this past week has been nothing short of a whirlwind. core course week led to many fun times, accompanied by several large emotions. at the start of the week, we sat through lectures in the city, where everyone in the class bonded because of being tired and not wanting to sit anymore. my adhd got very intense and i was going out and walking around the buildings to pass time. i would doodle when i got back because it was even worse. by the end of the first two days, i was very excited to start actually moving and doing things.

 

wednesday morning we woke up bright and early at 5 am to go to aarhus denmark! this kick started our short study tour. we all got on the bus and started driving. about an hour and a half in, we made a stop at a refugee camp outside the city. there are no words to describe this experience. we met three people, a father and son, as well as another woman. the father and son i spoke to a lot more. they were refugees from iraq. they have been in denmark for nine years, most of the son’s life. i spoke to the son quite a lot and his story struck me. when they were fled to denmark from iraq, they went on a boat with many people. he told us how he was seeing young children who were sick and some had died. he said it very casually but something he said at the end that really struck me. he told us “i feel more mature than many of the other kids my age”. i fully support that and think he is way more mature than many adults.

 

we continued on with visiting other researchers on this topic and had very in depth discussions with each other. later that night, the class ended up in aarhus. we all got food provided by dis and had a very good time. a couple of friends and i went to the art museum there and saw lots of fun art. when we got back to the hotel after, it was a time of reflection and discussion of what we saw that day.

(art museum!)

the following day, we visited another refugee camp. this camp is more intense as it was originally a prison. however, the prison was “too inhumane” for prisoners, so they closed it down and opened it as a refugee camp instead. seems illogical to me. we took the refugees to a nearby hotel where we all had lunch and got to hear about their experiences at the camp. the one takeaway i will share is that since this is a deportation camp where refugees who were rejected residency stay as they figure out a new plan. this camp also has people who have violated several laws, and this isn’t just the typical minor ones too. some of the people there are r*pists and m*rderers, of course none of the people we met though. however, the ratio of men to women at the camp is about 5:1 so it leaves the women feeling often unprotected and scared. 

(enterance into the refugee camp)

we left the camp and all went to a new town where we hung out and got to have a campfire together. it was all really fun and we played a lot of games together. we settled into our rooms and just got to chatting.

(our bus driver named kim, my personal favorite on the trip. spoke minimal english but was amazing)

this was a really surreal experience that i don’t think one gets to experience a lot. it made me really reflect on myself and think more about action steps. this makes me think about community organizing more and things. i know i sound like a white savior with this post but this was a really eye opening experience that i don’t feel like many people get to have and see first hand the struggles.