The beginning, yay!

Hey everyone! I am in Africa, oh my gosh!
I absolutely love it so far, and I am so glad I am get to spend most of the summer here (even though I miss you all dearly!). I am studying abroad with a professor, a teaching assistant, and nineteen other UNC students, who I can already tell are soooo passionate about the world. We are learning about the Rwandan genocide, which happened in 1994, and its role in international criminal law. We visited Tanzania for a few days to observe the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, and today we arrived in Rwanda where we will stay for four weeks! At the end of our trip, we are going to the Hague, to see the international criminal court, and we might even get to observe the trial of Charles Taylor, who was the former president of Liberia that was involved in human rights abuses and the illegal diamond trade.
The whole airplane ride was really fun, but long of course. We flew through Detroit and Amsterdam, then we headed off towards Africa! I watched movies (Grand Torino!), and read some of the course books about the history of the genocide. As we were landing in Tanzania, I started to think about what I was about to experience, and I wondered if it was crazy for me to be going to a potentially dangerous area of the world to study a really sensitive subject. But the whole semester, I knew I was meant to go on this trip, and I really have no doubt that it is going to completely change my life.
Right now I am sitting in our guesthouse in Kigali, Rwanda, with my roommate Megan. It is almost midnight, and we are both trying to relax a little before we go to bed, because we had a really long day. This morning, we woke up in Arusha, Tanzania (really, REALLY early), and now we are going to bed in Rwanda. How awesome is that?! Both Tanzania and Rwanda are so different than anywhere I have ever been, but somehow, they already feel like home. It’s strange to think that I am so far away I am from Chapel Hill, because everyone here is so welcoming.
I have so much more I want to say, about Tanzania and Rwanda, but I have to go to bed:) I hope everyone is doing well!
-Colleen