United Nations of Mendoza

Greetings from Mendoza, Argentina..wine capital extraordinaire.

Elise and I arrived yesterday after a 18 hour bus ride (it should have been 15, but buses in South America arrive cuando sea conviniente).

I can´t sing praises of Mendoza. It´s a small, nice city. Pretty easy going and the people are nice, but after one day I was pretty sure I´d seen it all and ready to move on. I think it might be a nice place to live or visit if you´re REALLY REALLY into vineyard tours, but I´ve seen all the vineyards I need to for quite some time.

The best part about where we stayed is the hostel. We had our own little gathering of the United Nations here last night...or at least the Organization of American States. At one point in a very noisy crowd on the patio, we were 2 Americans, 1 Scottsman, 2 Argentines and 2 Brasilians. I wish I could tell you that we all spoke at least one common language, but it wasn´t so. I ended up playing translator between English-Portuguese-Spanish and after an hour my brain was ready to explode. Relearning Portuguese is definitely a priority in the near future. It was really amazing, though. Being able to communicate (somewhat) proficiently in 3 languages at the same time. I was just lucky the Israelis and the German didn´t want to join...I dont know what we would have done then. haha

Well, I´ve got to go find some lunch and catch a bus!

We´re headed to a small town called Uspallata next. Staying for 2 nights and then on to Santiago!

Les escribo pronto!

Ladies and Gentlemen, Get Out Your Maps

I am back on the travel train (this time on my own, oh-so-limited budget).

I arrived in Buenos Aires, Argentina on Dec 30.


I rang in the New Year fantastically and have since been getting to know this city from an "I live here perspective" rather than "I like visiting here". This is my 4th time in the city. Past ventures include a week when I was in Brasil, and a couple of days on either end of my trip in Chile last year.

The plan? Well, I need to work in order pay some bills and such...so I'll be doing that. But before starting the boring work life, I'm going to do some traveling with the fabulous Elise Wyatt.

We leave this evening from Buenos Aires to Mendoza. It's about 15 hours on the bus. Mendoza is a wine capital and situated fantastically near the Chilean border with mil vistas of the Andes.



From Mendoza, we will head to Santiago, Chile to visit my wonderful group of friend there and then start our way up north. Exciting destinations include San Pedro de Atacama, Salar de Uyuni, Lake Titicaca, and the Amazon Basin (to just name the first few weeks of travel...). After reaching the far north of Bolivia, we will begin to make our descent back to Buenos Aires.



Now this may all seem relatively close given the highly flawed maps that appear throughout our secondary education, but I can assure it is not. This trip will include multiple bus rides of 15-30 hours and a couple of flights. All in the name of a fantastic trip.

Needless to say, I can't wait.

If there are any questions about these places, please feel free to post away. I'm particularly eager to tell you all what traveling in South America is like for a new vegetarian. So far, so good.

Well, I must finish packing! Thanks for tuning back in.

End of Watson Year

We had to write a final report for the Watson Foundation...here's mine...my final post to you all from the 'Watson Year Abroad'. It's been incredible. I thank all of you for your patience with me this year in digesting thoughts so far from your normal experiences at home and trying your best to give me the benefit of the doubt (that what I'm seeing on the ground is actually going on in these places). I know some of my blog posting was patchy, but if you have questions about travel or contacts, please don't hesitate to get in touch with me!

(As you can see, I took the "informal" approach")

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

If someone had asked me 13 months ago what I expected to learn from my Watson year abroad, I would have probably responded with some vague notions of “life-changing experiences” or “testing the strengths of the nonviolence struggle”. I may have even made remarks on my personal quest of forgiveness or learning models of inner peace and healing often used in conflict transformation and reconciliation, but of—falling in love, remarkable friendship, a Kashmiri evacuation, train vomiting, hair cutting, rebellion, Giant’s Causeway climbing, tragedy, freedom, looking-a-genocidiar-in-the-eye-and-finding-a-friend, tears, kissing Blarney’s stone, volcano climbing, sand dune camping, trouble causing, elephant feeding, remote beach finding, laughter, walking in Mandela’s footsteps, reaching the end of the Pan-American highway, cross-community exploring in Belfast, peace-building, exploring friendship over Fanta, lost-in-translation moments, drinking a Guinness in Dublin, hiking, building campfires, seeing bombs explode, interviews, everything just got stolen, adrenaline rushes, long walks, praying at the Dalai Lama’s temple, standing at the end of Africa, “po” and “weon” using, in transit-chaos, Kinyarwanda speaking, camel riding, getting a wee bit airlocked in an Irish pub, and discovering and rediscovering the limits of humanity—I could have never imagined what was to come…

