments / suggestions?

Woo pig.

xx