Ingrid Stegemoeller: A 2007 graduate of Pacific Lutheran University with degrees in Communication (Journalism) and Mathematics. She will work as a news reporting intern this summer at the Tri-City Herald newspaper, and will continue to pursue my passion for peace-building and dialogue through continued work with the team going on this trip.
Jenn Henrichsen: A 2007 graduate of Pacific Lutheran University with degrees in Political Science and Communication (Conflict management). After this research project, she will work as a freelance journalist at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland before attending law school.
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Last night I was reminded of international mediator Steinar Bryn’s advice from two years ago when I was an intern of conflict resolution at Nansenskolen in Lillehammer, Norway.
He told me I should pick up smoking.
Being asthmatic and a competitive college varsity athlete, I thought his advice crazy.
Yet, before I threw away his suggestion as ridiculous, I stopped briefly to ponder the implications of his statement.
Steinar was referring to how Albanians and Serbians often linger over a cigarette during breaks in dialogue seminars at Nansenskolen. I often saw both groups returning to session a few minutes late in order to inhale one last drag…and simultaneously, engage in one more conversation with the other.
Although I didn’t take up smoking (after all it was only a ten-day seminar, and smoking could have become a life-long, unhealthy habit), I did file that piece of advice in my memory bank.
That piece resurfaced tonight when invited for an evening walk with students from Azerbaijan. Although I had planned to take a solo run through downtown Lillehammer, I reconsidered when I remembered Steinar’s statement about how real dialogue often occurs in the space between lectures.
I was not disappointed.
Within minutes, members of our PLU group paired up with members of the student group from Azerbaijan.
As we walked up the lane and began talking, I realized how similar our two groups were: we shared similar hopes for the future, seriousness of study, and even thesis topics.
One student I met (and talked with the majority of the time) was an Istanbul University student named Mukhtar. Within minutes, we discovered we were in pursuit of the same thesis project: protection of civilians in conflict zones under international humanitarian law.
Mukhtar was pursuing the subject for a Masters, while I had immersed myself in the topic for my undergraduate capstone course.
Promising to share my thesis with him, he responded he would like to cite my work (published or unpublished) within his soon to be 100+ pages of text.
As we talked about international humanitarian law, the seeming ineffectiveness of the Human Rights Council and other political issues, Mukhtar told me he stood for nations, not presidents or politicians. “I stand for the UN charter. You agree with the UN charter, and I stand with you,” said Mukhtar.
Reassuring him that a U.N. Universal Declaration of Human Rights poster had a permanent spot in my bedroom, I was not surprised when our friendship was sealed moments later over gelato at a local Turkish kebab shop.
