EAMUN Thursday & Friday

Jambo bwana!

Thursday and Friday were spent in the general assembly, discussing the resolutions that had already been passed in respective committees. The general assembly was much bigger than the committees, with up to 600 students in each room. The quality of these debates was generally higher as new arguments against certain resolutions had to be strengthened. One of VRG’s accomplishments during the general assembly was preventing a resolution from Austria to pass. This resolution concerned Israel’s occupation of Gaza and as it quite openly criticized Israel and was thereby written in an undiplomatic fashion along with going against the UN core principles of respecting sovereignty. Delegates from Canada and Lithuania persisted in going against this resolution and to our satisfaction, the resolution was voted down. During the Thursday and Friday, delegates from Congo and Canada took part in ECOSOC (Economic and social committee) where the focus was more on collaboration than criticism which a certain delegate from Belarus had a hard time understanding and acted in quite an undiplomatic fashion. Both Congo and Canada played a vital part in the ECOSOC discussions. After the closing ceremony, we were finally able to breathe again and went to a very famous restaurant in Nairobi called Carnivore. Here, we were served different types of meat including crocodile which tasted like fish and chicken and ostrich which tasted like exotic meatballs.

… and now it’s snowing, HAKUNA MATATA!
Jambo bwana!

Thursday and Friday were spent in the general assembly, discussing the resolutions that had already been passed in respective committees. The general assembly was much bigger than the committees, with up to 600 students in each room. The quality of these debates was generally higher as new arguments against certain resolutions had to be strengthened. One of VRG’s accomplishments during the general assembly was preventing a resolution from Austria to pass. This resolution concerned Israel’s occupation of Gaza and as it quite openly criticized Israel and was thereby written in an undiplomatic fashion along with going against the UN core principles of respecting sovereignty. Delegates from Canada and Lithuania persisted in going against this resolution and to our satisfaction, the resolution was voted down. During the Thursday and Friday, delegates from Congo and Canada took part in ECOSOC (Economic and social committee) where the focus was more on collaboration than criticism which a certain delegate from Belarus had a hard time understanding and acted in quite an undiplomatic fashion. Both Congo and Canada played a vital part in the ECOSOC discussions. After the closing ceremony, we were finally able to breathe again and went to a very famous restaurant in Nairobi called Carnivore. Here, we were served different types of meat including crocodile which tasted like fish and chicken and ostrich which tasted like exotic meatballs.

… and now it’s snowing, HAKUNA MATATA!

Gospel church visit

The third day on the trip, we had organized to join the Swedish Schools school trip that included a hike. Though it seemed like a great experience to have done and seen, I had to turn the offer down though. Honestly, walking is not my cup of tea! The thing was that a girl from last year’s group, Olivia, had an arranged to visit a local gospel church through one of the Swedish schools bus drivers, which was a famous artist around Nairobi. His name was Julius and he was a genuine guy, happy and funny, and he had an attitude that kind of gave the expression that everything always sorts out. A relaxed guy you could say. Nevertheless, Julius had talked to his pastor at his church and asked if it was okay for us to come to one of their assemblages and see how different it was from the Swedish traditional church.  We were three students from VRG (Me, Olivia and Dennis (he had some ugly blisters under his foot so he couldn’t join the others) that sat in the mini bus heading towards a destination that was unknown. together with our driver and personal entertainer, Julius, as well as our Swedish friend from Birka, who had arrived at Kolping guest house (the place we stayed at) the day before and was curious and exited to join us, we soon arrived at the destination. But the trip was not that bad or boring at all, we saw some amazingly beautiful landscape as well as a poor poor village that we went through while listening to Julius dedicated song about Barrack Obama. (they really love him there, his father was from the Louou-tribe , which is one of 42 tribes that they have in Kenya, the Louou-tribe is also one the biggest of the tribes. However they see Obama as a symbol of hope, that a BLACK can be president in one of the greatest countries in the world; is amazing for the Kenyan population). 

