Beimote Ngozi Etim, Currency Museum, Nigeria and Mona Melling, Sarawak Museum, Malaysia: ‘Worthy Ambassadors’
Beimote Ngozi Etim, Education Officer / Assistant Curator, Central Bank of Nigeria Currency Museum, Nigeria and Mona Melling, Documentation and Content Development Offcier, Sarawak Museum, Malaysia
We can’t believe the ITP has come to an end! How did the days go by so fast? It seemed just like yesterday that we met new friends. We have learned many things, been to many places and yet, many more things remain not done. These past six weeks have been one of the most memorable for us. Having made many (hopefully long lasting) international friends, been to places that we could only dream of and the experiences – awesome! The last few days were intense, working on our exhibition proposal projects and trying to make good interpretation for our displays. The most challenging part was that we had to learn to be good team players by learning to compromise.
We had a fabulous time at Her Majesty’s Theatre last Friday. For many of us, it was a first experience at a London theatre where we saw the Phantom of the Opera. It was mind blowing, more so the fact that it’s in its 30th year and the seats were still filled to the galleries. From the sound effects to the costumes, one could only imagine what it must have felt like to actually live in that time.
Saturday saw us at the Wembley Stadium where we witnessed a live pre-season friendly football match between Tottenham Hotspur and Juventus – another first for us. The sky was beautiful, the laughter was contagious and we did not want the day to end.
For our last weekend in London, what more can a girl do but shop! We also visited some other museums which we hadn’t had time to visit during previous weekends, attended Mass and just generally chilled. We had to take stock of the last six weeks, what we had achieved and what we intend to do on our return to our various countries. Making good memories together and learning a lot from each other is what we treasured most. And when we’re back to our own countries, we’ll look back to our time on the ITP with much fondness. The experiences gathered so far, cannot be quantified, but the expectations on us from our institutions back home will be great. We hope that we will be worthy ambassadors of the British Museum International Training Programme of 2017!!