Weekend in Kenya

This past weekend the IPCR crew (minus Lago) took 6-hour Impala shuttle (except that it was actually 8 hours) from Arusha to Nairobi. We arrived there at 4 pm Friday afternoon and met with Michael's friend, who had graciously found us a 4-bedroom apartment to stay in over the weekend. During our time there, we visited Kazuri, a fair trade-focused NGO that employs women to make beads, which are made into jewelery and sold overseas as well. This was followed by visiting a giraffe park, where we fed and took pictures with Daisy, who head-butted Michelle at one point because she did not have anymore food for her. After visiting a cultural/education centre on various African tribes (included tour of different village setups, followed by a cultural dance performance), we went into town and stopped at a market. As we were entering the market, we heard the sounds of a group of 50-60 men running down the main street to our right. In Nairobi, if you are caught stealing something, mob justice kicks in and you will be chased down, beaten, and either taken by the police or just killed. I did not see what happened to the main who was being chased down on Saturday. We proceeded into the market where everything continued like normal, bought what we wanted (it was an unnecessarily stressful hour, in my opinion), and left to return to our apartment and rest. I came back to Arusha Sunday afternoon (only 6 hours this time!) and rested.

Development course

This week I started my last class of the semester at Nyerere: Development in Africa. Our first class was a day trip to the University of Arusha, in Usa River which is an hour drive from Arusha. Uni is a beautiful campus located between Mt. Meru and Mt. Kilimanjaro. It is an Adventist school (though classes are not exclusive only to Adventists) focused on health, education and development. It is located amidst five local villages, to which the Uni’s medical centre services are open to, particularly to those who would otherwise have no access to medical care. After having some chai and chapatti, we met with the local village chiefs and executive officers, chatting with them about how they resolve conflict in their community, how they’re structured in decision-making, what they think of the University, etc. The day trip ended with a group dialogue between us Nyerere Centre students (us IPCR + 5 East African students) and a mix of Uni staff and students.

I'm glad for this class because our professor is really teaching us how to critique and improve the efficiency of an organization and its role in development. I just keep thinking of ways I may be able to apply these critical thinking and analytical skills to wherever I will be assigned to through Peace Corps.

We have a couple weeks of class left, after which I have two weeks free to myself until I will return home. I'm just trying to take everything day by day at this point. :)

don't worry i'm alive

Hi friends,

Just wanted to update you and let you know that I am alive! It's been a busy month, with classes, my internship and everything else outside of that. This week is the last week of my African Organizations class, after which I will be travelling to Nairobi with the rest of the IPCR crew. I anticipate a very bumpy 8 hour trip there. Next week marks the beginning of our last class: International Development. My internship at the UN has been going well in the sense that I am still learning.

Will spend some time next week updating about what we've been learning, as well as our short trip to Kenya! Hope ya'll are well :)

this is life

This week has been one of the busiest, craziest weeks. This was our last week of International Law class, meaning a research paper and test due by Friday. Interesting updates in regard to this week:

• Michelle and were "Ford car girls" Wednesday night, after work at the UN. Ha. One of our friends is an event manager/planner in Arusha, and there was an opening ceremony for the new Ford Everest and Ranger (Note: this is not meant to be a plug. Check the carbon footprint on those things before purhcase!), so about 50 people (with money) were invited to have food and drink and check out the new models. Michelle and I just stood there with, literally, kid-size blue shirts that have the FORD logo on the front, and just welcomed people, handed out free brochures, hats and pens. There did include a 10-15 minute speech about the models and we had to stand next to one of the cars and smile and look pretty. Who would've ever thought?
• Thursday evening the whole IPCR crew, along with Sherry, were invited to our neighbor's home for dinner. She cooked this absolutely DELICIOUS feast of Indian food - homemade samosas, bread pudding, chicken curry, chapati, rice, egg custard (tastes like flan). So, so very delicious.
• To add to this wonderfully delicious meal, Sat night the Nyerere Centre crew were all invited over to our professor's home for another feast of a meal - after a day visiting a local Masai village and then having antelope and buffalo meat for lunch. For you environmentalists out there, there are greening projects happening in Tanzania, but it's been especially difficult because of how dry it's been (even during what is supposed to be, rainy season). We met one woman who is heading a greening initiative with the Green Arusha Society, and her organization only has five members - hopefully just a slow start that will eventually pick up.
• In Arusha, there is a group of dancers called Contagious (not sure if that's really how you spell it) - they do shows all over East and Central Africa, but are based in Arusha. We have befriended these celebrities. Who would've ever thought?
• We start our next class, African Organizations, on Monday. Who would've thought 12 October would come up so fast?
• In the end, we finished our exam and research paper! My paper topic is on economic development and its influence on the post-genocide reconciliation process in Rwanda. Very development-focused as opposed to law, but it was accepted so it was OK!

Arusha has been feeling a lot more comfortable now, what with three months behind me now. I believe Michelle, Selina and I have come a long in terms of really building different types of friendships here and feeling comfortable in Arusha just in general.

