I love Africans!

It's impossible not to be happy living in this beautiful country! The Tanzanian's I meet on the street are just always happy and smiling... its contagious!! Everyday when I'm walking around the city, or when I'm at work, or whatever else I'm doing, most of the people I meet are trippin on happiness! Compared to most western countries, its almost an extreme here! Even the foreigners here are happy and smiling all day (something which I generally don't see when im in Europe or at home).

Yesterday afternoon a friend and I went for a killer run around our neighbourhood. We did some off-road action (jumping over streams and running past goat herders) and ended up running through banana plantations, dodging chickens on the dirt paths in what is the real Arusha (not the developed part where the UN has its offices). It was incredible! To the left and right are houses made of mud and clay bricks with make-shift roofs, and in the doorways are parents with their kids waving and smiling and greeting us! Within a few minutes of jogging through these poorer parts, we heard kids yelling 'Muzungu!!! Muzungu!!!' (which is how they refer to white people) and they started running with us! We had a whole group of kids filled with laughter running behind as if we were the pide piper! I couldn't wipe the smile off my face - which made it difficult to breath (try running at 4000ft altitude and laughing at the same time... its not easy!).

Since not so many white people live in my area, we totally stand out. Even just walking to the main road to catch my ride to work in the morning is an experience. You feel like a rockstar with everyone coming saying 'Jambo!' "Hello!!" "How are you?!!" and just wanting to say the few words of English they know. Making friends with the locals is easy... they're so pure hearted and friendly. It's a great place to learn humility!

Actually at times I almost feel bad for the special treatment we get. For example, one afternoon a couple of us were heading back home from the township and were taking a dala dala (which is a standard 15 seater mini van where they squash about 30 people in, often hanging out the doors and windows). Quite often when its that full, and they see that some white people want to get on, the ones in the front jump out and let you sit there, and they wait on the road for the next van to come. I've started to get in the habit of telling them to keep their seat and I hang off the side, riding in true African style - when you get over the potential for danger, its actually a lot of fun!!!

Africa is an amazing place. You have to come and see it for yourself!!

Lake Manyara

Roman Elephant
Originally uploaded by romulus19.

Two Land Rovers were packed and we headed over to Lake Manyara for some Safari Action. We saw hundreds of elephants, zebra's, baboons, monkeys, wildebeast... but we missed out on seeing what Lake Manyara is famous for: the lions that sleep in the trees! It's the only place in East Africa where the lions sleep in the trees. Its a beautiful place to go for a day - only about 1 hour from Arusha! The Land Rovers were sweet - we popped the top and were able to stick our heads out to get a really good view and still stay within the safety of the car.

Lengai!

DSC00571.JPG
Originally uploaded by romulus19.

A group of us were crazy enough to climb a live volcano in the Rift Valley. The treck began at midnight with headlamps strapped around our foreheads. It took 6 hrs to climb to the top (approximately 10 000ft), from where we saw the sunrise over the most amazing view. surprisingly, it was sooooooo cold and windy at the top... tears were shed, and blood was spilt during the torturous 6 hr descent.

BBQ

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Originally uploaded by romulus19.

On Sunday we celebrated the birthday of two of our Dutch colleagues. Great fun as always!! The BBQ got roaring after Sia and Martin (our resident fire-marshalls) brought their expertise with them. A great weekend wind-down!

IT'S NOT EXPENSIVE TO CALL ROMAN!!

If any of you would like to give me a call, we have a sweet deal where you can call through the UN headquarters in New York - so it charges 'only' a US call (not a horribly expensive Tanzanian call). It would be great to hear from any of you!! And if you live in NY (or elsewhere in USA), then its not even an international call!! so start dialing those digits!! =)

Dialing this number and extension goes directly to my desk in Tanzania. Did I mention that I LOVE having phone calls??

Note: Please remember to call during office hours (9-6pm) Tanzanian time. Thanks!

Tel: +1 212 963 2850 ext: 5494

Almost a full month!

Almost a month has passed since I began working at the UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. I can't believe the time has gone so quickly. It's already 1/5th of the way through! My internship in the Office of the Prosecutor has been fascinating work. I'm working in a great trial team (Government 1 team) which has indicted four of the leading political figures in Rwanda at the time of the Genocide. For those unfamiliar with the events of 1994, basically almost 1 million people (mainly Tutsi's) were hacked to death (by the extremist Hutu government in power at the time) in the space of 100 days in a highly systematic and meticulously planned genocide. The international community stood by and ignored the blood-letting, and now the Security Council (in its usual hypocritical fashion) has established an international tribunal to prosecute those involved in the genocide (sometimes I wonder whether the French, Belgium, British and American government officials should also have stood trial for their failing to take an assertive stance in stopping the genocide). Despite the failings however, the existence of the Tribunal is still better than nothing, and it does provide a useful role in establishing international criminal jurisprudence and acting as a deterrent to those officials in other governments who may consider taking the destructive path.

The Tribunal is based in the north of Tanzania, in a small town called Arusha. There is also an investigative office in Kigali, Rwanda. Much of my time here is spent drafting motions, memo's and other documents, sitting in the court room and taking notes of witnesses testifying in other cases, and otherwise sitting at my computer and reading through witness statements. The latter can be very disturbing at times - especially when the witness is describing how entire families were butchered, or women and girls repeatedly raped. The Government 1 case is scheduled to go to trial in March/April and once that happens, it will be a very hectic and exciting period. One of the most 'interesting' parts of the day for me is when I have little work to do and I shoot downstairs to the courtrooms and watch the trials. You get to see the badboy war criminals in the flesh.

The intern's life here in Arusha is fantastic! It involves going on safaris, climbing mountains (Arusha is right at the foot of Mt. Meru, and are very close to Mt. Kilimanjaro), doing bush treks and other exciting things in the weekends and days off... the evenings generally consist of going out to restaurants, going to the gym/pool (which is great even compared to western standards!) and baking under the hot African sun, or lazing in front of a laptop/TV and watching DVDs. The interns generally become quite close with each other which makes the experience even more enjoyable.

AFRICA!!

I LOVE AFRICA!!!