Tag Archives: Middle East

January 8, 2014 · 4:01 pm

Getting Ready for Rwanda

Last week, my son Paul asked why I was looking so sad. I explained that I was reading a series of books about Rwanda, and in particular about the genocide of 1994. I will be traveling with the TechWomen (US State Department mentoring program) delegation to Rwanda next month and am learning about the history of that area of Africa.

As disturbing as my reading is, I know the importance of advance preparation when traveling. In 1979, after I graduated from U.C. Berkeley, I backpacked for six months through Europe, ending up with a long stay at the Kibbutz called Ashdot Ya’akov near the Sea of Galilee in Israel. After the Teheran hostage crisis developed in November 1979, I headed home, ending up in an almost-empty youth hostel one night on Mount Carmel. One of the other hostel guests was a young woman from Germany who had come to Israel for a vacation during her college break. At the time, German schools did not teach about the Holocaust. When I met her, this girl was deeply shocked after someone told her about the history of her homeland and the place she had come. She spent the night sobbing with grief, saying over and over “I did not know. I did not know.”

So far, I have read:

Land of a Thousand Hills: My Life in Rwanda book by Rosamond Halsey Carr (2000)
“The Country That Bans Plastic Bags” 2/13/2013 blog by Tom Carver
We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families: Stories from Rwanda (1999) book by Philip Gourevitch
Left to Tell: Discovering God Admist the Rwandan Holocaust book by Imaculee Ilibagiza (2007)
Led by Faith: Rising from the Ashes of the Rwandan Genocide book by Imaculee Ilibagiza (2008)
CIA “World Fact Book” Rwanda
The New Times – Rwanda’s First Daily http://www.newtimes.co.rw/news/ (newspaper)
“Healing Hearts Northwest – The Life and Times of our Kigali, Rwanda Medical Mission” – an interesting blog with a good reading list at the bottom

Of course, I am also working on all of the other preparations needed for a big trip, particularly since I will take a few days after the delegation period to trek with Ecotours to visit the mountain gorillas. I visited the PAMF Travel Medicine department and have new Yellow Fever, MMR (Measles, Mumps, Rubella), and Typhoid immunizations. I tried out my old hiking boots and got a flat (see photo below). So, I am now getting used to a new pair of Lowa – Renegade boots. Ged Caddick of Ecotours has warned us to expect mud, so I also bought new rain gear at REI. I have binoculars but I am still thinking how to pack without zip lock bags…

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Filed under Mentoring & Other Business, News & Reviews

Tagged as Africa, Mentoring, Middle East, Paul, Rwanda, technical women, TechWomen, University of California

December 17, 2013 · 7:51 pm

We Are Citizen Diplomats

Last month, I attended a reception in San Francisco for IVLP (The International Visitor Leadership Program – the U.S. Department of State’s premier professional exchange program). At that event, I sent this tweet:

State Dept Intl Visitors program since 1940s hosted 200,000 to US (7,000 by @IVLPSF) 330 later were heads of state: We are citizen diplomats
07:04 PM – 20 Nov 13 @katy_dickinson

I was surprised when this tweet was redistributed several times. After each retweet, I considered what it means to be a citizen diplomat. I learned about IVLP through the TechWomen program and the Institute of International Education (IIE West Coast). I was pleased to be an ILVP event host myself – having a group from the Middle East and North Africa for dinner and a WP668 caboose tour in April 2013.

The phrase citizen diplomat was used by the State Department speaker to describe those who support the IVLP program. The State Department website defines citizen diplomacy as:

Citizen Diplomacy is the concept that the individual has the right to help shape U.S. foreign relations “one handshake at a time.” Citizen diplomats can be students, teachers, athletes, artists, business people, humanitarians, adventurers or tourists. They are motivated by a desire to engage with the rest of the world in a meaningful, mutually beneficial dialogue.

This week, I have been making travel arrangements for my first visit to Sub-Saharan Africa, as part of the TechWomen delegation to Rwanda in February 2014. This will be my third time as a delegation member, having also traveled to Morocco (2011) and Jordan (2013) with the US State Department’s TechWomen program. While it feels presumptuous to call ourselves so, I think the hundreds of remarkable and generous Silicon Valley women professionals who have served as TechWomen mentors since 2010 are indeed citizen diplomats.

When our 78 mentees from the Middle East and Africa were working with us in October 2013 here in California, the US federal government shut down for 16 days. It was an embarrassing but excellent example of both the good and bad sides of the American democratic system. The bad side was watching some of the world’s elite and most powerful leaders squabbling in public. The good side was watching America continue to function pretty well without them. I imagine the other TechWomen mentors got to discuss all of this as often as I did with our international guests. If that isn’t citizen diplomacy, I don’t know what is.

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Filed under Caboose Project and Other Trains, Mentoring & Other Business, News & Reviews, Politics

Tagged as Africa, Jordan, Mentoring, Middle East, Morocco, Rwanda, San Francisco, technical women, TechWomen, WP668

November 6, 2013 · 11:23 am

TechWomen: Next Steps, Open Source

We Mentors are sad to see our 78 TechWomen Mentees start their travels home today to their 16 countries in Africa and the Middle East. This has been a life-changing program for all of us. It will take time to process our experiences and understanding and to decide what to do next. Larissa and I just sadly said goodbye to our Mentee Imen who just started her long trip home to Algeria. Our parting advice to her had to do with open source.

