When
I first arrived at the olive farm I had no idea what to expect. We had just driven several hours to the
middle of nowhere right in between cows, sheep and a lot of empty fields. We
all got out of the buses and where instructed to start learning each other’s
names and whoever remembered the most would get a prize. I am awful with names so I could only imagine
how this was going to end. Within the
next 20 minutes or so I think I had 5 names down, which was nothing compared to
the 25 names some others were getting.
Next we were assigned roommates.
I roomed with Rahma from Tanzania; we were assigned to the Old Olives
building.
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| Cassie learning different perspectives from a wide variety of people. |
We
were served dinner after we settled in. ALL the food they made was delicious.
It was home cooked real food that reminded me of my Grandma’s cooking so I ate
way too much at every meal. Right after our dinner we met as a group for
introductions and to discuss the basics of human rights. We also established
our groups for the weekend’s project. We
were split into six groups and chose countries of Africa. My group’s country was Uganda. The point of the project was to present an
issue in front of the United Nations to be granted money that would go towards
solving the issue. We proposed to reverse the bill that was recently passed
saying it was illegal to be gay in Uganda and even on suspicions of being gay
one could be in jail for up to 10 years. While researching for this project I
learned so much about Uganda that I never would have known such as the
president had a dream that God came to him to tell him to expel all Asians, so
Asians had 90 days to leave the country. Working with the group was definitely
interesting. At first we were on a roll getting our information and planning
out a skit. We had everything all set for
our presentation. Right before we went
out one person decided we should do something else. Even though most of us
agreed not to since it was too late to change, the change still happened and
made us all so confused during the presentation. This experience taught me that something was
wrong with the way we communicated to the group and also that it is easy for
people with different experiences and backgrounds to not understand something
that has been easy for me to process and understand. Other than that little confusion in the group
I had a great time learning more about people from Africa and their perspectives
on things. We shared a lot of laughs as
well.
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Sun goes down on our last night at the Goedgedacht Olive Farm
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I
was half expecting to get bored as we sat there discussing human rights but to
my surprise it was actually very interesting.
I really enjoyed hearing different perspectives/ opinions that have been
shaped in different cultures. Human
rights are supposed to be universal yet many people do not have them. Many people also cannot agree on what should
be human rights versus what should not be human rights. Even though some things
should clearly be human rights some are a much trickier topic. For instance; I think anyone should have the
right to marry regardless of sexual orientation but some people have been
raised so differently in their cultures that it is not so clear and being gay
is a definite no. I personally do not
agree with that but at the same time can you tell someone they are wrong with
what they believe in. These discussions
made me think differently about issues that I have always known about but never
considered from different perspectives. I am now really appreciative of this weekend
for making me think more and differently on human rights. I hope to apply what
I have learned to future conversations or situations.
Cassie receiving her Africa Unite Human Rights Training Certificate from Ntombi Mcoyi
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