Arusha: serving coffee and justice

I'm trying to slow down a bit now, adjust to 'Africa time' and the lethargy that comes from this heat. It's hard for me, especially since I'm so used to running about and keeping busy. I am too new here to even know how to keep busy. I need to accept that boredom is a part of this, and that's okay. In the meantime, for the weekend, there is absolutely nothing I have to do, or should be doing, so I'm forcing myself to relax.

I think I'm going to start taking Swahili lessons next week. It will give me something to do and help me understand the world I'm in, or at least some of what people are saying. I'm still getting a hang of the basic greetings - mostly I spend a lot of time saying "ahsante" - thank you.

On Friday Kara and I went to Arusha. I met Mageche, our cafe manager, and we checked out a couple cafes - one had a beautiful La Marzoco that made me a little homesick. We also stopped in at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, located in the Arusha International Convention Center. We were only able to catch the very end of a session, and it took me awhile to understand what was going on, but it was very interesting. I recently saw a film about the reconciliation process within the country, which provided a lot of contrast. The woman on the stand was a witness whose past testimony about the accused, apparently a man she had worked for an respected, was being questioned. It is crazy how people are held accountable to remembering testimony and events that happened over ten years ago. The lawyer we saw interrogating the witness posed many questions as suggestions: "Might I suggest that you said this because..." The witness defended the nuanced differences between her testimonies, and did not agree to the lawyer's suggestions. And then the court was adjourned and the witness was told she could greet the accused. It was all very formal and civil. I hope to go back and observe more of the proceedings.

Yesterday, when poking about my house, I discovered a folder of information about the ICTR. Most interesting was a little illustrated book about testifying for the ICTR. According to the introduction, the cartoon guide was printed in English, French, and Kinyarwanda, the three official language of the court, and was intended to help people understand the purpose of the court and the process of testifying. I'm not quite sure how this book and information were disseminated (I think through local teachers), but knowing the confusions around the Liberian TRC, such a guide definitely seems like a good idea, and was certainly the most accessible thing I've seen.