Peace is...

Peace is...a cup of green tea, time to write and reflect, sing and play guitar, mediate, and cook vegetarian chili! It is my first day of "freedom" in a while, as we just finished our first course in our programs, and that is pretty much all I intend to do for the next few days.

I had such a good experience in my program course, Peace Education: Theory and Practice. I feel like I learned a lot and am growing. The material is perfect: when I decided I wanted to go to grad school, what I really wanted to do was study the issues that I care about and read more about the issues that my favorite authors, from Naomi Klein to Thich Nhat Hanh, write about. Much to my excitement, Naomi and Thay were both in my required reading list! I feel that I am perfectly suited to these studies, and am honestly enjoying every moment of them.

As a class, we became closer and really got to know each other over these weeks. This didn't come without "growing pains": we had our moments of misunderstandings and tensions. However, I think we really grew together and bonded as a group, and learned a lot from one another. We had a session after class one day, to discuss our motivations, expectations, and formulated a list of "commitments" to one another, which basically involved communication, respect, understanding, and the like.

We also bonded, over a group project and the joys and sadnesses in our lives. It is a supportive group, and I feel very lucky to have been here such a short time and to know that if I need them, my classmates are there for me and will do anything for me. It's a blessing.

On the second to last day of class, we got the sad news that our professor's daughter is ill with breast cancer. We are trying our best to support our professor through this difficult time. If you can include her and her family in your thoughts/prayers/meditations, that would be wonderful.

The opportunity to teach yoga is a gift, as nearly everyday I get to share yoga with others. I really treasure this opportunity. More and more, music has been part of life, and I'm even toying with the idea of writing my thesis on music as a tool for peace education. We'll see! A friend of mine started a "peace choir" and we meet once a week. I haven't sung in a choir since my days at McGill, and it is so fun to harmonize as a group.

So, in our last few weeks, we were covering a peace education framework flower model. There are six "petals": educating for... (=> and what this means...)

...dismantling a culture of war => disarmament, military expenditures

....justice and compassion => structural injustices, largely caused by political and economic institutions, globalization

...promoting human rights and responsibilities => fairly self-explanatory; universal declaration of human rights; particularly, rights of women, children, and marginalized groups (like indigenous communities)

...cultural respect, solidarity and reconciliation => multiculturalism, beyond the "4 D's (dance, diet, dialect, dress); examining power structures between cultures, ethnic groups, institutional discrimination

...living in harmony with the earth => expanding our conciousness to include nonhumans; sustainability; ecological footprints

...cultivating inner peace => peace is every step; "affluenza"

It was a really interesting course. The article we read on affluenza was really interesting, and if you get a chance to check it out (it's an entire book), I highly recommend it. It's basically about the collective psychological crisis that is occurring in wealthy countries, in regards to feeling a perpetual state of dissatisfaction in spite of having satisfied "basic needs."

So, 5 days off...a lot of my friends are traveling, but we are not. Alistair and I are going to spend the weekend...near the university! We're going to stay with my friend Hannah, who lives in a beautiful house on top of the mountain, from which you can watch the sunrise over the whole valley. If we're lucky, we'll see monkeys!

Hannah and I are also going to La Carpio, a marginalized community outside San Jose, to teach English on Saturday. We've visited once, but haven't taught yet (other students have taught the past two weeks), so I'm looking forward to that, and trying to "pepper" some peace education material into the lesson! And definitely some songs....

Well, it's lunchtime! Hope this finds you well, wherever you are!

Hello World!

That I haven't written in nearly 3 weeks is indication of the crazy times that have been happening. Crazy good, mostly, but crazy nonetheless.

Not all was good. My friend Jacob, who also teaches yoga, ended up in the hospital for a week. He had a terrible bacterial infection called leptospyrosis. I highly recommend avoiding that one. He has completely recovered now, though, and is back to teaching and being himself, which is very nice!

Meanwhile, Alistair went to Panama. He took a week-long Spanish course in a town called Boquete, in the north. He really enjoyed it. Now he is back, (just returned two days ago) which is very very nice!

After my last post, we finished the Foundation Course, then had a long weekend. The long weekends are totally necessary between these intense 3-week courses. For the foundation one, we had a paper due during the weekend, which I still needed to finish. So I stuck around, working on the paper, and hung out with some other friends who didn't travel (many students went to the beach). We had pot lucks and did yoga, and...finished our papers!

