Man, who would see that coming? Watching the game on a wide screen television with friends, divided and discussing the facts ... a second later there was a moment of shock and silence as we watched Antar Yahia score his side's winning goal in the 39th minute of the match. No one, including myself, would think of Algeria qualifying after watching them going down 2-0 to the Pharaoh on Saturday in Egypt.

Maybe we should just never predict a game until the final whistle. Shout out to all Algeria and congratulations for joining South Africa, Nigeria, Ghana, Ivory coast and Cameroon as teams to represent our lovely Continent of Africa.

In Europe Portugal repeated the same 1-0 effort of last weekend to down Bosnia Herzegovina and clinch their ticket to South Africa. Greece forced Ukraine out of their way with a 1-0 win, while Guss Heddink could not come in with his genius ideas to save Russia from missing out on the world's number one party, as Russia lost 1-0 to Slovenia. But the night and attention shifted to France as they were getting inches away from losing their ticket to Ireland, with the Irish slotting a goal in the 32nd minute from Robin Keane.

With France winning the first leg with the same margin at the Stade of France on Saturday, the game was a draw, therefore they had to play two additional 15 minute halves extra time to find the winner and the last European guest to South Africa next year. Thierry Henry, the player I idolize, stood up with a what ever it takes attitude and controlled the ball twice with his hand, which the ref did not notice and superbly passed the ball to William Gallas to slot the winner for the French. Now France, Portugal, Greece and Slovakia join Denmark, England, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Serbia, Slovenia, Spain and Switzerland as European representation in 2010.

New Zealand has qualified after beating Bahrain 1-0 and will be there together with Australia, Japan, Korea Rep and Korea PRR.

Uruguay was the last to grasp their ticket after drawing with Costa Rica to win the playoff by 2-1 on aggregate and join United States, Paraguay, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Honduras and Chile as the American and Caribbean representatives. As people are celebrating victories in qualified countries tonight, many are already thinking about who they will want to play 204 days from now in South Africa.

And as that decision lies in the mother city of Cape Town South Africa, and the entire world is waiting to hear their 2010 FIFA World Cup group on December 4. To those in the United States with a basic cable television, ESPN2 will broadcast this event to you live at 12 pm Eastern time while it will be at 7 pm in Cape Town Internationale Convention Center. According to fifa.com, celebrities and sport stars and world leaders will be seated in the audience, eager to hear the draw.

Now, who do you think will win the big trophy next year? That’s the million dollar question right there, but according to an ESPN poll, the favorites are Brazil, Italy, Germany, England, Argentina, Spain. Netherlands and the Ivory Coast.

What is your first choice? Let us know.

• Jeff Lake
• Yordanos Refu

The keynote speaker for the event was Riverstone alumnus Yordanos Refu, a refugee from Ethiopia who fled to Djibouti before relocating to Boise in 2001 with her family. Originally expecting to end up in Atlanta, Georgia, Refu jokes that their arrival in Boise was set in motion by a stamp mix-up at the airport.
Initially she was unsure of how life in Boise would go, as she said, “Idaho’s not known to many Americans, let alone an abroad person.”

In a way, Refu feels that not knowing anything about Idaho helped in her overall assimilation. She says that people from other countries have a “glamorized perception of the United States,” but with Idaho, “I didn’t have any previous assumptions, so it presented itself the way it was and we were really glad to take it.”

Boise proved a serendipitous end-destination, as Idaho is among the few places in the world (besides Ethiopia) that grows teff, the main grain in the traditional Ethiopian bread, injera.

Refu laughed as I marveled at the odds, adding, “We had more than one reason to feel at home here.” When I pressed her on the possibility of finding Ethiopian cuisine anywhere in Boise, she said quite proudly that the best place to go would be her own mother’s kitchen.

Refu is currently a junior studying International Political Economy andBusiness with a minor in Spanish and Education at the College of Idaho. She attributes much of her success to the International Baccalaureates she received from Riverstone, and since her graduation, she has continued to be involved in the IB program, which promotes and accredits international curricula at many schools around the world, including Riverstone. Having shared her experiences at conferences across the United States, Refu recently returned from Ohio, where she spoke to IB educators.

The Ohio Association of IB Schools is trying to turn more kids towards IB classes, so they enlisted Refu to, “in a way help the teachers make it [IB classes] more attractive to the students, and I was also speaking to the students as to why they should take the program.”

Refu believes in what the International Baccalaureate program and places like Riverstone have to offer. As she said in her address, “[Because of the program] I am not only continuing my education, but I have bigger aspirations for myself, for my family, and for my country as well as the world.”

She looked around the bleachers of current students before finishing. “This is the kind of place … this is where it all started for me.”

With only one year left in her undergraduate degree, Refu is already feeling the strain of being a full-time student. However, she insists that education is her main focus; something that becomes apparent when she discusses her future plans.

