First thing: this is amazing-everyone should watch this music video-Emmanuel Jal’s latest single “We Want Peace” is a way to promote peace around the world and more specifically in his native country of Southern Sudan. Certain parts of this music video were filmed at the Sarakasi Dome and the video features many of our own Africa Yoga Project instructors and the founder Paige Elensen as well!
Just to give you all a current events lesson on Southern Sudan…the country is currently split into 2 main sections: Sudan and Southern Sudan. Southern Sudan houses close to 80% of the countries natural resources: petroleum and crude oil, and therefore there has been a constant conflict over that part of the country for years. On January 9, 2011 Southern Sudan will be voting on whether or not to remain united with the north or to secede and become its own country. The problem with secession is the fear of igniting another civil war-a civil war that would most likely result in another genocide.
The last civil war that took place in Sudan lasted over 20 years and claimed close to 2 million lives. And this is where Emmanuel Jal comes in-he has first-hand experience with the issues of Sudan. Born in 1980, he was quickly swept away into a life as a child soldier. He was fighting at the age of 8 with an AK-47 and was lucky to survive the mayhem. Today he is a well renowned recording artist, and unlike many rap stars, he actually speaks with a purpose. While many of rap artists are rapping about booze, babes, etc, Jal is using his musical talents to promote awareness of the situation at hand. I am encouraging all of you to watch this music video and purchase the album on i-tunes. Spreading this message putting all eyes on a critical situation, the government is less likely to act inhumanely. Send the video to your friends, family,
co-workers, anybody who would appreciate such an important message: Peace in the world.
co-workers, anybody who would appreciate such an important message: Peace in the world.
With that being said, each and every one of you should keep a close eye on Emmanuel Jal, he has been doing some really amazing things and can only bring better things to this world. His “We Want Peace” campaign is specifically geared towards raising awareness for the upcoming referendum, but he has also founded Gua Africa with the following mission statement:
Our mission is to work with individuals, families and communities to help them overcome the effects of war and poverty. Each of our projects focus on providing an education to children and young adults who would otherwise be denied such opportunity.
He also ran the “Lose to Win” campaign where he ate only one meal a day for over 600 days in order to raise money to build a school in his village in Southern Sudan. The whole concept was that you have to give something up in order to gain something…in his case he gave up food to build a school…
After meeting such a prominent figure in the advocacy world, I can’t help but think what I can do as an individual. Raising awareness is easy via social networking and such, but what else can be done…during this holiday season I am challenging all of you (and myself) to really think long and hard about what you would be able to give up in order to gain something on a larger scale…whether it be 1 less gift a family member and donating that money to an organization you support as a family or whatever it is you feel necessary…I am really starting to think the western world needs to re-evaluate our way of living-I’m not saying dishing out free things/money is the right answer-I recently read the book Dead Aid by Dambisa Moyo-a book everyone should look into-it discusses why aid is not working in Africa and how a different approach needs to be addressed before Africa continues it’s downward spiral…I do feel that there are many other ways that the western world can help support Africa-raising awareness of the internal conflicts is one way of doing so and avoiding dishing out dollars is essential. Ok WOW I just ranted for a bit but onto where I am in my life right now…
I’ve spent the last week or so getting lost amongst the streets of Europe. First I flew into Paris and was greeted with mass amounts of snow. Considering I was just arriving from Africa, this was quite a shock and as I walked off the plane all I could do was laugh…I had on a flannel shirt with a rain jacket and jeans…and those were my warmest clothes. Needless to say I was a bit flustered and overwhelmed by society as well.
After situating myself a bit I hopped the metro and found a cute, quaint hotel in the Latin Quarters of Paris-near Notre Dame-and settled…basically I hibernated. I didn’t leave the area that much for a day or so because I was freezing and still decompressing from my Africa trip. It had been a while since I’d really had any alone time and I was utilizing time to really process all that I’ve experienced recently. I found myself constantly comparing things to Kenya and how different it was, but I really had to sit back and stop myself because it is only draining to compare and contrast so much. So I put that aside and actually explored a bit-the area was adorable…cobble stone streets, cafes on every corner, rows of boutique shops with unique merchandise filling the windows, old architecture and churches neatly placed every so often, and TONS of couples in love. Paris is known for being romantic, and I guess since I haven’t been there in a few years, I had kind of forgotten-but it seems as though every which way you turn there’s a couple kissing here, a cute date café there, etc. Good thing I was meeting up with Mark and Gina haha…
So yes, I was finally reunited with my parents after 3 months of separation. It is strange and funny how easy it was for me to fall back into the Krissy I always am around them. It almost felt as if I saw them a week ago or something…it struck me as very odd and kind of scared me to be honest. I had just done all of this growth as an individual but it was so natural for me to blob around with them and act as if nothing has happened in the past few months.
