Steamed veggies

7/2/09:

Hamjamboooo

Today was much improved from yesterday. Although I left my Kiswahili notes in the classroom today so I can't give everyone at home your daily lesson. I will bring it home tomorrow and give a lesson tomorrow. We learned how to count and say dates and ask people their age and things like that. The counting and way that you say a year like 1987 is very much like French; there is no way to say "19..." it has to be 1,000+9+100+80 and 7. So its quite mouthful to say a full year.

As for the rest of class we talked about genocide / war crimes / rape as a military tool. I was hoping it would be really interesting but I just don't think our professor is much of a professor. I think he might be a great lawyer, but he doesn't have that "academic" flare to him, as say Dr. Beckman or Dr. Hilaire. Both of them manage to be great teachers and I can only imagine they are / were great lawyers as well. If I wouldn't have had law / international / international humanitarian law classes before, I would feel very uninformed and lost in class. I'm so thankful to have the slight law background that I do because I better absorb Sipho's stories, anecdotes and examples in class, which he doesn't explain very well. We're taking a tour of the ICTR (International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda) next Wednesday and tomorrow we're listening to a panel of speakers / lawyers from the ICTR. Again, I'm glad to have a background of both Rwanda and some international / humanitarian law. Although, Dr. Hilaire would probably be disappointed with my review / memory skills...The other problem with our class is we just get so off topic; people ask questions that have nothing to do with what we're talking about and it distracts Sipho and is completely irrelevant. The other day we were supposed to be talking about genocide and slavery and the two boys started asking questions about whether or not soccer players are forced into slavery or something...it was RETARDED. Anyhow enough about class...

I had a great talk with my roommate Emily last night (I absolutely love her, I really think we'll be good friends after we leave) just to vent a little about my frustrations because she kind of guessed that my letters getting lost on their way to NYU wasn't the only thing that made me burst into tears yesterday. What's frustrating me here is feeling like I'm just living in this little touristy bubble. Like all I do is go to class all day, go home, workout, eat dinner and putz around until it's bedtime. I wanted to come here and TALK to the PEOPLE and by that I don't mean getting hassled by a peddler and trying to explain in broken Kiswahili that just because I'm from America doesn't mean I'm rich. I want to talk to the people in the rural areas and ask them what their problems are, what they want to change, how they want this country, this continent to change, what their most important concerns are, what are their goals, what traditions they are willing to drop and what aspects of their culture are essential. I almost wish I could have like a town hall with these people..I just feel like it would provide me with such a better experience. But Emily has also told me about a book I'm going to look into and it's basically focused on eco-development in Africa. I'm so interested in that field...I think sustainable development is so necessary but it MUST be green / eco development. I think I'm definitely going to end up going for both a public policy masters and law school...i'm just too interested in sustainable development / green policy and international law to not get both degrees. But, I've got to get into NYU first ;)

I got a good workout in today before dinner; I found this great like 22 page PDF file on the crossfit message boards that has like 400 body weight workouts that you don't need equipment for. Today I did 5 rounds of 10 burpees, 50 situps, 15 squats and 10 dips. It felt great to sweat and get my heartrate up. I also remembered to do my physical therapy on my foot which I've REALLY been slacking on and my foot has been hurting as a result. I need to get the muscles strong again! Dinner was also a HUGE success because I told the one waiter (who is so cool and friendly to all of us) that the curry has been upsetting my stomach and I would love some plain, steamed veggies. He said "oh yes yes of course! We're so sorry!" I got some delicious rosemary steamed veggies, fresh chipati (it's like a pancake thing..Indian influence I think, and yes Adrian it is delicious) rice, and fruit salad for dessert. Great success.

Now it's skype time with Alan and then relax and watch TV with some of the girls. Much improvement from yesterday :)

Have a great day everyone, miss you all!
<3<3<3
Kwaheri!

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