Pre-Tanzania Chatter

So, admittedly its been awhile.  The reason I’m even trying to post more frequently on this thing is because I’m probably going to be out of reliable internet contact for the next three months. For those of you who don’t know, I’ll be working in Arusha, Tanzania on the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda for the summer as an intern in the Judge’s Chambers.  Pretty cool gig, and it gets me back to Africa sooner than I expected.

For anybody who hasn’t been in touch and somehow found their way to this page, I just completed my second year of law school.  It’s gone pretty well so far, but ask me again in a year when I’m looking for a job and gearing up to spend a couple brutal months studying for the Bar exam.

As the time approaches for me to fly to Tanzania, I’ve been getting more and more nervous.  I’m not really nervous about the cultural stuff that was so difficult to navigate the first time I was in Africa, or for the lack of amenities (by all accounts Arusha is fairly modern).  What will be a little more interesting is that this summer I won’t have the safety net that I could rely on in Uganda.  There is no Peace Corps for me to call if I’m sick or in trouble, or just want to quit.  It’s exciting, but its daunting in a way that Peace Corps never was.

That being said, I’m really looking forward to the experience.  I’ll be meeting a lot of professionals and soon-to-be professionals who are actually functioning in the area of law (human rights prosecution) that I’ve gravitated to since starting law school.  Even more importantly, I’m going to see how that whole world actually functions; hopefully it will be a great experience that will reaffirm that I’ve chosen the right path for myself.

I’ll be flying out Tuesday afternoon and arriving in Arusha on Wednesday, so I’ll try to keep the updates coming!