I wrote mine on the US health care debate, specifically about the values involved. It was pretty interesting to research. I didn't get my grade yet though.

Then we got into our "real" programs! I am now taking the foundation Peace Education course, called Peace Education: Theory and Practice. I must say, I love it so much and am so happy to be studying what I'm studying!

And what am I studying? My initial goal with this blog was to write about what we studied every day. There really hasn't been time for that so far, but I'll try to do better. Here's a recap, though.

The first few days we talked about different "strands" of peace education, including (but not limited to) disarmament education, global education, development education, environmental education and futures education. The following day we looked at different perspectives from different countries, ethnicities and religions: the indigenous Canadian, British, Japanese, and Islamic perspectives. This was a grand overview of what peace education is, what the values are, the methods of teaching it, and the challenges. I just finished writing a paper on this overview.

Then we started getting into the "petals" of peace education. There is a flower diagram that is used to talk about the different aspects of what we need to do to dismantle a culture of war (which, of course, we currently live in). They include eduction for...

....dismantling a culture of war (disarmament education)

....living with justice and compassion (this includes education about globalization)

....promoting human rights and responsibilities (our next course is entirely about human rights education)

....living in harmony with the earth (environmental/ecological education, education for sustainability)

....building cultural respect, reconciliation, and solidarity

...cultivating inner peace.

We've discussed disarmament education, which is not just nuclear disarmament, but also small weapons, which contribute the most to violent conflict in the world. It's pretty exciting that as we were studying this, Obama led the security council to the decision to disarm. It will take time, but it is really exciting to have a leader who can take that step. My hat goes off.

(He is moving forward to put US military bases in Colombia, a plan I am not a fan of, nor are any Latin Americans. I hope he changes his mind.)

The day we talked about living with justice and compassion, we spoke a lot about globalization, which was interesting. We also had a songwriting day! That was most fun. We split into groups and had to write a song about the situations, root causes, and solutions for a marginalized group (our group was street children). When I get time, i am planning to organize some songwriting workshops on campus.

We are learning a lot of interesting educational techniques as well. Peace education is based on principles of participatory dialogue and creativity, on helping learners to develop critical thinking skills and critical consciousness. Our professor rarely lectures, and classes involve a lot more discussion. Then we do fun projects like the songwriting, role plays (on disarmament day we had an "arms fair"), and art, which are great teaching tools. We're just beginning but it's so exciting, and I'm so happy everyday in class to be studying this!

Meanwhile, there was also a yoga festival and the Global Alliance Summit!

The yoga festival was in San Jose, and my friend Janine was teaching a class. Jacob and I went to her house on a Friday night, took a class at her studio, then went to the festival with her and assisted her with a class. It was really fun. Taking the class was great - it was so nice to take a Kripalu class, to have someone do that for me! And the festival was fun. Assisting is really rewarding - you just walk around and be present with people and try to help them get deeper into the class. I loved it.

The Global Alliance summit was interesting. The global alliance is a group who is doing peace work, specifically lobbying governments worldwide to form ministries and departments of peace. Opening night, there was a cocktail party with delicious food and live music, followed by a ceremony, which involved a speech by noneother than Senor Oscar Arias, Nobel-laureate and former and current Costa Rican president. Unfortunately by the time he spoke I was only understanding about 60% of his Spanish (it was late). I know that he did say he was happy that Costa Rica now has a Ministry for Justice and Peace, but that it is only a beginning, and much work needs to be done yet. Here here.

I was able to meet some interesting people, including the woman who is the director of the newly-formed National Academy for Peace in the US. Will be sending her my resume shortly....

Then on the Sunday, the summit had a learning day. It was interesting, but somewhat long, a lot of lectures and not so much dialogue. After weeks of participatory learning, it feels wrong to have someone lecture at you all day! There were really interesting topics though - including a woman from Pennsylvania who talked about green economics. I really enjoyed her talk.

There was also International Peace Day (Sept. 21). Our class was responsible for organizing the activities on campus to celebrate, one of which was an open mic, which I hosted. It was AWESOME!!! It was amazing what people came out with - songs and poetry about social justice, compassion, consciousness...I have very talented classmates, and I really enjoyed playing the role of organizer and host. We will definitely have more of those throughout the year!

