June 12th...

Hello All! I apologize for the long delay between postings. I hope I still have your attention. I don't know where to begin with the last cople of weeks. The weeks were spent finishing the academic program I came to participate in. That included visiting two other spots in Kenya, one the Masi Mara (rural pastorial/agricultural land where indigenous ethnic grops have lived for a longh time) and Mombasa (a coastal town where we concluded our studies).
To catch up a bit, all in all the academic program hosted by the University of Toronto's Peace and Conflict studies institute was an incredible program. Not to mention the group of students and Professor was excellent, we were able to be exposed to so many unique opportunities. We visited and had meeting with employees fom the Institute for Security Studies, the University of Nairobi (where we enjoyed a lecture and conversation afterward with a Kenyan professor and her students, a public lecture hosted by scholars addressing the post-conflict violence of 2007 and how to bring a national peace to a nation divided by ethnic backgrounds (but please don't take that statement a simply as I wrote it, no conflict is simply an "ancient hatred" issue, I don't beleive those even exist). We also visited the International Peace and support training center where they train military personel from all over the world to be peacekeepers deployed by the UN. We were visited by a representative from the Greenbelt Movement which was originally a women empowerment organization that facilitated these objectives through reforestation projects with rural women in Kenya. There is an amazing book about the founder of the Greenbelt Movement called Unbowed that I would recommend to anyone interested. (Breath!) It's so much and I am not even through with our activities yet!
We were also visited by representatives of the Millenium Village Project founded at my alma matta, Columbia University, which is a global economic and sustainable project to eradicate global poverty, you could goolge that too if interested. There's more oh so more. And even with my inadequate rush through description you can understand the notion that, in my eyes, the program was incredibly valuable for my education and future endeavours. In a way it brought my professional dreams into reality, meeting the people who fill those positins already, while it empowered me to believe in myself that I was capable of dong such things.

Well, so the program ended on the 10th of June and I began traveling with a lovely new friend from the program Craig. We both have two weeks to finish our final 15 page papers (which will be interesting with no computers amongst us) and those two weeks are the exact timframe I have between the upcoming human rights program in Rwanda and when Craig returns to Canada. So at present we are traveling up the coast to a town called Lamu (a world cultural heritage site). Lamu is an island with no vehicles and plenty of donkeys to make up for it. \We are looking forward to spending our time there relaxing and finishing our coursework. I am very happy to have a colleague and friend to travel with while getting adjusted to not being couched in the study abroad program for my every need anymore.

Side note: I am going to write a seperate blog about where I stayed in rural Kenya because it was immersed in a community of ethnic groups who practice female circumcision still. I am sorting out how to present this experience to you that is fairly partisan and also respects the privacy of their communities.
On another note, my group helped to build a community clinic for this community by digging a trench to lay the foundation in. That day was very rewarding.

And don't fret! Pictures are coming! (oh yeah I was 20 feet from a lion on our safari) But I must use the internet at public places thaty charge and most are much too slow to upload pics.....I also must prioritize during the next weeks in spending my internet money on research for my paper, ahhhhhhhhh!

All of that said, I am really happy to update you this far AND Craig and I split a cell phone so if anyone is interested they can ring at: 254 710 588 930

Love,
Chelsea