Week 2 of Internships

Here, you will find photos from last weekend. These are from the Ngecha Ats Festival.

A lot has happened since I last posted. Time here seems to stand still, but at the same time, it seems to accelerate. For example, our group has been having weekly potluck meetings to discuss and plan for our upcoming hands-on human rights project in Loitoiktok Village. When reflect on our meeting last week, it seemed like it was at least 3 weeks ago. I guess that is because we are fitting so much in each day, and that each moment, experience, sight, etc. is something special. Like when we were driving to Ngecha, I didn’t want to sleep for one minute for fear that I would miss out on something interesting or a unique or interesting sight during our journey.

My internship continues to go well. I feel extremely fortunate to have the supervisor that I do, Javas. He is a great boss – funny, jovial, easy-going, accessible and supportive. Today I was asked to work on an exciting project. The Kenya Human Rights Institute is setting the groundwork to build a collaborative partnership with a human rights center at a university in England. I was asked to write up the concept paper / proposal for the initial conversation with the center. This in my mind is the perfect assignment! Since I have worked in international education, I have experience with Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs) and such. Plus, it sounds like a very interesting and dynamic potential partnership. The center in England is especially interested in Africa and the human rights movement here, as well as innovative developments such as the implementation of technology (especially cell phone technology).

Class this week was good. Our seminar was (per usual) interesting and useful. We talked about the various means of enforcement of human rights norms and standards. Examples include “shame and blame,” policy advocacy, mass media, economic sanctions, trade sanctions, diplomatic pressure, bringing groups or individuals through the International Criminal Court system, and much more.

Tomorrow is another internship day AND then on Friday, we are visiting one of the informal settlements. We had a program meeting tonight (for which our professor cooked Kenyan food for 15 hungry students; he slaved away all afternoon) where we talked about this experience, what to expect, how we feel, etc. I will write more about the informal settlement visit soon.