Furthermore, when we arrived to this so called “church”, which actually was an old abandoned barn, we were welcomed of 20-30 people who all showed their appreciation of having us there. So we were well taken care of. We all sat down on these garden-kind-of-looking-chairs made of plastic, and they all started to sing, and they kept singing for about 30-40 minutes and we, the students, tried to sing with them. At first we all were a bit shy, but when we noticed their hospitality we felt comfortable and could loosen up a bit. Then we were presented and went up to the podium where we thanked them for having us there and so on. Then the pastor preached about the challenges you meet in your every-day-life. Then we finished the assembly with a nice “hallelujah-song”. Afterwards we thanked them once again just to show our appreciation and went back to the Swedish school with a big smile on our faces.

That’s all for now!
Yours truly Adam Sandstrom
 

Monday – Kibera

After returning from the safari the afternoon was spent I Kibera, the largest slumarea in Nairobi and one of the largest on the continent with a population of approximately 1 million (which is more than Stockholm) living on an area equivalent to that of the golf course in Nairobi.

The social worker and Swedish school’s link to Kibera, Francis, passed away only a few days before our intended visit. Naturally his tragic death affected our plans, however we were still able to go even though the visit was shorter than planned.’

My first impression when we stepped out of the bus was that it wasn’t as bad as I had pictured it to be. However straight after that thought had formed in my head Tobias, the teacher from the Swedish school, told us that the part we were in, Olympic, was the only area with electricity and water. Olympic was surprisingly lively. We saw for example small shops, a gym and an aerobics studio. We were constantly met by children, many dressed in school uniforms, excitedly almost shouting “How are you?!” at us.

We visited two support groups for women with HIV/AIDS. Both groups sold jewelry for which the profits went directly to the group and stopping HIV/AIDS. Both groups talked to us about the loss of Francis and arrangements for his funeral. I was impressed by the courage these women showed talking about Francis to a large group of strangers merely days after he passed away as it was clear that he had been close to them. We also visited a school where we talked to student and were shown round the school.

On the whole what I was most surprised by was the positive atmosphere that lingered over Kibera. There was no doubt that it’s a tough place to live in, however it is also full of hope and inspiration (however cliché that sounds) and I think we had imagined it to be more “dejected”. We never got the impression that people were ashamed of living in the slums, on the contrary it seemed like people were proud of being Kiberans. There was also no evidence of people just “waiting to be saved” and in Olympic we didn’t see any beggars. Instead, as the women’s groups were excellent examples of, many seemed eager to build their own businesses and earn their own money. What they wanted help with was to be recognized and for people to be aware of their existence, not be given food.

/Sara Väljamets

Day 1 & 2

 Friday and Saturday

Friday started of with breakfast after which we quickly took the bus that would take us to the Swedish school. The Swedish school’s principal, Per, gave us a tour of the school. We met some students that were very nice to us and told us some small facts about how it is in Kenya. After the presentation we walked to a shopping centre that was located nearby. It was called Nakkumatt Junction, but we learned to call it Junction like the natives. Kenya’s version of Starbucks is called Java, which was the place we had lunch and lots of milkshake, “much like kaffe latte in the rich countries”. After that we walked back to the school, were we spent some hours hanging, enjoying the sun and playing some water polo in the pool. That night, the students at the school, together with us, went to a place called The Blue Times. We were expecting something more, dancy, but were met by a bar and nostalgic music that hadn’t been heard for years. Seriously, Spice girls?! Anyways, the night ended in a quite stressy way, since we all had to catch the bus that would leave at 12.30, and if someone missed it then they would…well…next subject!

Saturday morning started with country meetings with Rich, which included going through policy speech, the country’s position and ecosoc rotation. Toy market was the next stop, it was quite hard to find but since we walked together we managed to keep ourselves on track, at least some of us. The majority of the group went downtown while a small portion of us stayed at the Swedish school, chilling at the pool and enjoying the warm weather.  Later that night we went to the Prestige Plaza, which is a bit bigger than Junction. There we had dinner at a random food court after which we visited a necklace/souvenir stall where some of us purchased fine African artifacts. We then jumped into the bus, which took us to the Swedish school. The students had already arranged a barbeque which we joined and relaxed for a few hours. The ended early as many of us were tired and anxious to start the role-play.

