Ashlyn expanded her knowledge of human rights in a global perspective

This weekend the group went to an olive farm to participate in a human rights workshop. Back home I’ve taken human rights courses (since I’m a human rights minor) so I was pretty excited to see the other UConn students learn about human rights. Now, don’t worry, I learned a lot too! At 2:00 pm the group left the house and on the way to the farm the bus picked up other participants of the workshop. Friday night was pretty low key and only the ground rules were set for the workshop. Within minutes of reaching the farm I got to meet my roommate for the weekend. Rooming with Shadia was a great experience that I’m so thankful I got to have. She’s a first-year customs college student and one of the most open and unguarded people I have ever met. Throughout the weekend Shadia told me about her background and where she hopes to go in the future. We were very similar in our hobbies, but our body language was very different. It was amazing to me to see how similar we could be despite being raised thousands of miles apart.

           

On Saturday morning Julia, Caitlin, and I got up early in order to run before the workshop started. The run consisted of going up this hill and we got the most amazing view of the sun rising over the farm. Even though it was a short run it was one of my favorite runs in South Africa so far. Saturday was jammed packed full of activities but the biggest activity was an exercise about African countries. There were four groups and each group had to pick an African country. That night the four groups gave a presentation on the political, cultural, and socio-economic conditions of the country. Every country was competing to get money to help the human rights problems taking place in the country. In the end my group (Kenya) ended up coming in last place but I didn’t mind. I was happy to be able to learn alongside others with different backgrounds from mine.  

           

Sunday wasn’t as filled as Saturday because the group also had to travel home. The morning was primarily focused on learning about refugees and asylum-seekers. I’ve learned the topic before but I’ve only examined it in the context of the United States without a global perspective. Even though I’ve learned about refugees and asylum-seekers before I couldn’t remember the difference between the two (so really I hadn’t learned it). Refugees are asylum-seekers that are granted access to stay in the country. The activities for the day were focused on showing the group how hard it is to be a refugee or asylum-seeker. Around 3:00pm everyone boarded the bus and it was time to leave. Saying goodbye to all the other participants was hard but I’m glad I got to meet them all.