23 JULY AUGUST 2008, DELHI INDIA (journal)

“I AM NEVER TRUSTING LONELY PLANET AGAIN!!!!!! This hostel is bullshit. My room is an infested sweatbox. And how do I do this bathroom situation again….”

25 JULY AUGUST 2008, SRINGAR KASHMIR (journal)

“After a misunderstanding involving 12 heavily armed guards and some tampons stuffed into my tennis shoes, furious hand motions and the most intense, embarrassed shade of red my face has ever turned, I made it onto the plane from Delhi to Sringar”

Coming to Kashmir was an interesting experience. The word mistake would never escape my lips, because that would imply that if I had it all to do over again, I would have chosen differently; but that trip to Kashmir really awoke me to what it felt like to live in a conflict zone (albeit for a short time). From my palace (and I do mean palace) of too-much-comfort on serene Dal Lake, I heard nightly beatings of local housewives. This was considered a spectator sport on the lake. All the houseboat decks would fill up with men (and a few brazen women) who would laugh and throw their commentary across the water to that night’s victim. Needless to say, being a single woman in Kashmir, I felt more vulnerable then I had in my whole life. Though the family I stayed with protected me with the ferociousness of a brooding mother hen—this is mostly because they thought I was a fancy diplomat. I managed to make a great contact at the permanent UN Peace Keeping Mission to Kashmir (which explains why shortly after, the family found out I was making daily trips to the UN, they moved me up from what I call the ‘student boat’ to the ‘palace’). On August 6, all of that changed when a Kashmiri conflict escalated again and all nonessential foreigners were asked to evacuate immediately.

I evacuated with two Brits who happened to be traveling in Kashmir and the 3 of us landed in Leh, Ladkah. What did Serendipity have in store for me you wonder? We managed to land in Leh just in time for the Opening Ceremony of the Olympics. The Tibetans were in full peace march swing and leading some really incredible events. Over the course of the next several weeks I spent time in ‘Tibetan Indian’ between Leh and Dharamsala/McLeod Ganj (not to mention the whole long way in between) learning about nonviolence from Buddhist monks, hearing tales of daring border crossings, and making a new friend-for-life in Hannah the-no-nonsense-having-Harry-Potter-loving-lady.

But something about India just wasn’t sitting with me right. Maybe it’s what Arundhati Roy describes as “Scurrying hurrying buying luggage trundling porter paying children shitting people spitting coming going begging bargaining reservation checking…” or maybe I began to feel the scope of my project was too much—but I was ready to move on. So after some touristy bits in Rajasthan and a quick visit to the Taj Mahal (though not before seeing a bomb explode all-too-close-for-comfort in Delhi), I was on my way to Rwanda.

Transitioning from India to Rwanda was a lot less drastic than I expected, but my time there (upon reflection, especially) was probably the most rewarding of the entire trip.

1 DECEMBER KIGALI RWANDA (blog)

“There are so many sad stories to tell, it’s impossible to even hear them all”.

There aren’t as many colorful stories to tell as I have for India—most of them are heart wrenchingly sad and I’m truly incapable of doing them justice, but I’ve been forever changed by the people I’ve met in the small but wonderful and warm country. I worked with a couple of different groups including Shalom Educating for Peace and Never Again Rwanda at different stages in my 3 months in Kigali. I also helped with interviews of genocide victims and some work on memorial sites. In essence, I got a little taste of everything.

