Week Three

My third week in Africa brought even more adventures and experiences. It was a busy week of placement (two of the volunteers that have been there with us were gone by Thursday so it was down to just me and Langley which proved to actually be ok.) but besides that we had alot
of other stuff going on.

Wednesday after placement my volunteer group took a trip to Arusha to visit the UN Tribunal for Rwandan War Crimes. I'm sure most of you have seen or at least heard of Hotel Rwanda. Well, Arusha (the biggest city in Northern Tanzania - it's about an hour away) is where the UN has set up the courts to try those responsible for the genocide that occurred in Rwanda in 1994. This court was the first international court to convict a government official of genocide and as also the
first court to include rape in the definition of genocide. 15 years after the massecres they are still holding trials everyday to hold these people accountable.

The trial we witnessed was for an army general who was in charge of a military base that should have been protecting a group of refugees at a nearby health center. Instead, the general conspired with the Hutu rebels and allowed the refugees all to be slaughtered. The witness that we saw testify was in the army himself. He was hidden behind a curtain and only addressed as "witness" to protect his identity. He testified that he himself was a Tutsi, but many years before had had his ID altered to say Hutu so that he could get work and that was the only way he was able to stay alive in the army.

It was so surreal to watch and listen to this story unfold before us. The courtroom was modern - built specifically for this purpose - and we sat in an observation room behind glass and listened with headphones. Everyone in the court was also wearing headphones too as the judges are from all diferent countries around the world and translaters are constantly at work. The defendant was not present, but it was still surreal to think that what we were hearing was the real criminal - that the deaths and slaughter that was so matter-of-factly mentioned wasn't fiction - a movie or TV show - this was real justice being served for victims of senseless violence. A very powerful
experience indeed.

The next evening found us with a lighter topic. On the drive back fromsafari, Megan and Jon had cooked up a little event we dubbed "CCS Talent Show Danceoff 2009." We basically took over this bar called Glacier and put on a show. Everyone got really into it and prepared routines complete with costumes! I did a dance to Ciara's new song with my friend Aubrey - it was sort of an 80s hip hop routine and it was pretty hysterical. I can't wait to post all the video!!

To round out the week, on Friday we learned how to make batik pictures! I will add pictures of this too! I have been eyeing these beautiful sunset sillouette pictures and now I am so happy that I didn't buy one yet bc now I have one that I made myself!! Mine is of an acacia tree (the flat topped African trees) and an elephant and a giraffe. I am super proud bc I drew my picture myself and I convinced the guy to let me paint my own colors too! (this will make more sense when you see pictures) Batik is a loong process. First you draw the picture in pencil and the define it with pen. Next you paint the background. Run you paint wax everywhere you don't want black. Then
you paint the sillouette black. Next you paint wax over the entire canvas. Once everything is dry, you scrub the canvas together until the wax flakes off. Then you use an iron to smooth out the canvas and the colors burst to life! From there you so any touch ups and then you
are done!!

Anyway, that was week three. I am almost caught up now!! I just need to blog about the weekend (which was awesome!!) and then I will be on today. First though I have to go help with a project that we are working on for the hospital. I can't wait to tell you all about it!