DJ and two other colleagues from TCU have been visiting Geneva this week working on plans for a TCU study abroad program here. Really exciting! They visited the World Health Organization, toured the UN, toured the Red Cross Museum, met with an international nursing association, toured old town and generally tried to get a feel for Geneva and Switzerland overall.
I think this will be an amazing opportunity for both Social Work and Nursing students. I am interested in looking for other opportunities specifically for social work students while BK and I are over here. As I am able to delve deeper into the culture by living here, I hope to find out more about the Swiss social system and how they address social problems. I also think it would be amazing for Social Work students to work with our international organization, the International Federation of Social Workers. The possibilities are endless.
While I waited for the group to get back from their scheduled activities for the day, I made a quick trip to the ICRC (Red Cross) Museum. I found it to be very interesting, interactive and worth the time. The displays are very interactive and explore the three main areas ICRC addresses throughout the world.
Two displays were especially powerful to me. There is a room that displays 30-40 items that have been given to ICRC staff throughout it's history. The items all came from people who were helped or visited by ICRC and reflect the persons culture or specific situation they were in at the time. Many of the items were made while people were in refugee camps or being held as political prisoners. Very interesting, and reminded me a lot of the tokens homeless clients often give social workers in the US.
The other piece that I thought was especially moving was a full wall of pictures of children who whose pictures were snapped during and after the genocide in Rwanda. The children were extremely traumatized by the things they had experienced at such a young age and often could not speak to give ICRC personnel information about themselves. A picture database was started to keep track of the children and was also available to be shown to parents or other relatives with the hope that the children could one day be reunited with some part of their family. I'm not sure how many pictures the wall has on it, but they are just a tiny representation of the millions of children this happens to throughout the world on a daily basis. Even if it doesn't make headlines in our western news, atrocities like this one still go on every day around the world.
I left feeling more in touch with my social-worker-self and wanting to do more for people all over the world who experience poverty, oppression and violence, just to name a few.
After the museum I headed over to meet the group. We went to dinner at a great restaurant on Lake Geneva. I enjoyed getting to hear about their week and their take on how things were in Switzerland. DJ has also taken to trying to speak French as much as possible, even if he just throws a word out there. He seems to like the words pardon (with a French accent, not Texan) and bonjour. It's pretty amusing, but I do appreciate that he's really trying to get into the culture. And yes, they speak French in this part of the country, so all those hours of German do me no good here.
We then explored Geneva a little bit more and did some walking around the lake. Geneva really seems to be a great city. BK and I need to work our way down here at some point to spend more time in this region.
All that said, now I'm on the train headed back home to Basel. It was a quick trip, but so worth it. Thanks to DJ and the others for letting me tag along. I had a great time!
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