“I want to make everything I do meaningful,” she states. “I will be in Idaho after I graduate, taking it slowly from there. My hope after all that, after graduate school and everything, is hopefully to do something for my country. Particularly, if it works out, as Minister of Education.” She smiles. “But I’m up for anything.”

Nigeria who were in the middle of hosting their first U-17 FIFA world cup (which they lost in the final to Switzerland), had no chance of qualifying for South Africa 2010 as they were two points behind group leader Tunisia with a game to go. They took the advice of former captain and player maker Jay Jay Okocha and focused on their game against Kenya, which they came from behind to win 3-2 thanks to Obefemi Martin’s brace. But that win would have had no effect if Tunisia had done what everybody thought was an easy task for them. To beat Mozambique or draw to qualify, but Mozambique had to quench the thirst of missing out of the African Cup of Nations by producing a great performance to seal their place to Angola coming January which cancels Tunisia’s World Cup hope.

With Cameroon getting the win they needed in Morocco to qualify to the World Cup on the expense of Gabon, who lost to Togo, it was the Arab African nation that had more drama and tasks to do last night. The game between Algeria vs. Egypt started on a wrong foot as the Algerian tour bus was attacked at the airport by Egyptian supporters leaving some players bleeding. But Algeria traveled the Pharaoh's territory with a slight advantages as they only needed a win, draw, or a 1-0 loss to book their plane to South Africa.

For Egypt on the other hand, they had to win by three goals to qualify while two goals would give them a second chance, a one game play-off in a neutral country, Sudan. The game went just halfway in favor of the Egyptian as they scored a goal in the last minute of additional time to earn themselves a play-off in Sudan coming next Wednesday. That means five teams in Africa are through to South Africa 2010 which are Ghana, Ivory Coast, South Africa, Cameroon and Nigeria while the faithful of Algeria and Egypt are waiting in the Sudan coming this Wednesday, November 18.

Most African football supporters are praying for Egypt to qualify for one and only one reason: they want the best football nations in Africa to represent the continent on this one chance we have the tournament played on our soil, and the fact that Egypt has been dominating African football for the past six years winning the last two African Cup of Nations, it will be a shame if they would miss out of this one chance to show off against the the likes of Brazil, France, Germany, Spain, etc. … in South Africa where they will have the advantage of the supporters.

Across the ocean, France had won their first leg play-off against Republic of Ireland, thanks to Nicolas Anelka’s goal, and Portugal managed the same margin victory in theirs against Bosnia-Herzegovina, both nations have to produce the same result on Wednesday to ensure their place in South Africa. And remember! These two are among the world giants and great star people want to see coming June 2010. For all the fixture and result go to FIFA.com.

Refu came to Boise back in 2001 after spending several years in Djibouti as a political refugee. Arriving in Idaho with no formal education, Refu now holds three International Baccalaureate certificates in English, French, and History of the Americas. She graduated from Riverstone in 2007 and is now in her junior year at the College of Idaho, studying International Political Economy-Business with a minor in Spanish and Education. During the event, Refu will discuss her experiences as a child living in political turmoil and her eventual transition to life in Boise.

This is not Refu’s first time speaking publicly on her story, as she recently traveled to Upper Arlington, Ohio to speak on behalf of the Ohio Association of International Baccalaureate World Schools. Since its founding, Riverstone has expanded greatly each year, prompting a move to southeast Boise in order to accommodate the growing student population. Originally only going through the eighth grade, the school now offers K-12, and was the first in Idaho to offer the IB (International Baccalaureate) diploma. The school provides a rigorous, international curriculum, as many of the students are from countries such as Austria, Chile, France, Germany, Korea, Vietnam and more.

International Education Week will feature creative performances put on by Riverstone International School and their co-sponsor, the College of Idaho’s international program. The performances will represent the student’s countries, as well as signifying the diversity found at Riverstone and its neighboring communities.

Tuesday, November 17, 2p.m. — 3:30p.m., FREE, Riverstone International School’s Warm Springs Campus Kennedy Gymnasium, 5493 Warm Springs Ave, 208-424-5000, riverstoneschool.org.

Most interesting, perhaps, we had chance to speak with Mona about her life and her personal insights into Jordan. Discussion quickly turned to the Palestinian issue, as it is the dominant issue in this country and pervades many aspects of life here. Mona’s father was born in Palestine. An owner of significant parcels of land, he left his home in 1948, under threat of slaughter if they did not leave. At that time, most left with the understanding that it was a temporary evacuation and that they would soon be able to return to their homes.

Mona’s father, like tens of thousands of Palestinians, was never able to return. Many of them still hold the keys to their homes, which may no longer be standing or may now be home to Israelis. Mona explained that Israel to this day still has records of her father’s ownership of land.

