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