Letter to my brother who robbed me

There is not much that separates you and I, is there? We are both made out of the same type of material – you and I bleed, feel hungry, feel joy, feel sadness, and so on. Yet the environments in which you and I have been raised sometimes convince us otherwise. We are human – it seems as though we have to use labels for everything. How else do we process everything we go through in life? So we come up with labels, good and bad – there are so many social constructions of our identities, it’s easy to forget sometimes. You are Tanzanian and I am Chinese-American. You are male and I am female. You made the decision to sprint by and take a mzungu's bag. Let us move on.

You know I’ve been thinking a lot about pride in one’s people and country. Now don’t get me wrong – I do not want to create this false sense of dichotomy between you and I just because we are from different countries. But after conversations with your fellow Tanzanians who work at the UN, I do not sense much pride in the home country. What I drew from my conversations with one particular Tanzanian UN staff is that, things like the condition of a holding cell or robbery are considered normal here – if not normal, at least expected. Why must the norm or the expected be disrespect for our fellow brothers and sisters? If that’s the norm, then I would rather be crazy. “If I’m crazy it’s because I refuse to be crazy in the same way the world’s gone crazy.” (Boolean: Peter Moran of the Catholic Worker movement, and Shane Claiborne) So, as I reference Shane: “Is it crazy to say we should help provide water access for the 1.2 billion people that need it, or is it crazy, like in our churches, we’re debated whether or not we should get a heater for the baptismal while people don’t have water?” Did you know that about America, brother? Did you know that there really is this type of discrepancy on this earth you and I share? It’s quite heartbreaking, isn’t it?

Perhaps we could learn from each other. Perhaps I could learn your story and you could learn mine. I think that’s what Jesus is all about. I think Jesus is all about going out and talking to the people who don’t look like us, speak like us, dress like us, think like us, or live like us. After all, that’s what he did. Even if you have never heard of this Jesus, have you ever heard of anything as crazy as that? Perhaps if we start sharing, – from individual to global and back – then Tuesday night instead of your unsuccessful endeavor to find money, we could have been sharing a meal together. I think that type of situation requires both of our parts, brother. And neither you nor I are perfect – we still have lots to learn and more room to grow. As long as this type of community may be called idealistic or crazy, there will always be more to do. Let’s help each other along.

So lately this 9 year old girl who lives next door has been visiting us a lot – last night she came and worked out with Selina and I (we used these great exercise bands) and invited herself over to our place for dinner afterwards (she made the chapatti). Selina laughs and says she has been sent my God in response to our prayer for patience. The electricity at our apartment goes out a lot – this morning Selina and I were reading and the electricity would go out (literally) every 2 minutes. We are hardly fazed anymore. It rained today – it hardly rains in Arusha and the dry season is apparently supposed to start.Most of the time though, we have beautifully sunny weather. I am currently taking a break from homework and writing this at the Impala Hotel, with Selina, Shoko and Michael working on our assignments for next week.

I have officially completed week one of IPCR Tanzania 2009. The semester is set up as such: three classes, four weeks each (per class: presentations and papers due third week and exams on fourth week): international law, African organizations and international development are the three course topics. Half the class is made up of Arcadia IPCR students, while the other half are students from different African countries (Burundi, Tanzania, Rwanda, Uganda, Kenya), most of whom are lawyers in their respective countries. Our current professor is a lawyer, which means that there are high expectations of us, which translates into a lot of work and the new challenge of balancing everything in our lives (it has even began to affect how much time I spend on personal emails home – lately I feel like I need to plan time in my week to write home). We are currently learning the dynamics of the African Union, its relationship with the UN, and its role in the African human rights system and international law overall.

There are things that really help to refresh and push me throughout the week. Lately Selina, Melissa and I have been keeping each other in check through prayer. Emails home with family and close friends also help me remember what is going on in other people’s lives and when I pray and think of them I do not feel as homesick or lonely. Little things like discovering a new flavor of tea (Twinings strawberry & mango as of late), getting free stuff (got a free bunch of bananas from Lily, a lovely lady who works at the local fruit stand), finding free wireless (Blue Heron – coffee shop/restaurant with BEDS as chairs and ridiculously comfy pillows), working out (thank you Michelle’s parents for the exercise bands!), running (Selina and Gasper are my trusty partners) and cooking/baking/eating with each other (am currently full from samosas and wonderfully sweet chai masala). These little blessings really help to balance out the frustration/stress. Frustration with a messy project at my internship; with how little I know about Africa; after learning about more of the red tape existent in international law; and trying to figure out realistic ways forward.

Funny one-way conversation from class: On Friday, Selina and I presented a case study of Darfur regarding the legal principles referenced in the AU and UN’s response to the genocide up until now, and a legal analysis. We definitely had two days to research and slept three hours the night before our presentation. After our presentation, we took questions from the class and listened to our professor’s evaluation:

So besides [this], [this], [that], and [this], you did OK! You were the first ones, so hopefully the presentations will get better.

Haha, this is what you get for the being the first group to present in a class taught by a lawyer in international criminal law! I imagine this semester will (continue to) be a pretty reasonably steep learning curve … : )

Here are some very belated pictures

returning to Arusha from Kigali

with the women from a village we had bought peace baskets from

our favorite tree to relax under, in the middle of our guesthouse complex