 

A quick update

I realise that it has been very quite on the blog from Nairobi this week, but as teacher, tour guide and general fixer I can vouch that the students have been working very hard.  We have now completed four days of committee work and General Assembly at the United Nations Office Nairobi which as a very impressive complex.

I will leave the details for the students to fill in next week, however I can say that they have performed amazingly well, been noticed by many of the other groups for their resolution writing skills as well as debating and presentation skills.  Our delegation representing Canada received an award for one of the best resolutions at thie Model UN – CONGRATULATIONS!

The weekend is a break from the hard work, we are heading to Lake Nakuru National Park to see flamingos, rhinos and hopefully others.  We are back to Nairobi on Monday for a visit to Kibera (one of the largest slum areas in Africa).

We are all well and not missing the snow!

Regards,

Richard

Day 4: “Let the games begin”

Iambo!

A lot of things has happened for those of you that are unfortunately not with us on this unique trip. Many of us havent seen sunshine for a very long time, so you can probably imagine everyones reaction when we came to the Swedish School and saw the beautiful surroundings, the pool that was filled with crystal clear water, the volleyball net, the tennis courts, the basketball court, and the warm sun shining right above us.  The students at the school were surprised when suddenly the place was filled with around 20 people, many of them already lying on their towels and trying to get “the perfect tan” and some of them jumping like crazy into the pool. They still met us with great joy and respect, and we are all glad that we have the opportunity to be here!

But what have we actually done besides lying on the ground all day? Well, we have visited many markets nearby and seen an amazing part of the city. It wasn’t like NK, which many of us are used to, but we still managed to find clothes and fruit that we just couldn’t resist. I think all of us are really surprised by the kindness of the people living here. Since the first minute we stepped out of that plane we have been met with incredible hospitality.

Also, we have been socialising with the students from the Swedish School. Friday night we went to a place called “Blue times”. Unfortunately alcohol was not allowed, since we have promised Richard to not drink at all during the entire trip. And so, as the little angels we are, we didn’t drink anything and we all managed to get on the bus that would have left us behind if we would have been late to rut on the streets of Kenya.

Three people, Olivia, Adam and Dennis went to the Gospel Church on Sunday, singing Hallelujah while the rest of us were walking the rocky mountains, together with the students from the Swedish School, shouting “Oh cr*p” at every new obstacle along the way. Of course everyone blamed the altitude when they ran out of breath, I mean come on, what other possible explanation could there be..?

Today, we managed to wake up in time for the bus that was going to take us to the Swedish school to meet Tobias, which is our source of information when it comes to the simple life of a EAMUN delegate. He told us everything we need to know, all the phrases, rules, expression and stuffz like that. I personally finally managed everyone, or at least some of us, to be part of a jump-picture with our formal clothes on. It turned out awesome, or as Rich would pronounce it [åuhsoomm]!

We did the lobbying at a place called Brookhouse, which reminded everyone of Hogwarts. Lobbying ment that we had to gather ten signatures from different ambassadors in order to get our resolution to the actual debate. While we were doing this, Charlie, Sara, Olivia and Lucia we facing their inner fears while holding a policy statement infront of many scary looking people. They did great and they came out with a big smile on their face! Lets not forget that, while I’m writing this, Canada is keeping up their hard work of merging their resolution with France. It sounds easy, but its far from it. They are finished now though, and a skilled high-five ended the night with joy!

Tomorrow is going to be the first debate day, and we are not allowed to forget our badages since otherwsie we wont be able to get in. Our bus leaves at 7.15, which means we have to get up at 6.15-ish. Even though we know some of us need a biiiiit more time.

Our long resolution night has finally ended. And as Tobias said earlier: “Let the games begin”.

