This week in class we had the privilege of spending the week with Dr. Arcaro. Though we missed Carol greatly, Dr. Arcaro brought some fantastic insight and perspective into our class discussions for the week. He was the class mentor to the class of 2006 whose country of focus was also Namibia, therefore giving him a personal connection to our class.
We were still in the process of working out some of the aesthetics for our 2017 Periclean Class. We spent some time on Monday designing and choosing a T-shirt to represent our group. Following this, Dr. Arcaro opened the floor for us as a class to ask questions about Namibia in general. We got onto the topic of HIV/AIDS, which was the focus of the project for the 2006 Periclean Class in Namibia. In discussing this, we began to brainstorm potential themes for our project, a seemingly daunting task. Though we will not have an exact project proposal for quite some time, we as a class are beginning to learn about Namibia and understand how we can make a difference.
A highlight of our week was having the opportunity to see a new face, a native from Namibia, Anita Isaacs . Dr. Arcaro facilitated a Skype session with her during class where we had the opportunity to hear from her and ask a few questions. It’s exciting to know that we have such a fantastic partner already in Namibia and we think it’s safe to say we all look forward to getting to know Anita and learn from her. Below is a picture of us skyping with Anita but due to a broken blind it is a little hard to see…still a really cool and unique experience.
We concluded our time this week watching the documentary created by the ’06 Periclean Class called “ A Measure of Humanity: HIV/AIDS in Namibia“. This gave us an overview of the effects that HIV/AIDS has on Namibia. A few things we learned is that AIDS is not just a health issue but is an issue of education, poverty, stigma, gender, and justice.
We are excited to have Carol back as well as to start really learning about Namibia!
Kelsey Lane and Dani Baker
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