First Report, First Impressions

Sawadee kah!
Greetings from Bangkok! As I sit in my room and sip
lychee juice, I figured it was about time that my first Rotary District 5100 blog entry was written to let you know about my experiences thus far.
It's wonderful to be back in Asia in general and
Thailand in specific. The kindness of the people, the beauty of the land, the chaos of the big city, the absolutely fantastic food, the pace of life, the wats (Buddhist temples), the beautiful offerings that abound
everywhere, the Thai smiles and laughter. . .I just
love it.
The Rotary Peace and Conflict Studies Program (RPCSP) is an incredible experience. The most interesting aspect so far for me is the mixture of people participating; it's an intercultural classroom, just like the one I helped to create on the international education program The Scholar Ship but on a different scale.
There are 18 participants in RPCSP, ages 27 - 60s from
all career backgrounds. To mention a few:
Paskaran (an Ayurvedic Doctor) from Sri Lanka, like me, does participatory theatre for social change. We share hilarity about the fact that no one can understand him when he talks (thank goodness he laughs a lot) and he's recruited me to help him type.
Pavao from Brazil is a firefighter/policeman who competed in the EcoChallenge on the Brazilian team in Borneo. Like me, he also does teambuilding interactive/outdoorsy-style.
Assabah from Kashmir is one of the most outspoken
reporters on the conflict in the region, and one of the biggest sweethearts.
Kishu, the law professor from Bombay, keeps us
laughing.
Gina from Ecuador has an amazing career ahead of
her on the world stage representing peace/conflict
issues in Latin America.
Anas is an Islamic judge from Nigeria who told me his friends would be flabbergasted that he was friends with an American female of Jewish descent.
Fernando, a very tall teddy-bear of a peacekeeper from East Timor.
Trivini is a thrice published author on issues of conflict and peace from Assam, India.
Susan is a self-proclaimed Peace Clown from Australia whose desire is to spread love.
Jennifer from DR Congo works for the UN in peacekeeping missions.
I could go on and on talking about everyone, but I'll
stop there.
The greatest impact for me has been hearing stories of
my colleagues' lives. I am constantly reminded of how lucky I am that I come from a country without continual obvious armed violence. Some of the photos shared from the DR Congo will never leave my consciousness, as much as I wish they could. The stories of unspeakable violence in East Timor and Kashmir and India and Brazil and Colombia have instantaneously taken me deep within myself, sending out love to everyone in the room, protecting us and our families and our countries and the planet hopefully enough for us to see another day of sunshine.
In terms of the academics, we’ve completed two course modules so far:
Module 1: The Concepts and Values of Peace and Conflict Studies including sessions on: Conflict Prevention; the Nature, Types and Root Causes of Conflict; a Global Overview of Conflict Situations, and; Gender Perspectives.
Module 2: The Diagnosis and Analysis of Conflict including sessions on Conflict Mapping and Conflict Impact Assessment.
The next few weeks is Module 3, the one I'm most looking forward to. The sections include Negotiation, Mediation, Cross Cultural Conflict Resolution, Cultural Issues in Peace and Conflict, Using Communication for Conflict Management, Intercultural Communication in Conflict Settings, Problem Solving, and Media as Communication Tools.
The program itself, still in the pilot phase, is
impressive and will be more so with a little tweaking.
Luckily the administrators are open to and desirous of
feedback, as well as open to assistance throughout the
program to meet needs. I've already been tapped to
lead some group ice-breaker activities, co-dramatize a poem on gender, introduce the Stages of a Group's Life theory, etc. As you may know, it's quite a switch for me to be a participant in a program like this since I’m used to developing and leading them - and I'm loving every second of it! I'm not responsible for everything; how freeing!
We all live in a 14-story dormitory building on the
campus of Chulalongkorn University, the best university in the country. The rooms are simple and fine, with our
own basic bathrooms, control of AC, tiny fridge, hard
bed, closet, balcony, and internet. I'm on floor 3 and
overlook the parking lot (complete with beautiful
flowering trees) so I get to watch the parking
attendants push the cars, which are left in neutral,
in and out of spots to accommodate. We can walk 10
minutes to class or take the campus bus (I usually walk). Our classes are in one room in the Faculty of Political Science building, and for lunch we dine across the road in the large faculty lunchroom.
On the third day we did an exercise where we paired up
and interviewed each other about ourselves, our
histories with conflict and peace, our life stories,
and then we introduced each other to the class. I
figured that was a good time to share my health story
and Pavao did a wonderful job giving it the right
flavor. I added an apology to the group in advance that I was going to have to constantly ask about ingredients in food (msg, soy/oyster sauce due to wheat) because I didn't want to have a reaction that could potentially affect anyone else in the group. The very next day at lunch, I was presented with a plate of the same food that was on the buffet but was made especially for me - with no MSG or soy/oyster sauce - and they have done so every day since. It's so incredibly thoughtful and I relish in the fact that I can just relax at lunch and know I'll be able to fully participate and be alert in the afternoon. Dinner on our own is a different story, but I've only had one experience that sent me to bed rather than out with my new friends (and I knew from bite one that it would happen) so that's pretty good. I’m truly blown away by the personal care and consideration by the staff in the program, and am incredibly thankful.
We are each paired up with a Host Counselor, and mine
is Krich, a 47-year old woman who looks 25 and lived
in the U.S. for a few years. She's fun and wonderful,
picked me up from the airport and promptly took me for
fishball soup on the street (yum!) and I recently
joined her and one of her friends for a fantastic
informal dinner, a foot massage, and some shopping in
the night bazaar.
During my second week here I made a brief presentation at Krich’s Rotary Club. After the dinner meeting was over, the club President and I did what all good Thai people do at events - we sang karaoke! John Lennon's Imagine, quite appropriate. I will certainly return to attend more meetings, as the schedule allows. We have our first writing assignments due in the next week so I’ll be a bit busy for a while.
In the next blog entry I’ll write about our first field experience up north near Chiang Mai (where I used to live), in villages and cities along the Thai/Burmese border, and in a refugee camp.
I am thrilled to be here, excited by all of the things I’ve already learned and can bring back to better our community, am greatly appreciative to Rotary for the opportunity, and am happily anticipating more to come.
Peace,
-Stephanie