I helped connect a Rwandan woman, Charlotte, with V-Day International to bring the production to Kigali this year (yes I contacted Jenny!), learned that even in Rwanda you can get delivery pizza, visited the “college town”, worked in a village where victims and perpetrators are living side-by-side and even took a limo ride. Like I said…my experiences in Rwanda are really difficult to explain some days. They seem a little other-worldly, but more than anything I was continually humbled by the Rwandan experience. Over and over again Rwandans showed their ability to look forward to shared future and common goals, to forgive the impossible and stop the cycle of violence. I could spend a lifetime learning from Rwandans and still have not the wisdom, strength or character that most of them exhibit. It’s a remarkable country and by far the furthest along the path to reconciliation. Much of this has to do with the highly developed sense of justice and emphasis on a common Rwandan future the current society looks towards.

…….

I just realized that this report is supposed to be around 5 pages and if I continue with this model (I still have 3.5 countries left) I will be going on to 15 pages in no time. So to skip ahead a bit, I’ll cover some important points.

……..

In Chile, Serendipity hit me again and time, place and much else conspired to find something so real and so wonderful I had a hard time believing it wasn’t a dream. I found one of the great loves of my life. Unfortunately, we did break up…the distance was killer (even though we did manage to make it for quite some time through his living between South America and Europe for a good part of the last 4 years—it made it convenient for the end of my trip). It didn’t end badly and I don’t regret a second of it.

15 MARCH SANTIAGO CHILE (journal)

“I’ve made more amazing friends in this one house then most people can hope to make in a lifetime.”

I also lived in a house too perfect for words. People from all over the world came to live in this wonderful house in the middle of bustling Santiago. My boss, however, at the Santiago Times, was one of the worst parts of my trip and that unpleasant experience ended after only 6 weeks there (which is unfortunate, because I enjoyed the actual work I was involved in—covering the human rights’ stories involving the desaprecidos cases). It just goes to show that all human rights activists don’t actually have to like people…

……..

In South Africa, I arrived burnt out on my topic and travel and my body. I was sick and couldn’t handle anymore stories of torture, genocide, disappeared family members…I needed a break. South Africa ended up being my shortest stay (regrettably because it was a beautiful country) where I did the least amount of project “stuff”. What project “stuff” I did do, I just continued to lose faith in. South Africa seems to be lost in a cycle of racism, corruption and hate and no one in power seems to want to surface anytime soon. I don’t often feel hopeless about situations and normally frown on the very idea of it…but for me, it was the most down I had been since I started the trip (in terms of my project) and couldn’t shake the reconciliation blues.

23 APRIL 2009 UMZUMBE, SOUTH AFRICA (journal)

“I just jumped 300 feet down into the abyss of the Oribi gorge today. I love my life. I love you, Thomas J. Watson.”

Travel wise, South Africa ROCKED. I just wish I could have found more of a middle ground.

……...

I was fully recharged and ready to go when I landed in Belfast in May. I started off with some investigations in the Belfast area—trying to get involved there. After bouncing around a bit and getting a feel for things (not to mention taking a sweet Black Taxi Political tour), I ended up connecting with an organization called Corrymeela. Eventually, I went to volunteer for a bit up at their retreat center in Ballycastle. Essentially their goal is to create a safe space for reconciliation to happen (i.e.: cross-community and cross-cultural healing, forgiveness workshops, and trauma counseling). In addition to groups from Northern Ireland, they work with groups from all over Europe, the Americas and are particularly keen to get more involvement from Middle Eastern countries. As with all nonprofits, this organization didn’t come without its pitfalls—many of the volunteers (including those with Master’s degrees in Peace and Conflict Studies) would spend more time making cheesy toast for Belfast youth than working on issues of reconciliation.

26 JUNE 2009 BALLYCASTLE, NORTHERN IRELAND

“I SWEAR TO GOD IF I MAKE ONE MORE D#$#$(&(*&(4wi4u4yiyeIWUYI*^&#*$@&^* PIECE OF &$(*#&($*&#($&* CHEESY TOAST I’M GOING TO #$(#*&$(*#&$(#*&$!!!!!”

Needless to say, however, it was great to get a completely fresh perspective on the issues and see Northern Ireland, a developed country, struggle with the same issues as places like Rwanda, Chile and South Africa. It really did shed a whole new light on dilemmas faced in post-conflict healing.

