These are a few of my favorite things...
I thought I’d share my summer reading list in case any of you are interested in learning more about any of the issues I’ve mentioned over the past three months. I won't bore you with the list of fiction that I've read to keep me relatively sane. Besides, I haven't really read much non-fiction at all because, as you know, once I’m in something, I tend to just keep digging deeper and deeper... Anyway, over the past few months, I’ve mostly been reading Africa/development/conflict related non-fiction, in this order:
1- Dark Star Safari by Paul Theroux—famous novelist travels overland from Cairo to Cape Town; great descriptions of the continent and interesting insight (though I don't 100% agree with his conclusions)
2- Shake Hands with the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda by Gen. Roméo Dallaire—memoirs of the UN force commander in Rwanda during the genocide; sometimes a little too "I talked to him, then to him, then I went here, then I went there..." but terribly informative and a great insider's perspective
3- We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families by Philip Gourevitch—journalist’s investigation in Rwanda one year after the genocide, heart-breaking stories and terrific insight
4- The Zanzibar Chest: Life, Love and Death in Foreign Lands by Aidan Hartley—young journalist working in African war zones intertwines his narrative with a family history; prose is a little heavy at times, but a great read
5- Emergency Sex (And Other Desperate Measures): True Stories from a War Zone by Heidi Postlewait, Kenneth Cain, and Andrew Thomson-- 3 UN workers share stories from Cambodia, Somalia, Haiti, and Rwanda; interesting and fun read
6- Guns, Germs, and Steel: A Short History of Everybody for the Past 13,000 years by Jared Diamond—the Ultimate history book, the researcher explains scientifically why human societies ended up so differently on the various continents; loooong and a little dense at times, but fascinating thesis and v. well demonstrated
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Additionally, I've seen several films (mostly documentaries) that are relevant to the above issues... All are highly recommended:
1- Invisible Children, 3 young Americans travel to Uganda, and almost by accident make a documentary about the war-affected internally displaced children in Northern Uganda
2- Soldier Child, about the abduction and indoctrination of child soldiers in the Lord's Resistance Army in Uganda
3- Sometimes in April, fictional film about the Rwandan genocide--better than Hotel Rwanda
4- Ghosts of Rwanda, PBS documentary about the genocide and Western inaction
5- Life and Debt, case study of Jamaica and the noxious effects of the World Bank policies on its development; great interviews, music, camera angles etc... beautiful example of documentary film-making at its best
Monday, August 21, 2006
Thursday, August 17, 2006
Back on the banks of Lake Victoria
Just a quick "jambo" from Kisumu on the banks of Lake Victoria in western Kenya. I'm settling here for the next couple of weeks to help out at Africa Now, the NGO I interned for last summer in the UK. Despite being exhausted after my first long day in the field, I wanted to share some sad news with you guys: unfortunately, I somehow managed to sweet talk my way into an internship at the UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, which means that I'll be going back to Arusha, Tanzania in a couple of weeks and staying there until XMas. (*pausing here to give you all a moment to grieve my prolonged absence*)
But, in all seriousness, I am psyched about this opportunity to intern at the Office of the Prosecutor and help work to put the big bad masterminds of the genocide away in some desolate jail cell forever and ever and ever. I've already been in contact with most of the other incoming interns and they seem like a really interesting, multicultural, international group of people... So more good times ahead for Eve in Africa!
Anyway, to keep your minds off of your imminent depression, I finally took some time to upload some more pics! So scroll back to past posts and check out my links :-)
But, in all seriousness, I am psyched about this opportunity to intern at the Office of the Prosecutor and help work to put the big bad masterminds of the genocide away in some desolate jail cell forever and ever and ever. I've already been in contact with most of the other incoming interns and they seem like a really interesting, multicultural, international group of people... So more good times ahead for Eve in Africa!
Anyway, to keep your minds off of your imminent depression, I finally took some time to upload some more pics! So scroll back to past posts and check out my links :-)
Sunday, August 06, 2006
Masai on the beach and other tales from Zanzibar
Last time I had a chance to sit down and devote some time to an update, I was in Arusha, Tanzania sitting under beautiful Mt. Meru (spitting distance from Mt. Kilimanjaro) and doing research at the UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR). I'll write more about Arusha some other time (For now, the pics are here: http://smith.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2010862&l=339a4&id=5902101 ). They seem very distant from me now as I sit in this small internet cafe hearing the evening call to prayer echo through the streets of Stone Town on the island of Zanzibar.
