Together: "Haaaaappy birthday, happy-happy birthday. Haaaaaapy birthday, happy-happy birthday! Hey!"
Megh: "Do we have a birthday here?!"
Mob:"Yes, we have a birthday here!"
Megh: "Birthday where?"
Mob: "Birthday here!"
Together: "OOOOOOOH!"
"Haaaaappy birthday, happy-happy birthday. Haaaaaapy birthday, happy-happy birthday! Hey!"
I was being greepy. I was greepy because Becca and Hazel had come up brilliant idea of coming up with a birthday rap for Sarah at 10:00 o'clock the night before and had chosen to put my name in it because I wouldn't help them. And I quote: "Roe is being greepy like the dwarfs grumpy and sleepy". Grant it, I spoke the idea of rap into existence but I was not going to participate: if it went wrong, I didn't want to be affiliated with them. It had words like yo, slammin', sista, holla and the phrase main squeeze in it somwhere. The plan for the finale was a choreographed dance to Will Smith's "Jiggy Wit It." Yes, please. I almost peed my pants laughing, it was so bad. They were determined to perform it for her though. I kept my eyes down and tried to finish writing my Japanese birthday greeting.
Sarah was turning 22 and this hilarious GoEd group wanted to make it really fun for her since birthdays overseas can be hard for expats. Coming together in the dark hours of the night (while Hazel and Becca perfected their lyrics) we overhauled the Gitarama FH meeting room and made birthday paper cranes, birthday cards, birthday signs, a birthday crown, a birthday canopy, and a birthday walk to 22 leading to the seat of honor: a go-ed shirt draped throne. Elizabeth and Katie blew up birthday ziplock bags. Birthday balloons, you see. We used lots of masking tape and sewing thread. We are hilarious and resourceful.
Morning.
"Sarah's going to be up soon! So we should all gather soonish." Kirsten announced, bounding, greeting the day. I shook Hazel's birthday leg and made my way to the birthday table to meet the others. The canopy and sign had stayed up. I mused about the times where one couldn't birthday sleep you were so excited for the friends you'd get to play with the next day and the cake you'd get to consume and the presents you'd eventually tire of that'd you'd get to open. Meghan taught the 10 of us the Red Robbin Birthday Song and we erupted in loud cheer and jubilation as Sarah strolled down the walk to 22, clapping on key. Mbish was a great camera man. She looked birthday regal in her birthday crown underneath her birthday canopy and we spent the morning having honorary breakfast with her! I was in charge of pressing the youtube play button for Jiggy Wit It and Hazel/Becca mowed the crowd with their birthday rap, and everyone was pulled up for a hip hop dance party at the end. Hallelujah--it was still as funny as last night.
Afternoon.
A lot of us took birthday naps, while others went to buy pottery. In the late afternoon, we took Sarah out on a birthday hike in a Rwandan village behind Gitarma town, in the hills. It was SO pretty up there and it felt good to be out under the sun, even though people stared at the strange Wazungus following Mbish and I. On the way up the hill, passing tiled dwellings, we picked up a mob of excited children and a man with 6 fingers (on each hand!) who only understood the word Obama and happily wanted a picture with his cow. What else have we got to do today? So we followed this man to his house, emeshed in a mob of children, to take a picture of hm with his cow. He looked dignified. It was a nice cow...ahahaha. And we kept walking trying to think what in the world we'd do now. We all took hands of children, singing rwandan songs, and walked to a school. At the school we stopped to sit and rest and about 30 children surrounded the Wazungus while I took pictures. Kyle started a game of duck-duck-goose and they thought that white people running around was the most hilarious thing that ever happened. It was so fun watching them play; some village members enjoyed how unusual this all was. On the way home, a funny drunk man put himself close to Sarah's face, demanding her name. It had become a birthday day for everyone.
Evening.
"SURPRISE!!!!!" Our distraction worked. She had no idea about the birthday picnic we had birthday planned all week. "You guys!" The home team cut up Hazels' green appples, brought out the nutella and cracked open the Crystal light-on-the-go packets. We listened to the Across the Universe soundtrack and had enough unhealthy snacks to wire a kindergarten class. Nice cookies are our friend. We cracked jokes, talked, and watched Meghan impromptu interpretative dance. Again--yes, please. The day was out of control. We easily came together and created such a celebration!! I can't get over how fond I am of these folks. In the evening was a mini-feast and we birthday watched a re-cap of the Office. Her mother would be proud of us.
Facebook Status seen the next day: Sarah hearts her most hilarious go.ed group ever.
Mission accomplished.
Showing posts with label GoED. Show all posts
Showing posts with label GoED. Show all posts
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
Pre-Meditations...
Ni Kweli.
My passport just arrived at my parents house in California and (counts) five weeks from now I'll be on a plane to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. What in the world....?
There's a lot of hindrances that I have to overcome to guarantee that I'll be boarding that plane [last minute immunizations, check-ups, cv/resume concoction]
but I suppose I've jumped a lot of them (or something has carried me over) to get me this far. Four months ago, I was convinced I'd be going to Cairo, Egypt for my semester abroad. This may sound bizarre, but five years ago, at a missions conference, someone reached out for my shoulder and prayed for the people I'd affect in Africa. He walked away like a phantom; I never saw his face, so I could never thank him for [scarily] confirming the foreign thoughts I had been fanticizing about for a long time. How come he didn't mention any of the other 17 countries and 4 continents discussed? How did he know? That year and for the first two years of college, no one was coming up to me with job or missions opportunities to the place, so I changed my major and worked on directing my own path. I was going to get myself there through social science. The Uganda program through CCCU just didn't appeal to me, but Egypt was exotic. Lots of people, spicy foods, arabic, and shisha. There were pyramids.