All TechWomen emerging leaders are impressive and accomplished. This group of 78 was selected from almost 2,000 applicants. Some of them already know their next steps. Janet (pictured with me above, at the US State Department) is raising four sons, teaching Electrical Engineering at a technical college, and running a K-12 school with 450 students in Cameroon. Busy lady!

Imen spent this month working with Larissa at Mozilla working on open source software. When she gets home, Imen’s co-workers, family, and friends are going to ask about her TechWomen experience – and open source will be part of that discussion. Here are some of the websites Larissa and I recommend for newbies to open source:

The Ada Initiative, Supporting Women in Open Technology and Culture
CRA-W and Anita Borg Institute Wikipedia Project, Writing Wikipedia Pages for Notable Women in Computing
OpenHatch, particularly good training missions
The Open Source Initiative
Outreach Program for Women (wiki.gnome.org)
SourceForge

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Filed under Hopper - Anita Borg Institute, Mentoring & Other Business, News & Reviews

Tagged as Algeria, Geeks, Mentoring, Middle East, technical women, TechWomen

November 5, 2013 · 3:28 pm

TechWomen: Day 2 at the State Department

200 TechWomen – including emerging leaders from Africa and the Middle East and their Silicon Valley mentors – visited the US State Department here in Washington DC for the second day today. This included a formal lunch in the Benjamin Franklin State Dining Room, plus fascinating meetings with Lee Satterfield (Deputy Assistant Secretary of State), Macon Philips (Coordinator, Bureau of International Information Programs), and Sheila Casey (Deputy Director, Office of Citizen Exchanges at U.S. Dept. of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs), plus two panel discussions:

Katie Dowd (Senior Advisor to the US CTO at The White House), Jennifer Pahlka (Deputy Chief Technology Officer of the USA, CEO of Code for America), and Erin Lindsay (Deputy Director of Online Engagement for the Office of Digital Strategy).
Dee Dee Myers (Political Analyst and the first woman to be a White House Press Secretary) with four TechWomen participants.

We also heard from Chang Suh of the US State Department’s International Exchange Alumni program about TechWomen Alumnae opportunities for RAR: resources, access, and recognition. This month with TechWomen has been an amazing experience. Our farewell party is tonight. Then we sadly say our goodbyes as our sisters return home to Algeria, Cameroon, Egypt, Jordan, Kenya, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Nigeria, Palestine, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Tunisia, Yemen, and Zimbabwe.

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Filed under Mentoring & Other Business, News & Reviews

Tagged as Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Mentoring, Middle East, Morocco, technical women, TechWomen

November 4, 2013 · 7:46 pm

TechWomen: 1st Day at State Department

The TechWomen 78 emerging leaders from 16 countries in Africa and the Middle East, and the Silicon Valley mentors visited the US State Department here in Washington DC today. The mentors heard an interesting presentation by Lesley Fair, Bureau of Consumer Protection, Federal Trade Commission, while the mentees were at a closing workshop. This was followed by a program feedback session (for which I was one of the table facilitators).

This evening we enjoyed a lively reception at the National Museum of Women in the Arts with Dr. Jill Biden, Second Lady of America. After all of the official events, a group of us went out to the Kabob House where we ate a late supper of Afghan food, followed by Baklava with green tea and cardamom. We took turns singing our national anthems to each other – American, Egyptian, Mexican, Indian, Algerian, Tunisian – much to our own amusement.

Romeo and Juliet at Folger Shakespeare

Tonight, my daughter Jessica and I saw a delightful production of Romeo and Juliet at the Folger Shakespeare Library here in Washington D.C. I am visiting the nation’s capitol with the TechWomen mentors and 78 emerging leaders from 16 African and Middle Eastern countries. Our formal meetings at the US State Department start tomorrow!

Opened in 1932, the beautiful Folger Shakespeare Library, theater, and garden is located on Capitol Hill. “Home to the world’s largest and finest collection of Shakespeare materials and to major collections of other rare Renaissance books, manuscripts, and works of art, the Folger serves a wide audience of researchers, visitors, teachers, students, families, and theater- and concert-goers.”

TechWomen, Mozilla, Halloween

Imen Rahal, my TechWomen 2013 mentee from Algeria, gave her final presentation at Mozilla yesterday. Of course, yesterday was also the very-American celebration of Halloween, so the conference room was decorated with bats, ghouls, and the remains of a lively lunchtime costume party. Hear the recording of Imen’s talk on Air Mozilla (thanks to Larissa Shapiro, Imen’s other mentor – and her host at Mozilla). Next week, the TechWomen travel to Washington D.C.

Larissa reported that the costume contest at Mozilla came down to two teams, one dressed as the Star Trek bridge crew, and the other as the Avengers. The Avengers won – see below for a picture of the ladies dressed as Thor and Iron Man.