Well, it's Saturday, and I'm going to cook breakfast. No papers due this week, so I can leisurely work my way through my (massive) reader and soak things in.

Much love to all of you who are reading this!!!

Yoga, yoga, reading and research - and La Carpio

Taking a moment from reading about domestic violence in the military to write a little about the week. Studying peace of course involves studying war and conflict, and it can be a lot for the brain to handle sometimes - all the violence, injustice that is happening in the world as I write this. Sometimes, I just need to take a deep breath and remember that the reason we are studying this is to make peaceful solutions to these problems. Breathe in the pain of others, send it back as love...

It was an incredibly full week. I ended up teaching yoga 5 days, which was really a gift. Jacob, the other teacher, had a meeting one day, and was sick the next and ended up in the hospital with a fever. Thankfully, he is recovering. Meanwhile, I taught two vigorous classes, which got me out of my teaching shell, as I usually teach gentle to moderate. I had a lot of fun teaching the vigorous classes and would like to do more of it.

It is so wonderful to be teaching people who I spend a lot of time with, who come to class over and over, who I share lunch and classes with. It is such a unique situation, and one that I might not find myself again in life after UPEACE, so I am really treasuring it right now. It also really helps me to "walk the talk." I am with my students all day, so I have even more incentives and reminders to practice what I teach. It is really helping me to grow as a teacher, and I am finding that the more I teach, the more it nourishes me.

Meanwhile, classes are good. This week we talked more about positive peace (as opposed to negative peace, which is the absence of war), with issues such as sustainability, gender, and (drum roll)....peace education! Friday was a lecture by Professor Cawagas, who will be teaching my first peace ed course. Her lecture made me very excited to start the program.

Lots and lots of extracirricular activities this week, too. We had a meeting about campus tour guides, which I had helped organized, and had career workshops all week. Boy, are they helpful! There is this amazing woman, Christine, who is the career advisor here. How wonderful to have workshops now, to start thinking about jobs and opportunities for post-grad life at the beginning of the year, rather than waiting until the end when everyone is scrambling to find something before graduation. They've been fun, and are helping us to develop skills that will really serve us in the long run.

What else...the weekend was quiet. I have mostly been reading and starting the last two assignments for the foundation course. One is a group presentation on social learning theory. The other is a paper on "the key challenges to peace in your national/regional/social/cultural context," in 2,000 words or less.

Two thousand words! Not many, when I think I could write a list of two thousand challenges to peace in America. I had an idea to talk about the issues of peace and security near military bases. While visiting my parents in Oceanside, it seemed evident to me that the community experienced high levels of violent crime and gang activity, which I imagine is related to the military culture. Unfortunately, I haven't found many studies to confirm this, so I may have to change topics. One thing that is very well documented, however, is domestic violence in military families, so I might focus on that. I'm also really interested in the psychological and cultural factors that lead to violence and war, particularly relating to our "culture of fear." So many interesting topics, but only 2,000 words, and I need to get focused and start writing!

(Any feedback or ideas are greatly appreciated!)

Well, on that note, I'd better get back to work. I'm still finding my way as a student again, as I haven't researched in a long time, and technology has changed a lot since I last wrote a research paper back in 2000. I have a feeling this will get easier as the year goes on. Right now, it's a little daunting and overwhelming - but giving the old noggin good exercise!

Oh! And I forgot to mention La Carpio. I went on a little field trip on Saturday to a slum area in San Jose called La Carpio, where UPEACE volunteers have doing projects for a number of years. One of the programs they've been doing is an English class, so on Saturday afternoon a group of us went down to teach. Unfortunately, perhaps due to a torrential rain storm, no one showed up. However, we did get to see the community and figured out how to get there. We felt safe, and the community was vibrant, with people hanging out in the streets (when it wasn't raining), and lots of street vendors selling food. It would be nice to do some practical community development projects there.

OK, on that note, I'm really signing off. Thanks for reading! :-)

First Week

The first week is over, and the fact that I haven't written anything is a testament to how busy it was.

I guess I anticipated the program to be intense, as it's a masters in only a year. The workload - lots of reading and 1-2 assignments a week - feels heavy right now, but maybe it's just because I've been out of school for so long. It's been a struggle everyday to stay on top of the reading. I can't imagine how it is for the students whose first language isn't English. I have infinite respect for them!