Hey, it's in still in Africa. The voice should have been more specific.
But, if you're well familiar with geography, anthropology, and political science, Egypt is in North Africa or considered apart of the Middle East, which is completely different from the rest of Africa underneath the Sahara Desert. I guess the voice meant below. I was waitlisted for the amazing Egypt program and I conviently moped around for a month and a half over my bad luck. WAITLISTED! Arrrrrggggh, was I not good enough?! But the voice was not silent for long. I was scanning Food For the Hungry's website for future job opportunities/internships, when I saw the link. GoED Africa.
Um, excuse me? Its focus and goal: community development and peacebuilding. I'm sorry, can you repeat that amazing thing one more time? The deadlines were past so I inquired if this could be an option for Spring since it didn't look like I was going anywhere for Fall (ahem, ruining my whole academic plan) and the hub emailed Brent Reimer back immediately. "If she's still interested, we'll consider her application for this fall." And they accepted me, after all deadlines were past, and it was one week before school ended. The program was 3x better than the one I'd applied for, would put me in the field I wanted to study, and give me practicum experience to help me know what I'm doing. Africa. I had been trying to get there my own way, and the voice insisted on doing it hers.
The semester plan:
Week 1-4 (Uganda)
INCL 340: African Traditional Religion (ATR),
ENG 206: Post Colonial African Literature
Week 5-7 (Rwanda)
INCL 345: Issues in Peacebuilding: Genocide and Diversity,
SOC 381: Social Context for Development
Week 8-11 (EthiopiaKenyaRwandaUganda)
Supervised Field Practicum in Development Work
Week 12-14 (Uganda)
INCL 340: African Traditional Religion (ATR),
ECON 240: Development Economics,
ENG 206: Post Colonial African Literature
plus some Swahili 101; and so I created this blog to document my time and all the moments where my preconceptions about poverty, aid, and Africa get kicked in the face. Ni kweli means "it is true" in Kiswahili and I hope to convey what is to you and to myself--all that comes along with this crazy trip: the truth about life and humanitarianism a world away. What am I getting myself into?
Ni Kweli what I say.
My passport just arrived at my parents house in California and (counts) five weeks from now I'll be on a plane to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. What in the world....?
There's a lot of hindrances that I have to overcome to guarantee that I'll be boarding that plane [last minute immunizations, check-ups, cv/resume concoction]
but I suppose I've jumped a lot of them (or something has carried me over) to get me this far. Four months ago, I was convinced I'd be going to Cairo, Egypt for my semester abroad. This may sound bizarre, but five years ago, at a missions conference, someone reached out for my shoulder and prayed for the people I'd affect in Africa. He walked away like a phantom; I never saw his face, so I could never thank him for [scarily] confirming the foreign thoughts I had been fanticizing about for a long time. How come he didn't mention any of the other 17 countries and 4 continents discussed? How did he know? That year and for the first two years of college, no one was coming up to me with job or missions opportunities to the place, so I changed my major and worked on directing my own path. I was going to get myself there through social science. The Uganda program through CCCU just didn't appeal to me, but Egypt was exotic. Lots of people, spicy foods, arabic, and shisha. There were pyramids.
Hey, it's in still in Africa. The voice should have been more specific.
But, if you're well familiar with geography, anthropology, and political science, Egypt is in North Africa or considered apart of the Middle East, which is completely different from the rest of Africa underneath the Sahara Desert. I guess the voice meant below. I was waitlisted for the amazing Egypt program and I conviently moped around for a month and a half over my bad luck. WAITLISTED! Arrrrrggggh, was I not good enough?! But the voice was not silent for long. I was scanning Food For the Hungry's website for future job opportunities/internships, when I saw the link. GoED Africa.
"You've read about poverty and development in textbooks. You've seen pictures of war and hunger on the news. Confused by the complexity of the issues? Wondering how you can make a difference? To understand poverty, you first must own it. Transformational development starts with you. Go ED. is a unique study abroad program that will change the way you think about your world."
Um, excuse me? Its focus and goal: community development and peacebuilding. I'm sorry, can you repeat that amazing thing one more time? The deadlines were past so I inquired if this could be an option for Spring since it didn't look like I was going anywhere for Fall (ahem, ruining my whole academic plan) and the hub emailed Brent Reimer back immediately. "If she's still interested, we'll consider her application for this fall." And they accepted me, after all deadlines were past, and it was one week before school ended. The program was 3x better than the one I'd applied for, would put me in the field I wanted to study, and give me practicum experience to help me know what I'm doing. Africa. I had been trying to get there my own way, and the voice insisted on doing it hers.
The semester plan:
Week 1-4 (Uganda)
INCL 340: African Traditional Religion (ATR),
ENG 206: Post Colonial African Literature
Week 5-7 (Rwanda)
INCL 345: Issues in Peacebuilding: Genocide and Diversity,
SOC 381: Social Context for Development
Week 8-11 (EthiopiaKenyaRwandaUganda)
Supervised Field Practicum in Development Work
Week 12-14 (Uganda)
INCL 340: African Traditional Religion (ATR),
ECON 240: Development Economics,
ENG 206: Post Colonial African Literature
plus some Swahili 101; and so I created this blog to document my time and all the moments where my preconceptions about poverty, aid, and Africa get kicked in the face. Ni kweli means "it is true" in Kiswahili and I hope to convey what is to you and to myself--all that comes along with this crazy trip: the truth about life and humanitarianism a world away. What am I getting myself into?
Ni Kweli what I say.
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