…………

What to say in conclusion? I learned more in this one year of travel than I did in 4 years of college (and probably 4 years of high school combined). The people, the places, the memories…I will take them with me for the rest of my life. I learned how to better pick my battles and where to place my anger. I watched the long road to recovery that death and violence can take, but how simple words of kindness can help to put former enemies on the same path . I learned that stuff is just stuff. Even when almost everything I have was stolen, it can be replaced—most of the rest of the world doesn’t have that luxury. I now know that there is nothing like crossing a cultural barrier a making a real, lifelong friend. I have learned that I have little fear of the unknown and the unseen. I can go anywhere and I will be more than capable of surviving. I am one of the luckiest 49 people who lived this last year. I am a Watson Fellow.

Northern Ireland

So enough backtracking...

I'm currently in Northern Ireland!

To speed up the days from when I arrived (just over a month ago) to now, here's the Reader's Digest version:
-After spend 3 days with Fernando in Amsterdam, flew into Belfast
-Grandma and Poopsy arrived in Belfast the next day (though, admittedly with a few problems in air travel)
-we left to visit: Scotland, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland! We had a really good time
-Fernando met up with us at the end of the trip, grandma and poospy left, fernando stayed for a few more days then went back to Amsterdam
-Started some of my project stuff and got a volunteer job with a group called Corrymeela (more below)
-did a quick visit to Amsterdam again and also saw two friends from Rhodes, Emma and Lindsay, on their European vacay (from India)
-got back to Belfast, and quickly left for a small town called Ballycastle, about 2 hours north of Belfast

----------------------

That brings us all up to speed. I'm currently staying at the Corrymeela center in Ballycastle, Northern Ireland.

Essentially Corrymeela is a retreat center for groups (of all sorts and ages) to come to and receive training and support on conflict resolution/management and reconciliation. Primarily they deal with groups from the UK and Ireland, but recently they hosted a group from Israel and Palestine. This last group has done a series of programs at Corrymeela in an attempt to break the cycle of violence inherited from their families and communities.

Each group gets a different set of programming and activities depending on their need. Some do activities similar to the Ropes Course and many hold important and difficult discussions on issues of race, religion, violence and preconceptions.

I think it's an amazing organization with a very unique voice. The work done here is not something I have encountered on my travels in any other country this year, especially not on this scale.

I'm still new and "learning the ropes" so to speak, so I haven't really participated with a group "in action", but Wed-Fri of this week, I'll be assisting with a group of students and I'm really pumped about it.

They're also really great to volunteers providing great accomodation and food (for little to nothing depending on your volunteer status) and it's a warm and welcoming community.

Needless to say, I like it a lot. I'm excited to see how things work here!

Well, I'm going to get back to some volunteer-bonding time, but thanks for tuning in.

The rest of South Africa (warning: somewhat academic)

Talking about an experience in the "developing world" is difficult. I feel a dual responsibility to disprove many of the existing stereotypes held by people who've never left the comfort of the "developed world", as well as, underline the severity of the problems that prevent these countries from joining the ranks of first world nations.

I'm sure that sounds like a lot of "mumbo-jumbo", but let's try this..when I say "Africa", what do you think of?
If you're answer includes tribes, half-naked men and women, village life, poverty, starvation and/or AIDS, your picture is incomplete. In the case of South Africa you should also see beauty beyond belief, megacities, high fashion, world cup mania, and imagine your closet strip mall on every corner of any decent sized city.

It's hard to imagine the toll that globalization has taken on the world. In the farthest corners of the planet you can buy ipods, drink a venti starbucks latte and top it off with a meal at TGI Friday's.

The problem with this globalization is that the fruits of these products are only beneficial to certain strata of society. As we in America are seeing right now, the gap between the rich and the poor is growing greater all over the world and in South Africa, the contrast is unbelievable.

Without meaning to oversimplfy the vast problems present to South Africans, the legacy of Apartheid still runs very deep. Although many black South Africans have achieved substantial wealth and opportunties, these cases are the exception and not the rule.

Seeing these contrasts (especially coming in as a relatively affluent, both by background and the genorocity of the Watson Foundation) was incredibly difficult.

It seems to me, this inequality only exacerbates the (still open) wounds of Apartheid. Many black South Africans feel that even though the law is now on their side, little has changed in the years since Apartheid ended. They still disproptionally composite the groups of the uneducated, the impoverished, the unemployed and AIDS victims.