Every day we have a 75-minute lecture, which is followed by a 75-minute seminar. The lectures have been interesting, ranging from "What is conflict?" to questioning whether peace is possible under the nation-state system. The seminars have been very engaging. We are in small groups of about 20, and each day there is some sort of group activity that we have to do. We always have to speak in front of the class, which in spite of the fact that I've been a teacher and performed songs in front of people, it makes me nervous. But, I try to not let my heart pounding in my chest stop me from speaking. It's good for me, I'm sure.

I've been teaching yoga, too. Last week I taught two classes, and they went well. I'm excited that teaching yoga will be a regular part of my life here.

There is a music club getting underway, so that piece of the puzzle should be in place soon, too.

This weekend mostly involved staying on top of reading and working on the first assignment. Alistair and I had a date to the local pizza shop on Saturday night, which was surprisingly good and not too expensive. We'll definitely do it again.

The highlight was finding the local swimming hole, which is along the UPEACE road, about a 20 minute walk from our apartment. We went with our neighbors. There's this nice waterfall and you can go swimming in the river. We did learn, the hard way, that there are these little wormy things that live on the rocks, and if you sit on a rock, you will get these little wormy things all over you. So, best not to sit, better to swim. We now know for next time.

Well, off to sleep to get ready for 7am yoga!

Exciting times!

It has been an insanely busy, incredibly wonderful past few days. As I sit down to write, I am quite exhausted, so please bear with me! I think my ambition to write daily will be hard to maintain, but perhaps I will have more time once classes start (which is tomorrow!).

Friday was our final day of orientation, which involved some immigration procedures. Most of the morning was spent waiting in line to be fingerprinted by the Ciudad Colón police. Sounds boring, but it was a good opportunity to get to know some other students. I talked a lot with Jess, who is from Massachusetts and is in my program, and Rachel, who has spent a lot of time in Cuba. It was so interesting to hear about Cuba. It is a place that I know so little about, and is perhaps unlike anywhere else in the world. She had me captivated as we made our way through the line.

In the afternoon we met with our departments. It was so exciting! My program only has 10 students, and we are in the same department as the students in the Gender and Peacebuilding MA program, which has 17 students. We each talked about our path to UPEACE and named a talent. There are lots of dancers in the group!

This came in really handy for the dance party which followed. After the departmental meeting, we had a welcome party, complete with a DJ. Incredibly cheesy music, but it was fun. The grand surprise was that towards the end, this drumming and dance troupe, dressed in sequined feathered costumes, appeared. The drummers were great and the dancers were fun to watch. Then they put us on buses to go home. It was a great end to a great week.

Saturday there was a UPEACE picnic on campus for the students and landlords, but our block didn't go. Arlan had to work and Suzy was taking care of Dusty, but they had arranged for us to have a neighborhood pot luck in the evening, which was so much fun. We met in our yard, and everyone brought something to eat. Suzy's family came too. A very funny thing: at the end, it was just me, Alistair, Victor from Peru, and our neighbor Raul from Guatemala. We discovered that we all had spent time in Japan and knew a little Japanese! We reminisced about our experiences and talked about Japanese food, which gave us the idea to make a group outing to a sushi restaurant in San José.

Today was the final day of the Ciudad Colón town fair. The fair was for the patron saint of the village, who is Saint something of Ascention (maybe Mary?). The finale of the fair was a horse parade, which involved over 200 horses and cowboys. Apparently later in the evening there was some crazy drunken dancing going on (when we went out at noon, lots of people were working on their buzz), but I'm too sleepy to go find out.

Tomorrow is our first day of school, so we already had some reading tonight. It was about different theories of conflict and conflict resolution, some more interesting than others. It is incredibly exciting to be starting school tomorrow. I don't know if I've ever been this excited about school - feeling pretty nerdy!

Meanwhile, we will be starting yoga classes too. There is another yoga teacher, a meditation teacher, and a pranayama teacher, and we're each going to teach about twice a week. My first class that I'm teaching is on Wednesday. I'm excited about that, too.

I'm also busy organizing a student delegation to attend the Global Summit for Ministries and Departments of Peace, which is happening in September. Costa Rica, just last week, passed a bill to transform their department of justice into the Ministry of Justice and Peace, which is a really important achievement. The conference should be really interesting, as it will be bringing people from all over the world. We will be attending a youth summit, which involves students at other Costa Rican universities. It will be a great opportunity for us, as students of peace.