The formal academic program ended about 10 days ago and since then I've had some much needed vacation time. Last week I was in Nairobi with my Kenyan friend Muthoni from Oxford. She showed me around town a bit--and by town, I mean the suburbs, since downtown Nairobi is notoriously crime-ridden, thus the moniker "Nairobbery." We quickly got tired of the dreary weather and decided to head to the coast. Transport in Kenya, as in most of the continent, is quite challenging, but we decided to brave the roads and go from Nairobi to Mombasa by bus... The bus wasn't exactly your air-conditioned Greyhound, but at least there weren't any goats or chickens in it. I was, as usual, the only mzungu on the bus, which the gaggle of veiled women thought was just about the funniest and strangest thing they had ever seen.
The 500km over the bumpy pot-hole ridden highway through the Kenyan plains only took 9.5 hours, which includes the fact that a) we left 30min late, b) had a 45min rest stop, and c) stopped for another 45min to change a punctured tire. For most of the ride, I napped and between dosing enjoyed the beautiful scenery... Lots of little villages, really just glorified groups of shops and street vendors, squatted along the highway in the ever-changing scenery of hills, sharp escarpments, and plains dotted with cattle and their young Masai herders. As I sat there thinking about the Kenyan landscape and the artificial and imperialist creation of the national park systems, I saw some zebra along the side of the road... Who needs national parks, which just dispossess local populations, when the whole country is basically a big national park? Oh goodness, my last semester of college is haunting me (thanks Prof Newbury).
Anyway, we finally got to Mombasa and installed ourselves at Muthoni's flat at the Tamarind on the North coast, about 15min from the city centre. Sitting on the balcony, in the evening warmth, hearing the soft laping of the Indian Ocean below me, I was in absolute heaven--except for the mosquitoes which quickly smelled out their sweet new prey. After a couple of nights in Mombasa, we flew back to Tanzania down to Zanzibar to meet up with Page, an American friend from the academic program.
Zanzibar is an island in the Indian Ocean that historically served as an important trading centre between Africa and the Middle East. For hundreds of years, ivory and African slaves sailed one way on the monsoon winds, and spices and silk went the other. In the meantime, lots of Arabs settled in the Zanzibar archipelago (including, rather famously, the sultan of Oman who decided to relocate his capital here in 1832) and intermarriage between Arabs and Africans ensued, which gave rise to a coastal community with distinctive features, and a unique hybrid language derived in part from Arabic and the local Bantu dialect... That language is now known as Swahili, a name which comes from the Arab word sawahil which means 'coast'.
Skip forward a hundred years or so: Zanzibar finally gained its independance in 1964 and together with the mainland (Tanganyika) formed the nation we know as Tanzania (look at that clever little word melding ;-) ).
Anyway, sorry for that historical digression, but the history is absolutely fascinating and still very visible, most notably in the architecture and the predominantly Muslim population (97%). When I arrived, the light cloud cover over Stone Town could not mask the beauty of this UNESCO World Heritage Site... Traditional dhow boats float on the bright blue harbour waters that suround the bustling little bazaars, cobblestone streets, narrow alleys, and white-washed houses with dark wood carved doors--oh just see for yourself: http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=zanzibar%20stone%20town&sa=N&tab=wi
After an overnight in Stone Town, we drove out to the south east coast to Paje, a miniscule fishing village on one of the most beautiful beaches I have ever seen. The quiet palm tree-lined beach extends for miles; silky soft white sands trims the Indian Ocean; and the sun glistens in gold and silver flecks on the surface of the warm and shallow turquoise waters. We just tanned, read (I'm rather appropriately in the middle of the Zanzibar Chest), ate freshly caught seafood, got pekoe (black henna) tattoos, watched fishermen come in with the daily catch, dodged some tiny jelly fish, did a little souvenir shopping (with the random local Masai who roamed the beach), and went for long walks down the deserted beaches. We must have been among only 50 or 60 other tourists (mostly Italians and some Brits), and we felt like we had the place to ourselves as we lay comatose on the beach for 4 days.
But that mini-escape from reality is over, as I'm back in Stone Town this evening before flying back to Mombasa early tomorrow mornaing. I have about 5 more days of holiday before moving out to Kisumu in Western Kenya to do some volunteer work with Africa Now, the NGO I worked for last summer.
Anyway I'm off to enjoy my last evening in this little island paradise (I seriously recommend it--check out the link to my pics)...
