Tag: Washington dc

Settling into DC

On By laurakisthardtIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

It has been over a year since my last blog post and I have had lots of exciting adventures since Lebanon. But now I’m in the midst of my biggest adventure in all of my 23 years…

Krash WorkspaceOn Sunday, I packed up my parent’s Honda Pilot and we drove the 342 miles from Hudson, Ohio to my new home for the next four months in Washington DC!

I am relocating to DC, but for my first few months here I will be staying in a community called Krash. Krash has just launched in DC with a location in the Bloomingdale neighborhood. There are 14 other Krashers staying here with me. They are all involved with really cool projects, internships, start ups, etc.

Every Sunday Krashers have family dinner. After I was settled in this past Sunday, I went down for family dinner. It was a great opportunity to meet many of the other residents and some of their friends as well. I was very impressed by some of the dishes brought by my roommates. For example, one roommate grilled amazing shrimp kabobs and another made a delicious corn, black bean, and avocado salad. In addition to impressive culinary skills, it was fascinating to talk with my roommates Krash3aabout all of their ideas and projects. The creative energy is contagious and I am excited to see what the next few months have in store.

Some more about Krash: Krash was founded in Boston. There are three Krashpads in Boston, three in New York City, and is continuing to grow at a rapid pace across the country (and soon the world!). Krash is a full service short term housing solution. Residents can focus on their startups, personal projects, and interests, rather than worry about the logistics of their living situation. Some amenities provided by Krash are a twice weekly cleaning service, linen service, gourmet kitchens stocked with staples, and much more.

There are no TV’s in any Krash locations because the emphasis is on the experience, Krash4abuilding relationships and learning from the other roommates. Although, here in Bloomingdale (and all other Krashpads) we do a have a large projector screen so we are able to congregate together and watch the World Cup!

So that is a little about Krash and my start to DC. I hope to post many more updates over the next few weeks! Please let me know if there is anything specific you would like to hear about. It is easiest for me to share here so I can inform everyone.

Fall is here

On By laurakisthardtIn Fellowship, John Carroll1 Comment

I have so many exciting updates to share with everyone. I hope in the next week or two to get some full posts written, but in the mean time here are some teasers:

  • In September I went with my mom to the Global Villages Festival in downtown Akron. There were a lot of great things there and the weather was perfect. See:

 

  • I traveled with two friends to Detroit, Michigan for a weekend in September. They were doing a triathlon and I was filming them. My friend Jurell spent a year as a Jesuit Volunteer in Detroit and showed us around. We had a bunch of delicious tacos.
  • Last week I took the Foreign Service Officer Test! I will find out if I passed in about a month.
  • On Saturday 10/6 I ran the Footprints for Fatima 5K. I’m running in the Youngstown Peace Race 10K for the first time later this month.
  • This weekend I’m going to Washington DC for the International Conference of Crisis Mappers. I am very excited for this trip because I’ve been planning it basically since May!

My first presentation is right around the corner. I’m really looking forward to sharing my experience in Lebanon with the John Carroll community.

Here’s a cool photo I took of the sunrise in Detroit:

 

Details from Pre-departure

On By laurakisthardtIn Fellowship1 Comment

As promised I am going to go into more detail about the meetings that I had in DC at the National Council on June 21st.

From Dr. Anthony’s opening remarks, I was surprised by his comment that the Lebanese lack empathy. He believes this is why there is conflict in the area because people are not able to put themselves in the other person’s shoes. Obviously this is not true for everyone, but it seems to be one factor.

I learned that the Shia in Iran look up to the Shia in Lebanon. Also Saudi Arabia pushed for greater representation of Shia in Lebanon because of security and stability. Security and stability are the key terms of the day.