I know you probably want some more pictures - I keep forgetting my camera when I go out, and I haven't been able to find my camera cord yet. I'll try to get some posted soon!

Orientation:

Ahhhhh....I am sitting down after two very intense days of orientation, which were intense in different ways.

Yesterday, our first day, was simply incredible. I walked with the other students in my apartment complex to get the bus to school, which is a 7 km. drive. We arrived on campus to meet all of the other students, which was so exciting. It's wonderful to finally meet the people I will be studying with for the next year. They come from so many different place (60 countries are represented), and have even more diversity with respect to backgrounds. It is simply amazing to hear the different life experiences that all of the other students have, and what brought them to UPEACE. This will add so much to our learning experience, as people bring their different perspectives. I feel truly blessed to have the opportunity to learn in such an environment.

The day involved a lot of stimulating activities, led by the UPEACE staff. I must say that I had high expectations in coming here, and yesterday exceeded them. The staff exudes the peace that we are all striving to create, and they are such skilled teachers. We did a "speed dating" activity, which was probably the least awkward ice breaker I've ever had to do. We also did group activities on identity and culture, and started talking about peace and conflict issues. It was a fascinating day, which I hope is only the tip of the iceberg of this experience. The day ended with an informal cocktail hour, during which I met a Japanese woman who lived in Kameari, the next train stop from where I lived in Tokyo. We joked that we'd probably been smashed together on the metro before. Incredibly small world.

In that regard, I also met a girl who is a friend of a friend who I met in Australia. It's amazing that we can come from all over the world and have mutual friends!

Today was slightly more administrative and...boring. Still, I got to meet more people which was really fun. There are a few other returned Peace Corps volunteers within the student body, and it's been nice to meet them. We got to hear from the local mayor, who seems to be a motivated man trying to make positive changes within the community.

One highlight was when Golda, a Peace Education graduate and member of the admissions staff, informed us that Sunday is International Day of Slavery. It's a day to remember the history of the slave trade, lest we not repeat it. She showed us a slide show, and we had a few moments of silence.

Another was talking about the extracurricular clubs. There is so much going on, and I want to be involved in almost all of it! But I'm sure the schedule will be such that I will have to choose. Myself and 2 other teachers are getting some yoga classes together, which is very exciting. There was an overwhelming response of people who are interested in practicing, so that is really exciting. I am also really interested in doing some volunteer teaching (English, and hopefully peace education, too) in an underpriveleged area of San Jose. There are other exciting activities, like language club, environmental club, gardening club, cooking club, as well as cultural days and a model UN conference.

It's all very exciting. I come home today, exhausted, yet feeling filled with energy at the same time. It is a good feeling.

It looks like tomorrow's schedule will be low-key, and we have a party at the end of the day. Over the weekend we are having a get-together with our landlords and the house across the street, sort of a little neighborhood block party. It should be fun.

Meanwhile, Alistair is teaching his first class tonight! Excitement all around!

Village fair and personal practice

Alistair and I came home yesterday to an empty refrigerator (our own doing) and then it started to rain. By 7:30 we were pretty hungry and decided to venture out during a break in the showers, taking our neighbor Rochelle with us. Half-way into town it started pouring, and we managed to duck under an awning to wait for the hard rain to pass. After about 15 minutes it let up enough for us to venture over to the food court and the town fair.

Last night was the start of the fair, which will go on for 10 days. It's for a Catholic holiday on August 15, but I'm not sure which one. We walked around looking at the food stalls, which were either meaty or very sugary - Rochelle and I ended up splitting some churros, which kept us alive for a while, although perhaps not the healthiest option (but what do you expect at a fair?). We stepped into the corner store to grab a few things to make at home, when we heard trumpets playing on the street. We looked out to see an 8-piece marching band and people dressed in these giant folklore costumes - they were dressed as different characters, and the costumes were a full 4 feet taller than the person (they rested on the shoulders, and had parts to cover the person who was wearing them). One character, a woman, was chasing the other characters, and even some onlookers. Rochelle, who is from Trinidad, said that there is a similar spirit in Trinidadian folklore. We watched for a few minutes and then wandered home.

