Today was the longest day of the year - and we packed a lot in. It was another day filled with theory and practice. We heard a case study on the transmission of violence in Sri Lanka, which experienced 30 years of war, and another on the impact of living inside the Northern Ireland conflict. We also had a fascinating presentation on the relationship between Memory, Trauma and Language...which got me thinking about all kinds of things that are too big to put on paper here. I can't believe tomorrow is the last day of this course.
About 1/3 of the students are from Ireland, and I will be meeting with many of them 1-on-1 in the coming weeks. The others are from all over the planet, and while I knew I would be here to learn from the Irish experience, it has been an unexpected gift to connect with amazing people doing peacebuilding work around the world. Katherine Hoomlong (a peace educator from Nigeria) and I became buddies the first day, and it has been incredible to learn about her life negotiating present day armed conflict (there was a suicide bomb in her town this week) while at the same time teaching college students in a peace and conflict studies program.
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