Mona talked about the issues of citizenship, which admittedly are perplexing—at least for this outsider. Mona has citizenship. Her children do not, even though they were born in Jordan. I believe this is because their father is not Jordanian, but Algerian, and Jordanian citizenship is linked to the father and not the mother. Some Palestinians living in Jordan (the numbers seem to vary widely depending on who you ask and how people choose to identify themselves) are Jordanian citizens. Many—and I gather most of these are refugees who were forced to flee in the 1967 Six-Day War—are not granted citizenship. Part of the reason the neighborhoods of Amman that are home to hundreds of thousands of Palestinians continue to be called “camps” and their inhabitants “refugees” is because to do otherwise would be to accept a reality that no one on this side of the Jordan River wants to accept. Refugee camps signal to the outside world that there is indeed a Palestinian plight or crisis that needs to be addressed.

Jordan has probably done more than any other country to accommodate displaced Palestinians. And their infrastructure and school system has felt the burden. There is a sense that other Arab states, which will refer to the Palestinian issue as a significant hurdle to regional peace when convenient, should do more to help support the Palestinians.

Meanwhile the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) picks up much of the slack, providing some food, schools, and health clinics for the refugees.

And while Jordanians seem to express solidarity with the Palestinians, we’ve also heard that the refugees here are more “pampered” than they are in Syria and Lebanon. We heard that some of the UNRWA schools are actually better than the Jordanian public schools. When I asked Mona whether there was any resentment toward the refugees, particularly from low-income Jordanians, she quickly responded that there wasn’t.

Many Palestinians, less likely to be considered refugees, are fully integrated into Jordanian society and for them, the return to their homeland is less urgent or is more a matter of principle than practicality. Our driver Fayez, whom I’ll speak of later, was born in Jerusalem. His family seemingly left sometime in the early 1950s (our conversation, mostly in English and occasionally in Spanish, was somewhat strained by the language barriers). He explained that he has little desire or intention to live in Jerusalem again—“I have my business here,” he notes.

For the many Palestinian refugees in Jordan (estimates start at 1.5 million and go up from there), they live in something of a no-man’s land. They aren’t Jordanian citizens. They cannot travel. They cannot vote. They cannot visit family members who have remained in the West Bank or Gaza.

On our agenda is a visit to an UNRWA school and further discussions about the seemingly intractable issue of Palestinian refugees and the prospects for lasting peace with Israel. Of course, because our itinerary is limited to Jordan, we’ll only be hearing one side of the story.

Despite my eagerness to explore Amman on our first day, our group spent the first four hours in a conference room in the Le Meridien Hotel, where we were staying. Breakfast was a sumptuous buffet spread—a blend of Western and Middle Eastern offerings. Among other things, I enjoyed hummus, sushi, and an omelet.

From there, we proceeded to our meeting room. Walking through the hotel, we passed a Jordanian military band that was rehearsing. The band’s dominant sound was bagpipes—one of the many apparent cultural incongruities to be encountered in Jordan. Given Britain’s influence in the region and in particular over Transjordan following the Sykes-Picot Agreement of 1916 (which gave Britain its post-WWI sphere of influence in the Middle East), bagpipes seem less out of place. Still, these are not the sounds one conjures up when thinking about Jordan.

Dan Prinzing, the Education Director of the Idaho Human Rights Education Center (IHREC), and the person who organized the mission, provided the backdrop for our trip and the work that he and the IHREC have been doing in Jordan. This is Dan’s 20th trip to Jordan. It’s safe to say he considers the country a second home. And his love for the place and its people is palpable.

He spelled out one of the overriding purposes of a mission like this: To discover for ourselves that “much of what we know and have heard about the Arab world is steeped in misinformation.” He encouraged us to keep our minds, ears, eyes, and hearts open. He urged us to ask questions and talk to Jordanians. And he encouraged us to take in the food, the culture, the history, and the people and enjoy a rare opportunity that most Americans will never have.

Next, Dan proceeded to explain the evolution of his work that led to such a close relationship with Jordan. In a previous role, Dan was coordinator of international and civic education at the Idaho State Department of Education, under Dr. Marilyn Howard (who now serves on the IHREC Board). Back in 2003, they began looking at what civic and international education might look like in a very insular state like Idaho. A task force of teachers focused on curricular design, linking schools with international schools, and the goal of enabling teachers to travel.

Initial work began in Germany (where many Idahoans can trace their roots to), China (Idaho’s largest trade partner), Mexico (where a growing population of new Idahoans hails from), and the Basque Country.
At the same time, Dan began to get involved with The Center for Civic Education and its Project Citizen program. The Center for Civic Ed held its 2005 World Congress in Amman, with 300 people from 70 countries attending.

A few years and several trips later, Dan found himself as the project manager for the implementation of e-lessons of the Project Citizen curriculum, which would be offered in the King’s “discovery schools” throughout Jordan. This project would be funded by the Center for Civics Education and the Jordan Ministry of Education. The project has been so successful that it will now be customized for Lebanon, the UAE, and several other countries. Though Dan showed us a few of the e-lessons (translated into English), it wouldn’t be until the next day that we would truly see the impact of Project Citizen in action.

Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Chile, Denmark, England, Germany, Ghana, Honduras, Italy, Ivory Coast ,Japan, Korea DPR, Korea Republic, Mexico, Netherlands, Paraguay, Serbia, Slovakia, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, United States.

Some of the football powerhouses are forced to wait and fight for the last tickets to the land of Madiba. Most fans are wondering if they will risk their $120.00 without seeing their idol as top teams like Portugal, France, Nigeria, Cameroon, Egypt and Uraguy are still out of the competition. At least this week, being the international holiday, we will come to know who the eight teams to join the 24 will be. It will be so sad to if the like of Thierry Henry (France), Samuel Eto’o ( Cameroon), and the balon d’or winner, Christiano Ronaldo, of Portugal are the top and high profiled players that people are afraid to miss in the world's number one sport event.

A month ago South Africa obliged employers to allow people to wear their favorite world cup team jersey at work every Friday in preparation and raise the bar of support for the tournament. This is great. I wish I was there already; I would wear the Ivorian number 9 jersey. I love Didier Drogba and he will be among the players to watch come June 2010. The last round of the qualifiers is this Saturday and the fixtures are here, if you are planning to watch. And then the play offs will follow for the teams such as France, Portugal, Uruguay and New Zealand.

• Le Meridien

It was about 45 minutes from the Queen Rania Airport to the Le Meridien hotel. At the entrance to this large and elegant hotel was a line resembling the security line at an airport. All bags were to be placed on the scanning belt and all hotel guests were to proceed through the metal detector. This was not something I’d experienced at a hotel before.

After the long journey, there was nothing left to do but get some shuteye. It was a little frustrating to be in Jordan and not have the energy or strength to do or see anything yet. But tomorrow would be a full day.

We spoke for most of the flight, with Tim mostly indulging my curiosity as he told tales of his tours in Afghanistan, Somalia, and in Operation Desert Storm. It was clear he loved his country, respected our president (and voted for him), and felt a deep sense of pride in being a Marine. It was also clear that he had little optimism for “victory” (however one defines it) in either Iraq or Afghanistan. And ultimately, when the inquiry turned to me, he grappled with the question that seemed to be eating away him, but which he posed to me indirectly, on several occasions: “Why would you willingly choose to travel to the Middle East?”

It wasn’t that he disliked the people of Iraq or Afghanistan. Not at all. But he somewhat forlornly acknowledged that in his position, it simply wasn’t possible to ever truly earn the trust or goodwill of the people he was ostensibly there to protect. Nor could he, facing the constant threat of a surprise insurgent attack, ever really trust the people in those communities, no matter how much he might come to understand or appreciate their culture.

Tim wanted me to understand that he wasn’t some stereotypical ethnocentric solider, insensitive to the culture in which he was operating. In fact, he gave me his “Culture Smart Card—A Guide for Communication and Cultural Awareness”—published by Department of Defense for both Iraq and Afghanistan. He wanted me to know that the stereotypes were not true—that he and his men were not only attuned to world events but culturally aware and sensitive to the challenges of cross-cultural communication.

But he realized that being a soldier in someone else’s country was not a way to build bridges across cultures. And it seems that his experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan, which, based on his descriptions, sounded terrifying and traumatic, had certainly colored his views of the entire region, such that he was imagining our educational mission to Jordan as akin to a tour of duty in Kandahar.

He wondered aloud, “You don’t seem the slightest bit nervous. Why is that?” I suspect it’s a question that some friends and acquaintances also wondered, upon hearing of my trip, but didn’t have the guts to ask. In other words, “You’re going to the Middle East—don’t you fear for your safety?”

I explained that Jordan is an increasingly popular tourist destination for Westerners, a relatively reliable U.S. ally, and an oasis of stability and peace in an otherwise tough neighborhood. King Hussein was a peacemaker and his son King Abdullah II seems to be following in his footsteps. But he didn’t seem convinced.

In addition to the Culture Smart Cards, Tim shared with me his pocket guide to detecting and dealing with IEDs. I suspect that he was looking for an excuse to rid his bag of this haunting remnant of his last tour, but he had momentarily unnerved me. Was I perhaps being a bit naïve about this journey?

I’d have another 20 hours of travel to ponder that question.

• Brian Cronin

Funding for such missions is traced back to the No Child Left Behind law and the Education for Democracy Act, which funds the Center for Civic Education (CCE) in Calabasas, CA. The CCE has partnered with 28 states and over 65 countries. Out of the legislation, the Cooperative Civic Education Exchange was created with the purpose of, among other things, providing a means for the exchange of ideas and experiences in civics and government education among political, educational, and private sector leaders of participating eligible countries. And that’s how I, an Idaho legislator, and also a Board member of IHREC, got to come along.

