The hippy train comes full circle!

I have been doing a lot more research recently into different Master's programs - trying to figure out what the heck I want to do with my life! And I have been leaning heavily towards conflict management. The irony of me being a hippy in training and then pursuing "peace studies" had actually escaped me until now. Funny, but true...

It's just perfect really! But seriously, I have been struggling a lot with what direction I should go in for my Master's. Originally I was going to pursue more theology - perhaps do a linguistics concentration so I could teach Greek and Hebrew, perhaps take straight theology, or maybe do a missiology focus. But the more I read, the more I grew passionate about development issues... sparked in no small part by the wonderful book "Design Like You Give A Damn: Architectural Responses to Humanitarian Crisis" So I started looking into International Development programs, but that didn't seem like a perfect fit for me either. There was a lot I liked about it, but there was also a lot I really wasn't interested in and I don't like the idea of spending the time, money and energy on courses I'm not totally sold out on.

Feeling at somewhat of a loss, I contacted Mennonite Central Committee. They are so active in the world of development and I really respect their ethos and expertise. Wherever there is a need in the world, they're there just to love and support people and they do excellent work. I shared a little of my background, vision and gifts in an email and I got a phone call shortly after from my MCC rep in BC and we had a wonderful, inspiring conversation. In my correspondence with MCC, I'd asked if there was any particular area of need that they were seeing was under-staffed - were there any essential skills that people seemed to be lacking, or areas where a particular type of education would be useful but where there weren't many people available. I just wanted to see what the areas of need were and what they saw as being priorities in the development world. We had a great conversation and the rep was very encouraging - she suggested that an area that may fit well with my gifts and my passions was the area of peace-building and conflict resolution. She explained that in many, many parts of the developing world communities are struggling to heal the wounds of civil war and strife. She explained that in such cases, before any kind of development work can happen, there first needs to be reconciliation and healing in the community, so that the community can come together to re-build. If the development work happens without this vital component, then it often is thwarted by internal conflict and rivalries and the community is not able to advance the way they should. I was truly inspired by our conversation. The rep was humble enough to say that she kind of felt like God was prompting her to share that with me and I felt a similar "divine intervention". So I began researching various Master's level peace-building programs. In a perfect world, I would ideally love to go to Eastern Mennonite University in Virginia and take their Development track in the Conflict Transformation MA. However, being from Canada, hubby dear would not be able to work down there and I'd have to study full time, which would mean that we'd have to save up all the money first and then take all the classes at once. I had hoped to start soon and finance the degree as I go along. EMU have some amazing courses and thankfully they have a summer institute which hopefully one day I may be able to be a part of, even if its just to audit some courses. But through EMU's wonderful website, I found some other programs in the same field (they are kind enough to list other institutions offering similar programs right on the EMU website!). I discovered that California State University offers a Negotiation, Conflict Resolution and Peacebuilding MA entirely online. They have some really cool development-related electives and their tuition fees are really reasonable. It is exciting to think that I could start taking Master's level classes as early as next spring. As much as I think in-class learning is always the best and I would love to take a couple years out to devote to a traditional learning environment, in practice, it is hard to uproot the kids and the hubby, to leave our wonderful landlords and our church and job and relocate - not to mention, incredibly expensive! I would like the freedom of doing as many or as few classes as I want to and being able to study when it suits the kids best. So I am really excited about this development. I read through some of the sylabi online at EMU and have got a hold of some text-books from the library so that I can read more about this discipline and determine if it is for sure the direction I want to take. These are exciting times though... watch this space!