Ciaoz for nowz

Arad H

Day 1: Arrival in Kenya

After 10 hours on a plane, first to Amsterdam and then to Nairobi, we were all a little tired but the heat and vivid streetlife soon woke us up. After landing in Nairobi, we were picked up by 2 vans and taken to the Kolping guesthouse. We were welcomed by a wonderful lady, housemom Helen. The rooms varied in size… and quality but there were no complaints. The morning after we woke up at around 7:30 and had breakfast in the courtyard, under a avocado tree. We were then brought to the Swedish School where we had a chance to meet some of the students here as well as tan and go for a swim. We also visited a small mall where we had a very good lunch, however; not so Kenyan as it consisted of fries and sandwhiches.
Plans for tonight are quite uncertain but we will accompany the Swedish students to town.
So far we have only gotten small doses of Kenyan culture which can be partly due to the fact that we have not actually realized to a full extent that we are here. But the people are all extremely friendly and we have even learnt some Swahili but as we do not know how to spell them, we will leave that for later… when we are fluent in it.

Toodiloo for now,

Charlie and Michaela

Preparing for Kenya!

We are all looking forward for Kenya, however we are also a little bit nervous. The part about Kenya that most of us are nervous yet excited about is the four days of the UN roll play.  For understanding how the roll play works and for not making complete fools out ourselves when we are there, we had a mock debate. This helped us to get an idea about how it will work in Kenya, though only one of us has actually been at the roll play before. Richard did a very good imitation of the chairman, while we (the students) were delegates from all over the world debating a very important issue: Make-up and facebook. The resolution we discussed was about prohibiting make-up at our school as well as banning facebook. While this might seem like an irrelevant topic it made it easier to focus on the way an debate is carried out at the roll play. This may have caused mixed feelings among us. Some may have felt less nervous while some probably got even more nervous.

 

Also to prepare for Africa Lucia and Pernilla arranged a get together, for all of us to get to know each other before the trip. It was really nice and now that we know each other a little bit better we know that we are going to have so much fun together.

 

On Thursday morning at 4.30 am we are going to meet up at Arlanda airport and Richard made us a little list of stuff we should not forget:

 – Passport

– Yellow vaccination book (yellow fever)

– Money, Ksh (1000kr?), USD (1000kr?), Visa card?

– Formal clothes and shoes

– Lots of sunscreen Hat (sun protection)

– Towel and bathers (for the pool!)

– Sunglasses

– Research notes (not laptop!)

– Camera

– Clothes for hot weather, and something for cooler nights

– Mobile phone (maybe an old one?)

– Rain jacket (light weight) or a cute little umbrella if your name is Pauline.

– Resorb (vätskaersätning)

– Mosquito spray

-(check travel insurance on home insurance policy)

– ?mosquito net?

– Malaria tablets

– Advice on food and water

– Adapter – el

Nafasi kwa vyeto maisha!

Hujambo rafiki!

Karibu kwenye makazi, hapa tuliandika kila wazo tuna. Sasa anakuja kamusa:

Hujambo = Hi, how are you?

Sijambo = I’m fine

Rafiki = friend

Asante sana = Thank you very much

Kiingereza = English

Simba = lion

Pumba = food stuck in teeth

Ulaya = Europe

Nipe msaada! = I need help

Mwalimu = teacher

Haya = ok

Kwa heri = good bye

Natumaini anasaida! Kwa heri/ Alex

Getting closer to the trip

As we get closer to the trip I feel that a short summary of Kenyan history would be in place here at the blog. Kenya is as you may or may not know located in the middle of the east coast of Africa. It is a former British colony which became independent in 1963. The official languages which are both fairly widespread are Swahili and English. Kenya has had both periods of rapid economical growth as well stagnation since its independence. It is currently experiencing difficulties with widespread corruption which is haltering the efforts for growth from both inside and outside of the borders. In 2007 the government released a plan called the ”Kenya vision 2030” which aims to produce a 10% annual growth rate of the GDP and place Kenya amongst some of the very successful emerging economies in Asia. However; as an effect of the political instability following the 2007 election, it is unclear whether the program will be launched. The political unrest was a reaction to the election in which Mwai Kibaki was declared the winner. He was widely accused of manipulating the results and before former UN secretary general Kofi Annan and the two big political parties succeeded in negotiating an agreement the was a lot of violent outbreaks, especially in the slums of Nairobi. Some of the violence was ethnicity-related. The ethnical violence was mostly directed towards the Kikuyu tribe of which president Kibaki is a member. The result of the conflict was an agreement which put opposite leader Raila Odinga on the position as prime minister and Kibaki as president.