farwell

well, originally when I signed up for africa and the middle east, I signed up for it thinking it was going to be terribly boring and regret taking it. When in reality, it was eye opening and led me to respect those in the middle east. I ended up enjoying the class a bunch, it allowed me to make connections to students i may have not have talked too if not for this class.
things I will take away from this class:
*dispite our differences with those in the middle east, we are strikingly similar. And that you should not judge them just because of the bad decisions that a few have made.
*Africans are super strong individuals that fight daily to stay alive, its actually beautiful how they keep ging and i think its something all of us americans should think of, when we go complaining about how much homework we have, or about our bad days.
*also just because of this class, i feel like ive learned to respect the world more and the people in it. I feel more educated and as though i could join in with adult and have coherent converastions about worldy issues.
I will miss Africa and the Middle East! can we repeat this semester?  can we have a part 2? :)

my reaction: vol. 2

No words can completely describe my feelings on what is happening in Congo. Women cannot trust a single man, not their brothers  or even their husbands. The one man they can trust is a doctor who helps them to deal with the trauma of it all. Personally, as im sure many feel  the same, no woman or child should ever have to deal with rape and sexual assualt of any kind. Itd be terrifying, and i feel as though you would live with it for the rest of your life. As for the child soliders....it sickens me. Many of them are their against their will and forced to become these..monsters. Just the thought of children who are 9 and up carrying guns, it saddens me. And little children who are too young to handle guns are forced to have their lives taken from them. ....i honestly cant handle it. 

as for hope for the congo?

i wish i could say there was, but after many attempts to make peace with kony, and his efforts to avoid the meetings for 23 years, i just cant see it. The conflict between the people seems to have been stuck, only to continue. I would love to see the congo reach some sort of peace within my lifetime.