The envy of all who read...

I'm sorry to have to tell you about today, because I can pretty much guarantee that 9/10 of my readers (are there ten of you? Maybe that's a bit optimistic!) will be very envious and wish they could change places with me.

Today I started a course called "Empowerment, Gender and Development." I was really looking forward to it, and our first class today (From 1-4:30!) was everything I had hoped for and more. Without jinxing it, I think this could be one of my favorite classes of all time. It's everything I'm passionate about in so many different areas of life. Today was introduction, so the 24 women and 3 men took turns telling a little bit about themselves. Then we split up into pairs and talked about the one time we felt most empowered or disempowered. My group was disempowered, which was a bit vulnerable, but it was very helpful to hear every one's stories and really start to look at what can make women feel empowered, and what can help the poor / enfrancised be empowered. It especially seems relevant to my post a few days ago about women in leadership. I was thinking alot about what it would take to empower women in the church. I think I'll end up doing something along the lines of religion for my final research paper. I was talking with Heidi this weekend, and she had some really interesting thoughts about the Pope's view of women, as the Roman Catholic view of women. I think it would be interesting to look at the effect that has in some Southern nations that are predominantly Roman Catholic, and how Mary as the ideal female either empowers or disempowers the women who live within those societies.

But Mary will have to wait for another day - this is my crunch week. Class all afternoon, now I'm off for a quick dinner, then my Human Security class this evening! )= We have a guest speaker whose supposedly an expert in the field of blood diamonds, so that sounds interesting. I need to go eat now.
Oh, and get well soon Benoit!