I can’t say enough how interesting Miriam’s presentation was on the Palestinian refugees in Lebanon. She has focused on getting past the generalities and looking at why the situation is the way it is. Personal and unique experiences are the also important to her in her research. There are approximately 455,000 registered refugees and 12 camps in Lebanon. However, not all refugees are registered. You are only allowed to be a registered refugee if you left pre-1948 or are a direct descendant of someone who did. I was surprised to learn that not all refugees have the same socio-economic status. Some never live in camps and are actually quite well off, although this is certainly a minority. Also Miriam pointed out that the stereotype is that all refugees are miserable in the camps and want to leave. According to Miriam most refugees have turned the camps into their homes and therefore are very attached to them.Naji Ali

The issue with the Palestinian refugees in Lebanon is that the balance between Christians and Muslims is so delicate. Giving citizenship to the 455,000 mainly Sunni Muslim Palestinian refugees would tip the scales in favor of the Muslims because the population of Lebanon is small, less than 4 million. Interestingly from 1950-1960 all of the Christian Palestinian refugees were naturalized, approximately 50,000 at the time. Then later in 1994 all of the Shia Muslim Palestinians were naturalized. However, the Sunni Muslims have been ignored all the time.

Another issue for the refugees is that they can not work in Lebanon for the most part. In 1961 the Law of Reciprocity became the primary labor law and it said that only citizens of countries with work exchanges with Lebanon are allowed to work here. However, the Palestinians have no country to make this sort of exchange with and therefore they are not allowed to work here.

Pre-Civil War, circa 1968-1982, the 1969 Cairo Agreement said that Palestinians can do whatever they want in the camps. The PLO created jobs and built up their militia. However, after the Civil War, everyone in Lebanon blamed everything on the Palestinians in order to recover from the war. This negative attitude towards refugees still exists today.

From 1991 to present has been the rise of the NGO. There are two types of NGO’s active in Lebanon: relief work and memory preservation. The major policy issue in Lebanon that is currently debated is that women can’t pass their citizenship/nationality to their children in Lebanon. I am very interested in this issue since my focus next year will be on women in the Middle East.

The cartoon is called Handala by Naji Ali. Miriam said that he represents the Palestinian refugee and you never see his face.

Safe Arrival

On By laurakisthardtIn Fellowship1 Comment

I’ve arrived safely in Beirut. Overall the travel experience was great. Turkish Airlines was awesome! The few previous international flights I’ve been on were on US based airlines and were not as great. The flight from DC to Istanbul was spacious, had great food and amazingly there were no screaming children. Also there was free wine!

The hotel is nice and better than expected based on the reviews I had read on TripAdvisor. Here’ s a link to the hotel (trust me it’s better in person!): http://www.hotelalexandre.com

Today we had an orientation with the Lebanon Renaissance Foundation and met Sabine, Melkar and Fadi. We’re going for lunch now and a walking/bus tour this afternoon.

I promise more updates later tonight!

Oreos with the Ambassador

On By laurakisthardtIn Fellowship1 Comment

My first update! I’ll be boarding my flight momentarily, but I wanted to tell you all about my crazy day.

We started off with a chat with Dr. Anthony the founding President of the National Council on US-Arab Relations (referred to as National Council or the Council for short). He is a brilliant man who we were lucky to meet and spend a great deal of our time with.

Our first presentation was from Miriam who is a relatively new employee at the National Council. She is a Lebanese Canadian who is doing her research on the Palestinian refugees in Lebanon. I learned so much from her presentation and it created lots of further points for research.

Next we went to the Lebanese Embassy. Yes we ate Oreos with the Ambassador! Here’s the photo from our visit:

After the Ambassador we met with several other scholars and prominent thinkers of the Middle East. Due to security reasons, we are not allowed to share the names/titles/employers of all those we met with (no joke!). But every session was very informative and generated lively discussions.

Several unscheduled highlights of the day:

  1. Attempting to hail a cab outside the National Press Building and two huge black SUV’s pull up. Security guys in suits step out, followed by Leon Panetta! We got a smile and wave from the Secretary of Defense!
  2. While waiting in line to go through TSA in Dulles, our study visit leader saw Ambassador Cook, former ambassador to Oman. We were introduced to her as well!

All together a busy and exciting day. I’ll try and post again later with some more detailed comments based on the tons of notes I took from all the sessions today.