Through its partnership with Jordan, the IHREC helped to build an e-learning civic education program for the King’s Discovery Schools (comparable to charter schools) in Jordan. The IHREC currently receives an annual contract from the Center for Civic Education as flow-through funding from the US Department of Education.

The teachers were to embark on the trip as a means of gaining cultural understanding that they could then impart to students. As for me, I believe much of reason I’ve been asked to join is so that I can gain a deeper appreciation for civic and international education and its role in statewide curriculum standards.

From my community, I was the only one who could speak in English and needed to interpret at the hospital, no matter how difficult it was. I used to think: this is America and every interpreter needs to be very good at written and spoken in English. I wasn’t a deserving candidate to interpret in a sector like the hospital, because, for proper and accurate interpretation at a hospital, an interpreter should have a good understanding of medical terminologies and should be well trained. Otherwise, a small mistake and misunderstanding of an interpreter leads the patient and the provider to danger even to the death of the patient.

Unlike interpreting at home, medical interpreting requires understanding of religious values and cultural beliefs of the patient. So to meet the requirements for interpreting at a hospital, I took a 16-hour orientation class and got certified. I wasn’t sure that I would get certified because of my limited English, and also, I was asked to write the meaning of some medical terms in the exam and I couldn’t answer any of them.

I learned how to interpret in a professional manner. Pre-session is the most important professional way of starting to interpret. It sets up the ground rules for effective communication and establishes a professional relationship between interpreter, provider and the patient. An interpreter should act as a bridge to communicate the information. In a hospital, an interpreter is solely responsible for the accurate interpretation of the patient’s problem and the provider’s suggestions and ideas. If the interpreter is not skilled enough to interpret, then the patients are not able to access the eligible service.

One time, the doctor asked a woman what the problem was. She had stomach pain and her stomach was hurting too much. Again the doctor asked her where it had hurt a lot. She replied kokho (in Nepali). I was lost after that. I didn’t know what we call that body part in English. That made me think a lot and better understand my responsibility.

Anyhow my job was to make the communication accurate. I apologized and I told to the doctor. I don’t know what we called that body part in English. Then the doctor came up with a picture book and I showed him the particular region where she was having pain.

I apologized because, according to the interpreter’s ethics code of conduct, an interpreter must be prepared to withdraw if the situation violates the code off ethics. And also an interpreter is allowed to apologize if the terms are confusing. If the informed consent and advanced directives of the provider are not interpreted accurately, then the patient will not get accurate idea of how to take the prescribed medicine, i.e time and manner. If interpretation goes the wrong way, then there comes increased frustrations for the provider and the patient. Moreover, the patient’s faith in hospital staff and programs decreases.

So for me, it was one of the hardest sectors where I needed to face the challenges with languages and overcome the barrier through my orientation class and day-to-day experience of getting used to medical terminologies.

And as every one goes to bed at night,
My heart wakes,
My mind gets at work,
And all I dream about is, me in the war,
Is me in the refugee camp,
Is me fighting together with those refugees I left behind to bring peace,
I have never find peace,
Reason why I am writing to you,
To hear our voices in the empty space,
Blowing in the wind, seeking to catch the ears of the merciful,

But slowly the people started feeling more comfortable with ongoing social and environmental changes. Some of them got jobs and proceeded ahead in building their careers. By now almost all the early immigrant have a job, a car and good access to technology. Some of us even have a brand new laptop, etc. Some of us are studying in college and are supported by government financial aid. No one had ever thought about all these things while back in the refugee camp. By now some of us know how to do banking and use debit and credit cards and even to pay utility bills online.

More than 100,000 Bhutanese refugees spent almost 17 years of their lives in refugee camps. Their houses were made out of bamboo and thatch. Camps were situated in the eastern lowlands of Nepal. Huts were arranged in a rows and columns with a maximum of 10 to 15 feet gap between them. These clusters of huts look amazing from the sky. The huts were numbered and grouped from units to sectors to entire camps. Even a single hut was separated into rooms for individual people living in one family. There was no electricity in the camp. The people used to use kerosene lamps for light. Though there was a school, the teaching and learning process was very poor. Think about it ... there was no electricity in the school. Still some of the students of these schools became doctors and engineers in Nepal. Isn't this amazing?

These camps were protected by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR). For living, the people were given rations every 15 days with a maximum of 5 kg rice per person. Moreover they were given cereals, sugar, salt and vegetables every week and the people used to use domestic coal to cook food. For water, these people used tap water, for which they were supposed to wait on a long queue for a liter of water.

Bhutanese always make comparisons between their living standard while in the refugee camp and and in the USA. And some of them don't mind doing any kind of job because of their past life experience. Now Idahoan Bhutanese are hoping that sooner or later they will have a beautiful house and a good job where their family lives together and enjoys their American life.

