Peace and Leadership

After a month  intense study, conducting training, meeting wonderful people from Iran, Kenya, Fiji, the USA, Bangladesh, Somalia, Germany, the Philippines, Mexico... it is time to leave the Summer Peacebuiding Insitute (SPI). As I prepare to go to Kenya after 6 months in India and Nepal, I feel a need to pay homage to the 6 weeks spent between India and Kenya. Namely, the USA and Switzerland. Coming back to the ‘West’ after India and Nepal was it’s own culture shock. As I journeyed to the American South known as Virginia I was amazed. The sprawling green hills, long low houses surrounded by lush perfectly manicured lawns, acres of shopping malls spread before me. I was also greeted by cool clean air and the sound of the unique southern American accents made their way to my ear drums.

In my final few days in the USA I was staying with my wonderful friend Anne in Richmond. We were driving (which seems to be the only transport available in Virginia) and I started wistfully sharing with Anne how much I am going to miss being somewhere where people reply to emails, electricity flows regularly, there is heating and cooling, the water comes drinkable straight out of the tap, the fresh vegetables can be eaten straight out of the supermarket, credit cards work, cash machines work... I think you get the picture. Anne said that she thought I should write a blog about all the things I will miss about the USA, as the USA gets a lot of bad press. I agreed that the USA does get bad press and I won’t go into possible reasons for that here...

Eastern Mennonite University (EMU) Summer Peacebuilding Institute (SPI) staff are FANTASTIC! It is because of their amazing talents that I am inspired to write this blog. The rest of the USA may not be like this, but let me dream for a moment about my experience at EMU during the Summer Peacebuilding Institute. It went something like this...

When I asked for materials to run my workshops, they appeared ahead of time. Microphones, video equipment and IT all worked. Staff were where they said they would be at the time they said they would be there. If something I needed was not possible alternatives were offered and acted on immediately. There seemed to be a team of people that communicated with each other and things got done. I got to set up my workshop rooms the night before the workshop, all printed material was ready to use and I could test and prepare everything. It was like I had died and ended up in heaven somewhere. It is my ideal. There was no gap between the idea and the reality. It all worked. I miss this already! As a student we had coloured pencils and playdoe to play with in class...

 

Oh how I will miss that 10am means 10am, that I do not need to be afraid to ask a question or ask for help because I know that people will eventually understand me (sometimes rapid speaking Australian needs translation in other English speaking countries), that I do not need to panic about whether materials and venues will be available for training I am conducting. I will miss that I trust people to do the things they say they will do. I will miss knowing it will all work out and there will not be any last minute surprises, such as no electricity, the venue being locked. I will miss that I can be a control freak and it works.

And the beautiful Switzerland! Let’s start with the chocolate! It is all great here. There is no such thing as Cadbury’s here. Lindt is the common standard, and it is cheap! Then there is the cheese (yes, none of this is good for my weight or my health), then the bread, vegetables.... the food! The buses, trams, trains that go everywhere. They are all clean, comfortable, not overcrowded, on time and frequent. The only down side is that the public transport is expensive, but I guess you get what you pay for! Everywhere is so well signposted. Getting from A to B is not a hassle. I don’t have to bargain with people, worry that I am being conned, worry about drunken rickshaw drivers, in fact I don’t even have to talk to anyone as I get to consult a poster on a wall about where I want to go, a TV screen about where in the station to find the train / bus / tram and another screen to give me a ticket. The ATMs work, paying by card is easy, the men are good looking and tall – although so are the women, but I won’t miss the women! I quite like reading the German but have come to realize that being able to read German does not mean I can understand anything that is being said in Swiss German. Apparently everyone learns what they call ‘high German’ at school and everything is written in high German, but it is spoken in Swiss German which is another thing altogether. I will miss the dancing. The 5Rhythms classes I did here were incredible. Apparently there are many 5Rhythms instructors here.

The mountains are beautiful and close to everywhere. They even had some Bollywood idols up the top of Mt Titlis which was a great opportunity to combine India and Switzerland in one great package!

Switzerland has everything and it is packaged into a neat, beautiful, clean and high quality package. I love it. Nothing is too far away and everything is accessible. My couch surfing experience has been wonderful in Zurich which has made a massive difference. I don’t know how people travelled before couchsurfing. I remember my travelling being more lonely and less fun when it was the world of youth hostels. Couchsurfing. It has taken the stress out of travelling by myself. Meeting locals who are happy to host me is wonderful! Local knowledge and wonderful people!