I passed the one month mark

So last week, like most weeks here, flew by. We started our final section of the Contemporary Issues course called Peace and Conflict Resolution Issues. Our professor is a Somali who teaches at the University of Georgia, but is here doing research on the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR). I'm sure you can imagine my excitement when I found out that not only did I have an actual professor for this topic, but that he would really be focusing on Rwanda and the ICTR, which was one of the main reasons I chose this program. We'll be going to a trial this week and it's about time as I've been next door/in the building of the ICTR almost every day since I've been here and have yet to go to a trial.

Now despite my first impressions of my professor, I have had a few issues with him. He really enjoys being sarcastic and making comments about white people, particularly Americans, and their stupidity and ignorance. Now, don't get me wrong. I'll be the first to tell you about the general ignorance of Americans, but he has to understand the peculiarity of his audience. We are 8 college students (all from respectable Universities) that chose to study in Africa instead of Europe or Australia because of our interest in Africa's people, politics, conflict, history, etc. Needless to say, most of us were a bit offended when he refused to concede that not all Americans are ignorant and concerned with sucking as much money out of a place as possible. I've come to learn that he says a lot of things that he means only in jest, but I think that dealing with him has prepared me for future encounters with people that assume that because I am an American, I care solely about money and nothing about people.

On a different note, I went to a women's retreat this weekend with about 30 other ladies from the church that I went to last weekend. Rose and Alainna (2 girls from the program) came with me and we had a great time. We had a little car trouble on the way there, but I was unfazed as I seem to be drawn to people with cars that have hidden problems and break down in the middle of nowhere (Texas, Virginia or Africa). Anyway, a very nice man pulled over to help and discovered that the radiator had hakuna maji and towed us (with a nylon rope) about 10 miles to the police checkpoint where he convinced the police to let us leave the car there overnight. Luckily we were with 2 Canadians that are fluent in Swahili and could communicate with our new friend, Dominic, and the police. One of the Canadians told us later that we never would have been able to convince the police to watch the car if we hadn't had a man with us, so we're very thankful for Dominic.

We made it to the retreat and stayed at this awesome tented camp outside of Lake Manyara National Park. Lake Manyara used to be a huge lake, but has almost completely dried up. On the bright side, this dried lake bed and what's left of the lake provide a sweet habitat for African wildlife. The lake has a lot of flamingos and the dry part hosts wildebeest, zebra and occasionally, lions. We stayed outside the NP, so we missed most of the animals because the Maasai bring their cattle across the dried lake bed and scare the other animals away. It would have been cool to see some wild animals, but it was nice to pay only $100 for 2 nights of lodging and food for the whole weekend.

It was so nice to get out of Arusha for the weekend. There aren't any regulations on vehicle emissions here so the air is noticeably cleaner outside of the city and it was nice to have some fresh air. Although I love the people on my program, spending 24 hours/day with the same 7 people would drive anybody crazy. It was so great to not only meet new people, but to hear their stories of living here. A few of the women grew up here with missionary parents and some were the missionary parents, but most are here working for NGOs and missions. Some of them moved here before I was born and needless to say, they have seen the Africa that I am longing to know. I have been feeling lately that I'm getting a very watered down version of Africa. I think Arcadia is trying to make us as comfortable as possible, but I didn't come all this way to be comfortable. I realized last weekend that I'm going to have to make things happen for myself so that I can get a more accurate picture of Africa. I think I definitely met the right people this weekend that can make that happen and I feel much better. They had some incredible stories that would take far too long to share here, but if you'd like to know, send me an email and I'll tell you. Anyway, we had an incredible weekend and I feel very refreshed.

I got a ride home from the retreat with a different lady because the car I rode there in was broken. She wasn't planning on going through town so I got dropped off with another lady named Kendra who said that her husband would pick us up and they could drop me off at the apartment. Well when we met Kendra's husband, he had her kids with her (Josiah, age 5; Isaac, age 3 and Caris, 9 months) and had planned a picnic to the Snake Park. So I went with them to the Snake Park and saw huge pythons, cobras, crocs and all kinds of other scary reptiles. We also went through the Maasai museum and rode camels. I rode with Josiah as he thinks I am quite cool (I think college girls are hard to come by here). Needless to say, I thoroughly enjoyed myself and it made me miss the Browns and Swayzes a lot.

On the home front, my friends are in Colorado on spring break, my family is entertaining the Olejkos, Chris is recording as usual and I'm wishing I could be with all of them. I tried to articulate last night that I'm "happy missing" people now and not "sad missing". I'm not sure exactly how to explain it, but basically I miss people, but know at the same time that I'm experiencing some incredible things here and this is where I'm supposed to be so. I guess it's easier to miss people when there's a point to being away.