Phew! After day 2, I'm TIRED.
Halfway through the afternoon, I started having a really hard time following what people were saying, and it felt like they were speaking another language because I ran out of energy to listen enough to understand through various accents. In my class, there are Nigerians, Syrians, Liberians, Mexicans, South Koreans, Lebanese, and some others.
My small group, made up of myself (the only female), a Zimbabwean, a Liberian, and a Palestinian, had some really heated debate about the Palestine-Israel conflict this afternoon. I observed and tried help them both get equal sharing time.
Today, I'm overwhelmed. I've jumped into the deep end of the swimming pool and am getting just enough air to survive. We are trying to solve the world's problems (literally!), and there's no hope to do so until Christ's return. Class time has been very full, and I haven't had as many opportunities to get to really connect with friends as I'd hoped because our class is 70% male, and I've mostly just interacted with my group mates (and they won't let me into the cafeteria if I bring my own lunch! :( Stupid bureaucracy.). A bit disappointing, also, that the current grad students are worn out from their previous semester and are not that excited about what's going on here at SPI. I'm feeling a little unsure of myself, but I'm still glad I'm in the midst of this.
I've had conversations in and out of class about politics, gender equality (Half the Sky-type), educational systems, and a lot of UN stuff that is an incredible web of bureaucracy. Exciting...but exhausting.
What's keeping me afloat right now are the awesome case studies from all around the world and thinking about those places and the things God's there. And the class discussion hit home today for about 15 minutes when people were talking about their experiences with Western development agencies that dictated how the money they gave had to be spent without without condition. My favorite story was of a group in Africa who were given blueprints for the new compound (school, clinic, etc.) that were being donated, and they made their own modifications to the blueprints and then sent it back to the donors for approval. That's how it should work. It's not that complicated, right?
Also, I haven't seen the sun since Sunday. :(
I'm going to go play frisbee.
God is good.
Halfway through the afternoon, I started having a really hard time following what people were saying, and it felt like they were speaking another language because I ran out of energy to listen enough to understand through various accents. In my class, there are Nigerians, Syrians, Liberians, Mexicans, South Koreans, Lebanese, and some others.
My small group, made up of myself (the only female), a Zimbabwean, a Liberian, and a Palestinian, had some really heated debate about the Palestine-Israel conflict this afternoon. I observed and tried help them both get equal sharing time.
Today, I'm overwhelmed. I've jumped into the deep end of the swimming pool and am getting just enough air to survive. We are trying to solve the world's problems (literally!), and there's no hope to do so until Christ's return. Class time has been very full, and I haven't had as many opportunities to get to really connect with friends as I'd hoped because our class is 70% male, and I've mostly just interacted with my group mates (and they won't let me into the cafeteria if I bring my own lunch! :( Stupid bureaucracy.). A bit disappointing, also, that the current grad students are worn out from their previous semester and are not that excited about what's going on here at SPI. I'm feeling a little unsure of myself, but I'm still glad I'm in the midst of this.
I've had conversations in and out of class about politics, gender equality (Half the Sky-type), educational systems, and a lot of UN stuff that is an incredible web of bureaucracy. Exciting...but exhausting.
What's keeping me afloat right now are the awesome case studies from all around the world and thinking about those places and the things God's there. And the class discussion hit home today for about 15 minutes when people were talking about their experiences with Western development agencies that dictated how the money they gave had to be spent without without condition. My favorite story was of a group in Africa who were given blueprints for the new compound (school, clinic, etc.) that were being donated, and they made their own modifications to the blueprints and then sent it back to the donors for approval. That's how it should work. It's not that complicated, right?
Also, I haven't seen the sun since Sunday. :(
I'm going to go play frisbee.
God is good.
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