The International Red Cross Museum and the First Free Weekend

During the last few days of our orientation week, we visited the International Red Cross / Red Crescent Museum and had a walking tour of the city of Geneva.

As we approached the museum, we walked under two large International Red Cross and International Red Crescent flags. Since I was raining outside, I didn't take any pictures, but perhaps I can convey to you how powerful this was by paraphrasing our tour guides words. The tour guide herself was a charming Australian woman whose husband is the deputy director a UN agency working on elimination of minefields, a topic which will be revisited later. As soon as we entered the main lobby, she greeted us and immediately begin the tour. She pointed outside and said "Look at those flags that you see, that cross and that crescent. To many people around our world, reaching a building with one of those flags flying over it is a matter of life or death, a moment they may have traveled days or even weeks for." And to think that, for me, it was a matter of choosing an outfit for the day and getting on the bus.

The museum is completely underground with no natural light, creating a sense of both desperation and reliance upon artificial light to navigate the various dioramas and exhibits. The overarching theme of the entire visit was of universal acceptance, compassion, and care. After a brief film on the inspiration of the Red Cross (Wikipedia: Henry Dunant) and its subsequent founding (Wikipedia: Geneva Conventions) we entered the main museum and to our immediate right were about forty glass cases filled with boxes of cards, each bearing a name. These are the records of World War I prisoners of war and casualties, and most of the stacks are organized by last name, not nationality.

From The Great Swiss Adventure

In addition to the museum's intentionally dark atmosphere, a timeline beginning with the founding of the International Red Cross borders the entire wall. This timeline serves as a guideline for visitors, and ends at around 2002 so time and distance can allow a more neutral interpretation of world events. We progressed through time with the exhibits until we reached the Rwandan Genocide display, which is a small room. Inside this room, the walls are lined with a small fraction of the pictures of orphaned, lost, or forgotten children from the genocide. I was transfixed, gripped with sadness yet hopeful for a better future. Some of these children have found their homes already, but most never will.

From The Great Swiss Adventure

Outside the Rwandan Genocide exhibit was a glass display case with this flag in it, from the July 1995 Srebrenica genocide.

From The Great Swiss Adventure

It reads: "Where have our sons gone?"

This book lists the names of missing and dead.

From The Great Swiss Adventure

Further down the timeline was a metal cargo container with a minefield crossing bridge and assorted mines scattered around the floor. They are very small and are often picked up by curious children (usually boys) who either don't know what they are or mistakenly think they won't explode. There were pictures and posters from all over the world cautioning children about landmines and in the back of the container were five different prosthetic legs, necessary because of mine detonation. The tour guide told us that the United States is yet to sign the treaty banning production and deployment of landmines, and that the government cites the necessity of defending the DMZ on the Korean Peninsula for continuing to field them.

From The Great Swiss Adventure

Here is a picture of a statue in front of le Palais des Nations. A chair's function is impaired once it loses a leg.

From The Great Swiss Adventure

Le Palais des Nations:

From The Great Swiss Adventure

The museum was an incredibly moving experience. I strongly believe in the power of humanity and good will, and when I see such a united, global effort to better others I get in such a good mood. However, the museum and the Red Cross provide a somber reminder that there are still large proportions of our global, human community that suffer and that helping them is not always possible. Powerful regional and international players, including the United States, can both help and hinder the efforts of the United Nations and the Red Cross. I hope that, whatever I do after graduation, I can be a part of something that moves the global community closer to cooperation.

After the Museum and lunch at the WMO (World Meteorological Organization) we had a walking tour of Geneva's old town. This mostly focused on the Protestant roots of Geneva and its role in the reformation. We walked past the imposing and bleak St. Pierre Cathedral, John Calvin's main center for preaching and participating in the Reformation. We then walked through a park and saw statues of the four main Reformers, whose names escape me right now.

From The Great Swiss Adventure

From The Great Swiss Adventure

After the walking tour, our orientation week concluded and we were free to go. Nice! Almost all returned to the John Knox Center, the place where I'm staying (and it shares a name with one of the main Reformers, too) to unpack and unwind. Thus began our first free weekend! We went out to explore the city at night, and I was able to meet up with a few friends from Davidson passing through on the way to their study abroad programs. Saturday brought our first full, free day on the town and I went with some friends to walk around and visit an art museum. We weren't supposed to take pictures in there, so I snuck the picture of the marble staircase and statues.

From The Great Swiss Adventure

The rest of the weekend was spent relaxing, sending and replying to the emails some of you sent me, and catching up on the sleep lost during orientation week. Classes began on Monday, and they're pretty interesting so far! The setup is as follows: Our classes are very long, and each one meets once a week with the exception of French, which meets twice. I'm taking European Politics, a survey course on how the European Union and other European governments interact. I'm also taking an intermediate French course, which has turned out to be a one on one lesson since I'm the only one who signed up for it. Initially, I was pretty nervous about this, but the professor, Mr. Piguet, is very nice and I think I'll learn a lot. Today I have International Organizations which focuses on the UN, NATO, and other global players and International Business, which discusses what the name implies. It was canceled for this week, so I'll provide an update on how that goes later. Lastly, I have a course on Human Rights which I haven't attended yet because I picked it up late.

It's time for lunch now. The eating arrangement can be a little difficult: we are provided four warm meals a week, plus breakfast every day. That translates to three dinners and one lunch, meaning I will be living off of ham and/or cheese sandwiches for quite awhile. Microwave meals will be a treat, because everything is quite expensive here. To put things in perspective, a small hamburger meal at McDonald's costs 11.50CHF, which translates to about $11. Kinda rough.

