Whoa... very interesting day. Today I was feeling much better. I slept in (as my first engagement of the day wasn't until 12:15), so I woke up feeling much better. Rode my (borrowed) bike down the road to the train station, hopped on a train, and found myself in Copenhagen.
After picking up a few more books, I found my group for today's activity... A field study at the RCT - Rehabilitation and Research Centre for Torture Victims. The RCT is basically a research facility / rehabilitiation hospital, where torture victims who somehow find their way to Denmark can go for physiological and psychological treatment.
We had four speakers. The first one was more of a lawyer. He talked about the definition of torture and organized violence, how those definitions have changed over the years, and the repercussions of those changes. The second man was a researcher who worked with the post-aparthaid South African government to find and end practices of torture by the police and millitary. The third man was a millitary sociologist, who explained that our solders are basically going through identity crisises. They were normal people who were turned into warriors by the millitary, and then set loose in a peacekeeping operation where the goal is not to win like in a war, but to keep people safe. The last speaker was a woman who talked about how the facility actually cares for torture survivors that they admit. Very depressing subject matter, but very relevent to what I am studying.
After that I went back to the DIS building, talked to some friends for a while, and headed home. On the way back, I saw the most unlikely thing in the town square. Right in front of city hall, three men in full plains-indian eagle feather ceremonial regalia were playing electronically amplified flutes and woodwinds to prerecorded synth music. I asked the band what tribe they were from, and none of them spoke english! I gave them a krone and left for the train station.
A while later (my train switched tracks at the last minute and I had to wait for the next one) I came home to find Kirn (host father) teaching Peter (host brother) to drive. He was doing circles around the family's gravel parking lot, weaving between large wicker baskets and sticks planted into the ground. He'll be taking his driving test pretty soon, and it looks to me like he'll be just fine.
After dinner, I started packing everything up for my trip. I have to be up at 5:30 tomorrow morning for my trip to northern denmark, so I'll stop here. But I'll be keeping a journal up there, so I'll be sure to come back with some interesting stories!
Hope to update you all soon.
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