26th Jan, 2009

Retreat part 2, Project Gala kick off and OBAMA!!!

Hey Everyone,So a quick follow up on day two of the intercultural retreat; we had a breakfast meeting with the leaders of the other student organizations to discuss a multicultural event that we could possibly plan in the next academic year. On my table was the president of the Newman Christian society at Clark, a member of the Asian Cultural society, a member of the Latin American student society, A member of the Caribbean African Student society, A member of the South Asian Student society, a member of the Student Organization against Racism and of course myself, representing the International Students Association. Together we came up with an event called Women of the World were we proposed a panel discussion from women around the clark and worcester community and men as well discussing their lives as 21 century women. Afterwards we had a lovely closing ceremony lunch in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. We had a speaker from Brandeis University come and give a talk about diversity and our role as young men and women of Clark. He emphasized our leadership roles at Clark and how we should remember to treat others not as we would like to be treated but as THEY would like to be treated.    So this week was a rather memorable week in US. history. At Noon on the 20th of January 2009 the first African-American President was sworn into office. We watched it live from CNN but any news channel would have sufficed considering that they all were airing it. The website Facebook had a internet live feed where people could watch the inaugaration live while changing their facebook status everytime they have a comment on the on-goings of the event. My roommate Meagan Covino travelled to D.C actually, stood in line at 3am and waited 7 and a half hours to hear Obama speak. There were over 2 million people present at the event (that is a lot of people; more than the total population of my country Namibia) and they stood in in cold just to get a glimpse of the President if the United States on the big Jumbo-tron screens. Several Goverment professors showed the event during their classes, as my Goverment minor roommate noted, and the all the student lounges with cable access were filled with students anxious to hear Obama speak. Overall the inaugaration was successful, although the oath was kind of messed up a little, only th e future will tell what President Obama will do for the U.S.A. Good luck Mr. President! The process of Gala has finally kicked off with our general meeting on thursday for all performers, hosts, volunteers and ushers. We had a packed meeting with excited people from all backgrounds, clubs and organizations. Every week I plan to give an update of the Gala preprations before the big day. I am planning on performing in the Gala as well, dancing in Southern Africa, Germany and Pakistan, but time will tell. For those who do not know about Gala please e-mail me and i’ll be more than happy to send you links to watch it on Youtube.See you next week      

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