My email address is anwilkins AT davidson.edu, if you'd like to drop me a line.

Cheers!

From The Great Swiss Adventure

Cols des Mosses, The Palais des Nations and Other Adventures

Since leaving Lully, the wonderful comfort of Annia's home and saying goodbye to paddling the shores of Lac Léman (Lake Geneva), my time with the Kent State program has been great so far. I arrived at the John Knox Center, the location of our dorm, classrooms, and cafeteria, the night before the rest of the students. I had time to move in to my tiny little room and get settled, stay up late on Skype, and then get some sleep.

The group arrived a little late on Monday thanks to air travel, and had just enough time to drop their stuff off before we all hopped on a bus to head to Cols des Mosses, which is a good distance east of the Lake. Upon arrival, we stayed at a little chateau hotel in a quiet village and were helped to sleep by the sounds of cow bells echoing through the mountains and a gentle Alpine breeze disrupting the curtains of our opened windows. The next morning, we woke up and hiked to a fromagerie, or a cheese farm, and watched a friendly Swiss man named Blaise make Gruyère cheese and listened to him tell us about how he lives his daily life. Being a farmer, regardless of what country or continent you live on or the trade of your farm, is difficult. Every day he milks the cows, processes the cheese by building a fire then pressing it, recycling the leftover whey, and checking on the aging wheels at least five times a day. He was, though, incredibly nice and happy to show us his livelihood.

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After a sampling of what is probably the best Gruyère cheese of my life, we hiked up to Lac Lioson, a secluded, spring-fed, Alpine lake. The water was perfectly clear and sapphire in color. We filled up our bottles straight from the shore before enjoying ice cream at a café next to the lake, then hiking back down to the chateau. That afternoon we took a cable car up to the top of Mont Moléson and enjoyed a spectacular view of the Alps. We then visited the town of Gruyère itself, which is an old, medieval town, and then went back to the hotel. That night, after a talk with Dr. Patrick Low, a professor at the program and Chief Economist at the WTO, we wandered into town to a restaurant. As we got close, we heard the Star Spangled Banner being hummed by a group of British travelers we had met the night before! Our best allies have a warm (yet sometimes biting) sense of humor. We talked with them about the Matterhorn, their travels around the world, and listened to an argument about Scottish beer before going to bed ourselves.

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Wednesday morning came quick and early and, after a light breakfast of toast, jam, and muslï, we went to the Collier chocolate factory for a quick tour and, more importantly, ravaging of the free sampling room. We then went to visit the Chateau Chillon, which just celebrated its 1004th birthday and has great walls and battlements for climbing on, and then ate outside Lausanne before returning to the John Knox Center where we cleaned up before either bedding down or going to explore Geneva at night. There isn't really much to do downtown at night other than look at all the restaurants and bars and hope that you don't miss the last bus home, neither of which proved to be too stressful. After another late night on Skype, jockeying for good Internet (it's pretty terrible in the John Knox Center), myself and the group went to bed.

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This catches you, the curious and attentive reader, up to the most recent events. We all woke up early to eat breakfast and then leave the Center at 9:30 for our tour of the Palais des Nations, the seat of the United Nations in Geneva. This was a dream come true for me and, I'm comfortable saying it, most of the group as well. We went in to three seperate meeting rooms including the largest, which hosts the biggest of meetings and conventions. The art and architecture around the campus of the Palais des Nations were breathtaking, all gathered from donors around the world and representative of an international mission of peace. I know there are times where I am skeptical of the effectiveness of certain UN departments, but to see everything together and the enthusiasm of the staff and representatives for what they do was just amazing. We ate lunch in the UN cafeteria, which was great, and then walked to the United States Mission in Geneva. There we were briefed by the Chargé d'Affaires, who is currently directing the mission, as well as several US delegates to UN organizations. This, too, was like a nerd-child's dream come true. At the days end, I was in possession of many pictures, a UN access card to the library and facilities, and a renewed enthusiasm for and interest in international relations, particularly security.

From The Great Swiss Adventure

From The Great Swiss Adventure

From The Great Swiss Adventure

From The Great Swiss Adventure

Most people have now gone to bed, since tomorrow morning we will be waking up for a meeting on life in the John Knox Center and a guided tour of the old city in Geneva. I'm usually not one to enjoy guided tours, but a wonderful person reminded me that you can learn in just about any situation provided you want to. Thanks to her for that. I'm sure I'll enjoy things tomorrow, which is also the last day of our orientation week before classes begin on Monday.

Enjoy the pictures! Santé!

Pictures

Good news! I've figured out how to put pictures up now. I've abandoned Flickr in favor of Google's Picasa service, which should integrate better with this blog anyways. I'll make a new post shortly, and put up the photostream once I'm satisfied with its content.

Big update coming, with lots of fun adventures.

Show Time

I'm loading up the car and, in a few minutes, my laptop to head to Raleigh-Durham Airport. From there I'll fly to JFK, then Heathrow, and then to Geneva. I am so glad that packing is finally finished and that there isn't much else I could possibly do to get ready to go, other than get in the car and go.

I'll update as soon as I get there, and begin the real blogging about study abroad. Good luck to all of those traveling as well, whether en route to their place of study or already there and having a blast (I see you, Peru kids)! Also, best of luck to the Davidson students and professors gearing up for a new semester. I'll be thinking about and missing all them while I'm away.

Well, here I go!