The formal academic program ended about 10 days ago and since then I've had some much needed vacation time. Last week I was in Nairobi with my Kenyan friend Muthoni from Oxford. She showed me around town a bit--and by town, I mean the suburbs, since downtown Nairobi is notoriously crime-ridden, thus the moniker "Nairobbery." We quickly got tired of the dreary weather and decided to head to the coast. Transport in Kenya, as in most of the continent, is quite challenging, but we decided to brave the roads and go from Nairobi to Mombasa by bus... The bus wasn't exactly your air-conditioned Greyhound, but at least there weren't any goats or chickens in it. I was, as usual, the only mzungu on the bus, which the gaggle of veiled women thought was just about the funniest and strangest thing they had ever seen.
The 500km over the bumpy pot-hole ridden highway through the Kenyan plains only took 9.5 hours, which includes the fact that a) we left 30min late, b) had a 45min rest stop, and c) stopped for another 45min to change a punctured tire. For most of the ride, I napped and between dosing enjoyed the beautiful scenery... Lots of little villages, really just glorified groups of shops and street vendors, squatted along the highway in the ever-changing scenery of hills, sharp escarpments, and plains dotted with cattle and their young Masai herders. As I sat there thinking about the Kenyan landscape and the artificial and imperialist creation of the national park systems, I saw some zebra along the side of the road... Who needs national parks, which just dispossess local populations, when the whole country is basically a big national park? Oh goodness, my last semester of college is haunting me (thanks Prof Newbury).
Anyway, we finally got to Mombasa and installed ourselves at Muthoni's flat at the Tamarind on the North coast, about 15min from the city centre. Sitting on the balcony, in the evening warmth, hearing the soft laping of the Indian Ocean below me, I was in absolute heaven--except for the mosquitoes which quickly smelled out their sweet new prey. After a couple of nights in Mombasa, we flew back to Tanzania down to Zanzibar to meet up with Page, an American friend from the academic program.
Zanzibar is an island in the Indian Ocean that historically served as an important trading centre between Africa and the Middle East. For hundreds of years, ivory and African slaves sailed one way on the monsoon winds, and spices and silk went the other. In the meantime, lots of Arabs settled in the Zanzibar archipelago (including, rather famously, the sultan of Oman who decided to relocate his capital here in 1832) and intermarriage between Arabs and Africans ensued, which gave rise to a coastal community with distinctive features, and a unique hybrid language derived in part from Arabic and the local Bantu dialect... That language is now known as Swahili, a name which comes from the Arab word sawahil which means 'coast'.
Skip forward a hundred years or so: Zanzibar finally gained its independance in 1964 and together with the mainland (Tanganyika) formed the nation we know as Tanzania (look at that clever little word melding ;-) ).
Anyway, sorry for that historical digression, but the history is absolutely fascinating and still very visible, most notably in the architecture and the predominantly Muslim population (97%). When I arrived, the light cloud cover over Stone Town could not mask the beauty of this UNESCO World Heritage Site... Traditional dhow boats float on the bright blue harbour waters that suround the bustling little bazaars, cobblestone streets, narrow alleys, and white-washed houses with dark wood carved doors--oh just see for yourself: http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=zanzibar%20stone%20town&sa=N&tab=wi
After an overnight in Stone Town, we drove out to the south east coast to Paje, a miniscule fishing village on one of the most beautiful beaches I have ever seen. The quiet palm tree-lined beach extends for miles; silky soft white sands trims the Indian Ocean; and the sun glistens in gold and silver flecks on the surface of the warm and shallow turquoise waters. We just tanned, read (I'm rather appropriately in the middle of the Zanzibar Chest), ate freshly caught seafood, got pekoe (black henna) tattoos, watched fishermen come in with the daily catch, dodged some tiny jelly fish, did a little souvenir shopping (with the random local Masai who roamed the beach), and went for long walks down the deserted beaches. We must have been among only 50 or 60 other tourists (mostly Italians and some Brits), and we felt like we had the place to ourselves as we lay comatose on the beach for 4 days.
But that mini-escape from reality is over, as I'm back in Stone Town this evening before flying back to Mombasa early tomorrow mornaing. I have about 5 more days of holiday before moving out to Kisumu in Western Kenya to do some volunteer work with Africa Now, the NGO I worked for last summer.
Anyway I'm off to enjoy my last evening in this little island paradise (I seriously recommend it--check out the link to my pics)...
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