"Garba & Kristof" issue

Little introduction for those who have not had luck to meet Garba Diallo either/or Kristof Kristiansen. Garba is an IPC teacher whose specialties are Africa, Middle-East and conflict management. Kristof is IPC's principal whose specialties are European culture, architecture, design and World Cinema. Two very powerful and influential men. Also men who fight for peace. And what has happened to the peace between two of them now? They have turned against each other. The real reasons might be unknown for the rest of the world but IPC and the IPC spirit that mostly these two men has given and taught us lives lively.
Right now in here since I'm contributing to this problem solving by giving them and the school board our=students ideas and thoughts. So I'm just starting a little discussion on this topic with myself and anyone who's willing to contribute.
I have been asking myself some basic questions about these two people.
1. What are the basic ideas of conflict solving?
2. What did I learn from these teachers?
3. What do Garba and Kristof have in common and which are their differences?

The main ideas of conflict management I have learned from these two people. How could a problem be solved: map the main issue that has started this conflict, hear out both parties arguments, leave out emotions and talk about the problem, find the common grounds and aim towards win-win situation. I know that for IPC and all the students that are going to come to IPC a definite win situation is to have both of these teachers there.
What did I learn from them? Well a lot definitely. From Kristof I got infected with the spirit for quality movies, I learned about importance of discussions, I learned the cross-cultural understanding and he helped me to solve pretty few of my personal issues.
Because of Garba I looked closer at the areas that I had not been that interested in up until my Autumn term 2003 (Africa and Middle East), I understood the background of the actions that are going on in there today, I understood that one person can make the difference (Garba's www.crossingborder.org project) and I learned the main conflict management tools.

So besides the two rather different characters and backgrounds what is in common:
Both of you fight for global understanding and peace.
you are extremely smart and intelligent.
you both like traveling and even the same areas in the world.
you both wish all the best for IPC maybe just a little different ways to achieve it.

I wish you could consider one more time the slogans that you have shared with the world and your students on web-page. Play a game. Finish all these sentences about each other:
I like you because...
I know you because...
I learn from you because...
I am like you because...
I listen to you because...
I believe you because...
I pray for you because...
I admire you because...
I depend on you because...

I hope you could find out some pretty interesting thoughts about each other. I believe that if this conflict has escalated for some time now then you should do what a really smart person in IPC taught me to do: "step off the train for a moment and make sure the direction is a correct one where you are going to".

Actually it's pretty amazing that two people who are the best I know in conflict management has got themselves into a conflict where students are worried and have to interfere.

X-mas and there on

well this promises to be a long writing. First I would like to say thank you Jen and Veronika - in DK I finally recived the little black bag you guys bought for me 3 years ago :D. It's a cutie.
Well now about X-mas. This year we spent our X-mas in Pärnu at my parent's place. It was really nice although there was no snow my mum had worked really hard with x-mas decorations so it almost felt like Christmas. I was the Santa this year and we all got really many gifts. The whole family was together, we read poems for Santa and we had really nice X-mas meals. It was a nice quiet family evening. Later me and my brother we went to the church to midnight mass where we met our friends to wish merry Christmas. The other days of the long holidays went rather peacefully. I visited many of my friends.
The new years eve I spent at my friend Ketu's house. We had sauna and went to see the city's fireworks by the river. It was rather peaceful also.
Then January 2nd I came back to Tallinn and continued to look for a job. And also decided to start an absolutely new life. First I continued training on the excercise device I have at home. Then I started the diet that Orsi gave me in IPC and now I've already lost lots of weight and I'm feeling better every day.
And finally January 10th was my first day at my new job. I am secretary in a book Publishing company. And after two weeks I'm enjoying myself. So I have turned my life into happy one again! I'm glad the 2008 came ;)
Greetings until the next posts!

General promises for 2008

when I'm in Pärnu I spend a lot of time at my friend's Ketu's kitchen. That is where I and she and some other girls get our drinks and coffees and where we discuss our lives and happenings. So in December 2007 we decided to give general promises for 2008. Those are just promises to set some values to make our lives easier and happier and more fun. Here they are:

I Promise:
*to love myself, cause from myself starts the love for the world.
*to do every day something which would make tomorrow even better.
*to smile to the world cause then the world will smile back to me.
*not to drink more than I did last year but not less either.
*to do something immediately to improve bad financial situation.
*not to give promises that i have no attention to keep.
*not to complain about my problems because they are pointless and will dissapear anyway.
*to think about my promblems day after tomorrow cause then I have 2 problem-free days.
*Not to get myself so drunk that I discover in the morning that I just gave up on my Mr/Mrs Right.
*not to use person's name when I send them away in the morning (e.g. Toomas please leave) because my child might hear that and embarass me later.
*to find out what kind of a person it is in the party before I give him/her my phonenumber.
*that with the trolls it is always no face no name no number
*I don't fight with anyone anywhere.
*to hold and love my friends because whatever has been, is or will come has no meaning compared to them.
*that theatre, cinema and books will be even closer friends.
*that every day I will be even more pretty, smart and skilled than yesterday.
*I smile cause tomorrow is worse anyway.

Starting from the last day in DK

Well my last hours of DK were rather interesting cause since Veronika came home from work she thought it would be great to go to a nightclub and for my surprise people actually do party also on Sunday evenings. So we went to this club called rub´a´dub. The first impression was rather scary it felt like Veronika had dragged me into real getto. But as she said there was nothing to be afraid of then I relaxed. It was a great music and although all sorts of different guys tried to dance with us we just chilled. So we ended up getting back to Veronika´s place at 6am. We had an agreement with an Estonian guy that he will drop us off to the airport at 7:45am. So 1,5h sleep and let’s go to Estonia Veronika. We slept all the way in the plane cause we were just dead tired. But we got here happily and our brothers picked us up from the airport. Since then the life has been rather busy with all the preparations for holidays and the holidays itself.