It is a sad reality of our time in Washington that we are now entering the long goodbye.
With our internships coming to a close and our minds focusing on home, it is easy to lose track of living in the moment and enjoying what remains.
The many times this summer I have felt ‘this is my highlight’, or wait, ‘no, this has to top it’; I’ve simply lost count.
It may be presumptive to talk about highlights, for they are constantly being overshadowed. It does not involve development, or within the curriculum we are following. Those are separate, and perhaps harder to evaluate.
On a professional basis it is perhaps obvious, attending the Obama speech. Personally it was in New York. Within the Program, however, it was the South-African Congressional Forum.
Where WIP and SAWIP are entwined, I have felt the focus was always centred on WIP, and on Irish issues. This was a night where SAWIP came into their own, and provided a stunning insight with their speeches and a fantastic event to behold.
I enjoyed it because it was staunchly separate from the UK/Ireland. In those events we sometimes hear what we want to hear, ask the obvious question and generally have our thoughts reconfirmed. This event was completely unique to the summer.
With the Democrats meeting oil-magnet T. Boone Pickens, we had twelve Congressmen and women speakers, delaying their attendance, and remarkably Rep. Donald Payne staying almost through the entirety of our proceedings.
I was able to spend a few minutes discussing with Payne of his role in the Northern Ireland peace process. He had been the one who first allowed a Sinn Fein delegation to be granted U.S. visa’s, where the first real talks of decommissioning were started in the 1990’s. He has also attended services at Drumcree church during the marching season stand-offs, and was a key figure in the origins of the Good Friday Agreement.
With due respect to the other speakers, the one who stood out was clearly Rep. John Lewis from Atlanta. I have studied the history of the civil rights movement, the march on Washington, the oppression and struggles which ensued, and so I acknowledge just how much of a coup it was to have such an esteemed guest. His role in leading student activism and as effectively one of Martin Luther King Jr.’s equals laid the path for his stunning testimony. The passion with which he spoke and the personal direction of his message was startling, and I must say he is by a distance the most powerful speaker that I have seen in person. The room was virtually silent throughout.
The evening was important in another way. While the SAWIP 2008 team were to leave on Thursday, it was Christo’s last night before travelling to Paris. Thereby, it was the last evening of our entire group together. With the reality of timing and distance, reunions are possible, however, I would doubt that we will ever have the whole group together, in fact, that is almost a certainty.
It is strange to say such emotional goodbyes to a group that we’ve only known for six weeks. The experiences we have had, the people we have met, and the summer which has gone before has united us all. To listen and discuss the problems facing their continent has been eye opening, and I feel important in reflecting on our own. We have learnt a lot, and shall never forget.
I won’t pretend to be an Afrikaan speaker, well not fluent at any rate. In fact I can’t speak a single word of it.
Although it is only right thereby to conclude by saying this - 'Totsiens my vriende'. Goodbye my friends!