It was also funny to see the village teenagers out and about. Arlen had told us it's where the local boys and girls go to be seen, and to find a boyfriend or girlfriend. They were out in full force last night, girls dressed in short skirts and lots of make up, boys showing off in the various ways that boys do.

Today is a household maintenance day, just catching up on some tidying and laundry, so I thought I'd write a little about my personal practices of peace that I am trying to focus on this year.

I've been practicing yoga for ten years now, and it's been an important part of my life since I started. Over the past 8 months I've been trying to incorporate more meditation into my practice. This year, I am making it a commitment to really practice both yoga asana and meditation every day, because it makes me feel good, and helps me to be more peaceful inside so that I act more peacefully in the world.

I am also trying to practice mindful eating, which is something I started working on when I went to the Kripalu yoga teacher training. We eat several times a day, but so often it can be hurried or mindless, so that when we are finished, we almost don't realize what we've done. Mindful eating is a meditative practice, mostly just about being present while eating. It's harder than it sounds! No TV, no reading, just...eating. My brother gave me a book called Mindful Eating by Jan Chozen Bays, MD, and it has some great exercises to practice. I'm trying to practice mindful eating, but it is easy to forget.

Another practice is nonviolent communication. I also read a book, so titled, but Marshall B. Rosenburg. It is perhaps one of the most practical books I've ever read, but harder to practice than you'd think. The basic idea is speaking and listening empathically, by observing, without judgement, your (or another person's) feelings and needs, and making a request based on that. It involves changing the way you think in a very fundamental way. However, I think it's very practical and worth the effort, so I'm working on that too.

So those are my goals. To integrate those practices into my daily life, so that hopefully one day they will be automatic.

On that note - off to the meditation cushion!

Trip to Escazu

Another fruitful adventure today, this one solo, to meet Janine, a fellow Kripalu yoga teacher.

I took the bus, left early enough to allow myself time to get lost, which I did, but just a bit. So far people have been really helpful with directions. Janine happens to live and teach on property owned by the man who founded UPEACE (whose name escapes me now), in an area just outside of San Jose called Escazu, which seems to host a lot of wealth. The American and British ambassadors live there, in palatial enclaves. And there is a country club, which Janine's street is across from. The studio itself is surrounded by bamboo trees, which produce a soothing sound as the rainy season wind rustles through them, a perfect backdrop for yoga.

The class was such a treat. I haven't been to a studio in a long time, and it was nice to be led through postures by someone else, especially an experienced, compassionate teacher like Janine. After class she cooked a delicious lunch for us and we chatted about UPEACE, yoga and life in Costa Rica.

I learned some interesting things about UPEACE, too - that there has been a shadowy past, but I guess I'll have to find out more about that for myself. One scandal involved UPEACE terminating the contract of a short-wave radio broadcasting organization, called Radio for Peace International, which culminated with UPEACE preventing the radio staff from entering by using guards with machine guns - not very peaceful. If you are interested in reading about the Radio For Peace International Scandal, please visit: http://rfpi.org/UpazPR.pdf.

Good news is that I have the possibility to teach at her studio, which I will work on once I get my class schedule. Not only that, but it was just great to meet her - she is a very knowledgeable yoga instructor, and has been living in Costa Rica for 20 years and seems to know everyone. I really enjoyed her company and am glad to already have a "yoga friend" here.

On the way home, I saw the aftermath of what looked like an awful bus crash - there was a bus, totally charred and half melted, blocking a lane of traffic. I couldn't see any other vehicle involved, so it's possible the bus crashed into the hillside. I honestly don't know what happened, or if anyone was even injured, but the sight was harrowing. It took a long time to get home.

Machismo is alive and well, which works towards my advantage when on the crowded bus. When a seat opened up, some men cleared the way so I could sit there, and later I watched the men wait and ask the only woman who was standing farther up on the bus, and only after she rejected the seat did a man sit in it. Again, this is a big difference from Japan, where I have been nearly knocked over and stepped on by salarymen trying to beat me to a seat on the train.

Other big news of the day is that Oscar Arias, the president of Costa Rica who is spearheading the Honduras peace negotiations, has swine flu. This is only overshadowed by the Costa Rica-Honduras world cup qualifier game, which is on as I type this.

Viva el futbol!