The government and the South African people still have a long way to go (as do many countries around the world, including America). The changes still waiting to take place need to occur at all levels of society--across a broad spectrum of insititutions, social policies, government initiatives, and, even, interracial dialogue.

Though many important changes have been made (particularly in a government allowing for constitutional equality), millions of South Africans are still awaiting the promise land of change.


----------------------------------------------------------

The above is most definitely a personal opinion, which does not at all detract from how much I loved visiting South Africa. It's a beautiful country with warm and friendly people everywhere. I can't wait to go back some day...

Much love to those of you still here

Okay okay...I know it's been forever (or 2 months and 2 days) since I last posted, which means about 5 people may ever see this blog entry

But for you 5, thanks for sticking with me.

The thing with keeping up a dedicated blog for a year is that you get tired of talking about yourself. I'm so accustomed to changing every 2-3 months that when it happens I forget it should be harder and stranger--more importantly, the year has FLOWN by and when I look back I realize I've been terrible not only at relaying my experiences back to you folks, but in keeping in touch with many of you in general.

I'm really sorry! Please don't cross me off your Christmas card list yet..I'm home in a month (EXACTLY) from today.

Back in SA

Back in South Africa again...

I'm in a small town south of Durban along the Indian Ocean (making my
way slowly but surely to Capetown).

My last days in Swaziland were great. I took a tour of the
countryside, a "typical" village, saw some Swazi dancing, ate (and
cooked my meat) at a brai (BBQ) stand and met some new people. It was
really interesting to hear the Swazi point of view on South Africa
culture (both of today and the past). For the most part, Swazis
follow South African politics eagerly.

Though they are entirely separate countries with separate languages,
governments, and systems many things are shared between them. The
Swazi currency is pegged to the South African Rand and you can use the
rand at all stores. I also felt like most Swazis (or most people
living in Swaziland) referenced South African politics, history,
culture, political figures and current events more than they
referenced their own--not to say that Swazis don't have a strong
cultural heritage and identity, to the contrary, they're very proud of
their own history. It's just that their lives are so effected by
South Africa, it's hard to escape the subject.

I also started learning how to drive a manual! Here driving is on the
left side of the road and the steering wheel is on the right. So, I'm
guessing reapplying these skills anywhere else (shifting with my
right hand and not my left) will be hard! But it feels good to have
learned a new skill!

That being said, I wholeheartedly recommend a visit there. It's safe
and super easy going. I enjoyed my time there a lot (other than my
last day, because I was sick!)

So I'm back in South Africa,
Yesterday I saw and swam in the Indian Ocean for the first
time...which was incredible! It's soo blue and clear. Outside of the
Caribbean, I think it's the prettiest ocean water I've ever seen.

Then today...I did the world's tallest gorge swing. It's basically
like one of those swings they have at theme parks (where the pull you
up and let you go), but this one--you start from the top and jump down
about 300 ft before swinging out. It's apparently the tallest one in
the world. I'm trying to upload the video...but the internet takes
too long!

I'm spending a couple days in this hostel near the beach (Mantis and
Moon). It's a really nice hostel. Though the people are not really my
"type", they're still friendly and interesting to talk to...

I think I've sort of reached the point where it's difficult to make
"casual" friends. You get to a new place and you have to go over the
same thing again...Hi. Megan. 23. USA. 3 weeks. Another 3 weeks.
Reconciliation Movements Study. 9 months. In July.

And....that's it. I don't even have to listen to the questions..I can
just repeat those answers one after the other and theire you have it.
I'm not meaning to complain...it's just that after traveling for so
long, meeting new people daily is exhausting. I also prefer to make
more meaningful relationships along the way (like my travel partner in
India, the people I lived with/worked with in Rwanda, people I lived
with in Chile, etc...). These are the moments that I really look for
and enjoy. It's more than just filling up my passport book with cool
stamps or seeing a zillion amazing sites...

I love to travel because I love those moments when you have a long
laugh with someone from a different country or culture. All the
stresses of traveling seem worth it in those moments. That sounds
cheesy...I'm sorry, but it's the truth.

Well...it's 8pm and after my exciting day of cliff jumping and
beaching..I'm tired . I'm going to watch a movie or something and head
to bed. Boring..i know...