Daoud Hari

I had an Amazing day so far.
I went to work around 10am in the Merrill College Office and did my work just as I should. The Provost Lourdes walks in with this tall skinny man who looked very much like my father. Lourdes introduces this mystery man to every one in the office and on the wall I see an event flyer for Daoud Hari who is speaking later on tonight to talk about the issues going on in Darfur and to discuss his book, The Translator: A tribesman's memoir of Darfur. Just before I could blink and think, Lourdes turns to me and introduces us. I said Hello and he said Hello and then she took him into the back to discuss business matters. Me, being the sly person that I am, tries to sneak my way to the back of the office, pretending that I am making copies just so that I could get one more glimpse of him. After about 30 minutes they come back to the front and Lourdes tells my Boss that she is welcome to go eat lunch with the rest of them ( including Daoud Hari) but my Boss Declines. Oh how i wish so much that they would have asked me. I then saw a white kid dressed in traditional African clothing looking all kinds of silly come in to talk with Hari. Apparently the kid won an opportunity to have lunch with him as well.

And for those of you who did not know:

Daoud Hari is a Sudanese tribesman from the Darfur region of Sudan. He has worked as a language interpreter and guide for NGO's and the press on fact-finding trips into the war-torn and dangerous Darfur area. Hari was captured and detained by the government of Sudan as a spy in August 2006 along with Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist Paul Salopek and their Chadian driver Abdulraham Anu (aka "Ali"). During their months-long ordeal all three men were severely beaten and deprived. Upon their successful release - after an international outcry from US diplomats, the US military, Bono and even the Pope - Hari moved to the US where be began work on his memoirs to help bring further world attention to the plight of his people and country. In 2008 he published his memoirs under the title The Translator: A Tribesman's Memoir of Darfur.

Daoud Hari is also known as Suleiman Abakar Moussa. As he explains in his memoir, this is a false identity he created to appear as a citizen of Chad in order that he might work in the Sudanese refugee camps in Chad as an interpreter (by Chad law, only Chadian citizens are allowed to work).

He will be speaking tonight at 6:30 in Classroom Unit 2 which is around the same time as Open Mic, I guess we all have to make some choices but I have a feeling this one wont be too hard to make. I strongly encourage everyone to go.