Though the start was hard, slowly the people are getting on track and all Idahoan-Bhutanese are waiting for that fine day to come in their life.

Then I read Jonathan Thompson's Editor's Note, and recalled our chat at Leku Ona a year ago. Thompson, who has been reading The Grip (and quotes Fidel!), did what HCN does best; take a nugget of an idea and explore how it plays out in the wider Western states.

The package contains stories from an African market in Greeley, a Sudanese orphan going to college in Tucson and an Iraqi journalist remaking his life in Berkeley, among other tales [some of these links may be behind a not-for-profit paywall].

The vignettes in HCN provide snapshots into refugee lives in several Western states, much as this blog attempts to do for Boise. And they also provide a recognition that immigrants from around the world are helping to shape the future of the Intermountain West. Give them a read.

Karcic has been on campus this month as a visiting specialist through the Fulbright Program’s “Direct Access to the Muslim World” initiative. Karcic is a legal historian with a particular interest in Islamic law in non-Muslim countries and Muslim institutions and modernization.

From a 2007 Radio Free Europe interview: "I disagree with this theory, for I do not think that what we are seeing today is indeed a clash of civilizations — Western and Islamic — but rather a clash of divergent interests, which are being disguised as cultural or religious and then presented as such. But I am afraid that if we keep endlessly addressing this notion of the clash of civilization, we might well end up in just such a clash."

Karcic delivers a public talk on Islam and Modernity tonight, 7-8:30 p.m., in the Student Union Building Jordan Ballroom. The talk is sponsored by the Boise State Writing Project, and is free and open to the public.

It’s a responsibility that no one would ever accept if proposed, but you can’t choose when to be born. The first male child has to set rules and order in the family in the absence of the father. And after he grows, he has to provide and help his younger siblings to achieve their goals.

Being the first born in the Congo means you can never screw up, never misbehave or be anything less than your father was. After you’ve grown, you’ll be involved in every decision that the parents ought to make in the family. You’ll be the one looked at whenever your younger sibling misbehave, and your parent will turn the disciplinary duties to you. Making sure everything around the family functions well and everybody represents the family values.

Now, if you decide to move from the family or start a family of your own, you’ll be looked at for financial assistance whenever it’s needed, get weekly reports of what is happening back in the family and be called in for family meetings whenever necessary.

You’ll have to live your life as an example; you are obliged to do these things by your birth placement.
Your younger siblings and girls in the family are free to live their lives the way they feel. If never want to help the family, no one will blame them.

That’s the reason why people that are in my position as the first male born, far away from home, have a much bigger challenge than anticipated. They have to make sure their families back in Africa still live up to expectations and values. They have to step into their father's shoes and become the providers, and even advisers from miles away, By phone or mail, we make sure the younger ones do not go astray in our absence.

They have the obligation to not fail, give up or relent their pursuit. You have to discipline yourself, doing only that which is useful and necessary for you and above all, considering your family in every decision you are making before you finalize it.

The school moved from Jefferson Street to River and 13th streets in the Bronco Elite Art & Athletics Building. The place looks spacious and wide, with four class rooms and offices. The school moved due to the increase in numbers of students. The school now hosts 270 refugee students and it was hard to accommodate them at the old location, where they had to drop the computer lab to turn the room into a classroom, according to Steve Rainey, the director of the refugee English Language Center.

Rainey also highlights his excitement that the school will be able to reopen the computer lab again. Great idea indeed; when I moved here three-and-a-half years ago, I had to take computer classes with Steve and with the little experience that I got from there, I was able to secure a Night Auditing job at the Doubletree Riverside Hotel.

It was not great that this computer facility was missing and I hope new refugees take advantage of this class as it’s reopening again. Most refugees find the new location really perfect as they find it closer to their apartments than the older place, and some say it is easy to walk to.

The other great program that’s coming soon at the English language center is the Employability skills class, which will be thought by Susan Rahman.

The program was started by the Spring Institute in Denver and is called, Work Styles, said Susan. It is a two-week training, six hours a day. This program is coming soon and as cool as it sounds, I have decided to take part and possibly will blog about it.

It indeed felt great to sit in those classrooms again and learn with refugees from multiple countries. The atmosphere was high. Thanks to the people who are making these things possible, to Steve Rainy, and all the teachers who are allowing us to get into the workforse with a little bit of communication skills.

Some of these stories will have been told by their great-grandfathers, and repeated thereafter. My grandfather was a very talented mimic and always had funny stories, but he had one puzzle on his mind.
Being disappointed by his elders after they died and never got back to him, he decided to share his pain and disappointments with us.

“Kids, your elders had promised to return to me from the dead and tell me how it is where they are. But since I’ve been waiting, no one has ever even appeared in my sleep to wake me up. And that’s why I gather you here today, to ensure you that after I am gone, it won’t be longer than a week before I come back to tell you where people go after they are dead.”