But the reunion was incredible-Mark and Gina are amazing people and what better place than Paris to see each other again. Being the foodies that we are, our days were based a lot around what we were eating…which I thoroughly enjoyed. We wandered the streets and since this is far from our first time in Paris there was no obligation to run around and see all of the touristy sites. We relaxed, viewed a lot of things from the outside and really just hung out.
One of our days consisted of meeting up with Lea, our family friend’s daughter. She is 20 and is studying at a university in Paris. We met her in front of Notre Dame and ventured towards Montemarte-where Sacre Cour is located. Catching up with her was wonderful-she has previously spent a summer working in Syracuse in Mark’s lab and so our family has gotten to know her really well. We did some touristy stuff with her, had lunch and then went our separate ways. Her and I departed laughing a bit because it seems as though whenever we see each other it is in a new city. Last time I saw her was this summer in Manhattan, and before that had been Syracuse and now we just saw each other in Paris-we left saying the next time we’ll see each other will be somewhere like Tokyo-or a random new city-oh the beauty of international friendships…
So Paris came and went in a flash-lots of food, good wine, beautiful buildings, and only 1 museum this visit…it was wonderful!
Off to Lausanne-to meet up with the one and only Matthew Perich-he is living in Switzerland for about a year working in a lab, and I figured I swing in and grace him with my presence for a few days…to explain the picturesque view from his window is impossible. His room is overlooking the lake with the Alps in the background and is absolutely beautiful. Snow-capped mountain tops in the distance, old buildings lining every street combined with the Christmas decorations made me feel like I was on a movie set-it just really didn’t feel real.
My first night there we wandered the streets, had a small meal and did some catching up-even though we weren’t the closest of friends in college, it was just nice to be around a familiar face and we definitely spent a lot of time reminiscing about school. Similar to Paris, I wined and dined quite a bit, wandered the streets and lounged in cafes. It was nice relaxation time for myself where I worked on various things for AYP and my grad school apps…unfortunately I wasn’t as productive as I would like, but I still got a lot done.
Yesterday I took a day trip to Geneva…the train takes about 40 minutes and the ride is very pleasant considering the views along the way are of vineyards and the Alps. I wandered the streets and mostly window shopped. The weather was freezing and the wind coming off of the lake was unbearable. My whole body became numb at some point and that’s when I decided to find a café and settle for a bit. I have found that Switzerland is quite expensive and window shopping is all I can do and once I find a café I have to post there for a while because coffee is not cheap…so once I finally settled in a place I ordered some soup and coffee to warm up and hung out for about 2 hours before heading back to Lausanne.
And similar to Paris, Switzerland came and went and now I’m sitting in the airport waiting for a flight to Amsterdam. It was really nice to see Perich for even the short amount of time that it was-he’s a very genuine person and is good company. I’m unsure as to when the next time we will meet but I can only imagine it will be another city, another country and another adventure.
I’m on my way to Amsterdam where I will be meeting up with the lovely Nikki and Becca…apparently their plans to India failed miserably and so they ended up planning a Eurotrip and how convenient for me, they actually wanted to meet up! SO I will be spending the next 6 days causing mayhem on this lovely continent…
I will be home in less than 1 week…it is strange to think how fast time has flown and how in a few days time I will be stepping off the plane in JFK onto American soil…I can’t believe I made it…I was talking with someone recently about how smoothly this trip has gone so far; it is interesting how organically everything came together. At the beginning of my travels I didn’t have half the things planned but it is amazing how everything works out…I’m not saying my way of travel is the most convenient/efficient, because at times it can be stressful not knowing where you’ll sleep that night, but looking back on it I’m going to have to say that I wouldn’t have changed anything. From my “winging it” tendencies to my lack of budgeting skills, somehow I made it this far in one piece and I still have dollars in my pocket-yay for me!
And with that I’m done with the post for now. My next post will probably be from America...and who knows when it will be. I have about 1 month to run around the north east and see as many friends/family members as possible, apply to grad school, and do some fundraising events for AYP-should be intense! Feel free to continue to donate to my page-I will be keeping this up and continue to collect donations for a while…
https://www.z2systems.com/np/clients/ayoga/campaign.jsp?campaign=7