This theory stunned us all, being a bunch of 7-year-olds, we could not wait to hear from him after he was gone. The children of the village begged that he be buried in the school yard where we played soccer so we could see him fulfill the promise. We believed in him and started spending hours in that yard playing and paying attention. Weeks went by, months and a year until the kids started lamenting that grandfather lied just like he was lied too by his elders.

Later when we were 10 years old, his wife seated us under the same tree and narrated a story about death. She supported her story with the Bible proving to us that, once someone is dead, he has no part in the world of the living anymore, he can never feel, hear or understand. It took us a while before we could believe her, but this remains one of the more complicated stories of my generation.

It is celebrated for fives days. It is another festival that comes right after Dasain. Hindus worship different animals such as the crow, dog, cow and goddess of fortune or wealth (Goddess Laxmi). They celebrate this festival by cooking a variety of foods at home, playing with fire, cards, and decorating homes and streets with beautiful light.

The first day of tihar is known as 'Kag tihar', crows day. On this day crows are offered food on a plate made out of leaves in the morning before anyone in the house takes food. In the kingdom of Nepal crow is not killed because, as a legend says, one crow happened to drink the water of life. Thus you can see crows sitting everywhere, without the fear of human beings. Crow the messenger of death is honored on the first day of tihar.

The second day is called 'Kukur tihar', dogs day. A dog plays many roles in our society. We have dogs in our houses as guardians of the house. As the legend also says, there is a dog at yama's (one of the Gods) gate guarding the gate to the underworld. The dog is also the steed of the fearful Bhairab, the god of destruction. So on this day a big red tika (temporary mark on forehead), is put on a dog's forehead and a beautiful garland around the neck. After worshiping the dog, it is given very delicious meal. This day the saying 'every dog has his day' comes true, for even a stray dog is looked upon with respect. We pray to the dog to guard our house as he guards the gate of the underworld and to divert destruction away from our homes. On this day you can see dogs running around with garlands on their necks.

The third day is the most important day of the festival. It is called 'Laxmi puja', The day when we worship the goddess of wealth. On this day, early in the morning, the cow is worshiped. Tika is put on her head and a garland around her neck then she feasts with delicious food. A cow also symbolizes wealth and she is the most holy animal for Hindus. Cow is the national animal of Nepal.

Dipwali is the festival when sisters wish a long life to their brothers.

Aguilar, an Afghan refugee herself, will start things off with a basic overview of the country and then she’ll turn the reins over to the panelists. Topics include religion, food, art and many other relevant areas of discussion. The panel will then be followed by a question and answer session, which will provide audience members with a chance to ask questions and clear up any lingering misconceptions. This program is one of a series put on by The Library! at Hillcrest and, while open to all, it is primarily aimed at adults.

Thursday, Oct. 15, 7 p.m., FREE, The Library! at Hillcrest, 5246 W. Overland Road, 208-562-4996, boisepubliclibrary.org.

-Jeff Lake

A while ago I wrote an article about a the Banyamulenge entitled “A People without a Nation.” It stirred a lot of criticism and showed that the healing has not yet taken place in the heart of Africa, with every tribe and nation wanting to be the victim of the war that started long before the '94 genocide in Rwanda. But for me I always want to speak like a healer and a healed man. I always say that the Rwandese Hutus have suffered the most in this conflict that seems not to slow down any day soon.

But next to them, we are going to see the Banyamulenge or as they are called, Congolese Tutsi.

Looking at the incident in Burundi that started on the 8th of October when, the Congolese Tutsi refused to go to a new refugee camp located near the border of Tanzania for security reasons, looking at what happened in Gatumba camp in 2004 when they were attacked by the Interahamwe militias and killed like flies, they have all the right not to accept being placed in that situation again. Whoever knows what happened in Gatumba may agree with them not going near a border again.

But why does the UN and the Burundian government want them there? Dead!

About 2,300 of these refugees refused to go to the new camp and asked to rather be deported to their home country, which is Congo, placed in 11 lorries on the way to Congo.

They were denied entry at the Kavimvira border that borders Uvira and Burundi.

Now the Congolese government is asking for more time in order to prepare a place for them in the Congo. The UN knows how unsafe it is for these people to return to Congo, a place they were chased from years ago as Rwandese Tutsi, but all they said is: "If they have decided to return, they are doing it on their own responsibility. We have certainly been informing them for months that the situation in eastern DRC, in the South Kivu Province, is not conducive for returns because of the fighting that is going on there and that situation is still very dangerous and risky."

Well, why then can’t they fix the situation in Burundi to fit them? The whole world knows better that if these Rwandese Tutsi return to Congo, they will not be safe.

With the Mai-Mai rebels alive and dangerous, the Hutus in the mountains of Congo and the Congolese people that still keep the memory of how they were treated by Tutsis in 2006 to 2009, these people won’t be safe. I almost got killed in my own country for being tall and skinny. They thought I was a Tutsi.

Congo is not safe to welcome the Banyamulenge now and if the UN and the Congolese government let them in, they are just allowing genocide. I feel for these people, not because I think they are better than anyone but we have lost so many people in this part of Africa and we wouldn’t want the numbers to keep increasing. With 800,000 people killed in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, the number of the Hutus killed not mentioned anywhere but between those killed in Rwanda and Burundi and Congo it might be more than a million and then over 5,000,000 in the Congo, you would think they would have sympathy for us when situations like these emerge.

These Tutsi refugees are not accepted by the people in the Congo and Rwanda despite the United Nation regarding them as Congolese. In Congo they are regarded as enemies and the people that killed, raped and disgraced them, if they’re sent there, I will just conclude how much no one cares about refugees. Give them a safe place in Burundi or leave them in Gihinga Camp where they were happy since the genocide of Gatumba.

We'll be waiting for the decision from Kinshasa on Friday October 16 to know how refugees are really considered. A lot of refugees families in Boise and around the world are in communication with their loved ones to know where they will be sent. Prayers are many that it’s not to Congo.

Is winter really approaching? I still remember my first winter very well because I was falling down twice or more daily. I still remember my second winter because I crashed my car twice and broke both taillights. I remember well my third because I hardly drove and spent most of it indoors.

Now it winter again.

This just means one thing for me, I won’t see my friends for three months. While Americans spend their days outside playing in the snow, my fellow Africans and I will be hiding inside our houses with heaters on high, covered in double blankets watching TV land. When you don’t see me for months don’t think I had returned to Africa, because that’s what we ask each other in spring when winter ends.

“Where have you been?” is a common question. “In my house and at work” the only two places you can see me during winter. Oh well. Once or twice a week at Winco or Wal-Mart.

When I moved to Boise from Zimbabwe in July 2006, I was surprised by the sun staying up until 10.
But one night in November I got my bicycle out of the house going to work and found the ground all covered in white,

“Snow.” I knew it was snow but it was my first time to actually see it, well besides the movies and all. I got on my bicycle and a hundred meters flat I was on the ground. Up again and slipped again and again. It was my first year, so I had no car. Actually, I could not drive at all. From my house to work was about three miles, traveling on the Greenbelt I fell more than five times before getting to work.

After work I walked, pushing the bicycle as my shoulder was dislocated due to the falling. Since then, winter is not my favorite season.

Bhuwani Koirala, a Hindu priest in Boise said in Napali, “ I was worried about conserving my religion, rituals and practices in America. While in Nepal, I used to think I wouldn’t get chance to perform my rituals and festivals in the USA. Our new generation in the USA will not know anything about Hinduism. Actually I was wrong. I haven’t thought that we would have this big volume of Hindus celebrating festival together.”

He told me this at the time I went to see Hindus performing puja (religious performance) to the Goddess of power, Durga, at the Fivemile Road apartments, where some of us live.

Laxman Bastola, 86, one of the oldest Hindus in the Bhutanese community who has been in Boise since 2008 said, also in Nepali, “ I haven’t thought that I would celebrate festival in such a grand way.”
He lives with his sister-in-law and her family. His grandsons and daughters came home from different states for the festivals. They shared good foods, spent good time together and enjoyed the festival by receiving and giving blessings to each other.

For me the festival didn’t bring any remarkable happiness. My parents live in Oregon and my elder brother in Nepal. We didn’t get a chance to gather and celebrate the festival together. My mom and brother came to see me and we celebrated but we were missing my dad and elder brother a lot. However, the festival made all ethnic-Nepalese of Boise happy.

After one or two days every one moved back to their respective states. My mom and brother went to Oregon. None of the Boise Hindus had thought we would celebrate festival with such happiness and rejoice.

He was taken together with others, hundred of 10 year olds. We never saw him again and all we wished was that if he were shot, at least his body would be in a place where people would be placing flowers every year. His disappearance was a shock to the village as well as to all the youngsters that were sharing life with him.

Once upon a time, we heard a gun short in the neighborhood. As every day's song, we know someone was being robbed or killed. We all rushed out only to see a crowd of people celebrating Jacque’s return. We all gasped in joy to see him alive after a year missing, and again were shocked to see him in a camouflage uniform.

He stayed with us for a day then went to the military camp where he was working.

He was only 15, and as short as a 10 year old. What happened to him in the past year no one knew, but as a 15-year-old soldier, it must have been bad.

In the city, armed robberies and murders rose, and nobody ever felt comfortable walking after dark or even at sunset. All these crimes were done by soldiers and polices who had years of working without being paid. They were made to believe by the government that the gun is their salary. They needed to rob people to survive, as the government was incapable of paying them. On the other hand, the army set up a law stating; if you kill, you should be killed too. Just like the English phrase “death penalty,” they will do it in public and let everyone see. Mostly, it will be innocents being killed to cover the real culprit—that's politics.