Med School Apps, Dog Pizza, and it's Always Sunny

"We're making brownies."
"...the drug filled kind."

Oh, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. I'm sitting here in Nati watching TV with Jonny and the Spencers. We've been laughing and plotting. More on the plotting later.

First off, I FINISHED MY MED SCHOOL APPLICATION! I haven't submitted it yet, but all the information is entered in and ready to go for June 1st. I'm so excited to be finished with it. It took about twelve hours to do the whole thing and I spent the last two days up here in Nati to use the good internet to finish it off. I am now officially ready to apply. I'll send it in and wait for secondaries to arrive in July. Woo hoo!

One thing I'm worried about. I've been here two nights already and Zaari is all alone in my house. I know for a fact that she will be hungry today and I feel bad about this. I left her a lot of water and a clean litter box with two days worth of food. As long as I get back tomorrow morning she'll be okay. Sometimes she refuses food for a couple days anyway. But I still feel kind of bad.

But I have to stay in Nati an extra night. Why? Because of dog pizza, the cause of the plotting. We have decided to buy dog meat and create a pizza with this dog meat. It sounds, frankly, a little unappetizing. And there is the whole vegetarian thing to consider. However, I am also down for trying new things and this Peace Corps time is ripe for thinking outside the box. So for most of the afternoon I was torn. Then finally I just decided to go for it. We are right now making the crust for the pizza. I have no idea how it will turn out, but I'll try to get a picture or two up here later. So I'm staying one more night for this spectacle and part of me thinks Zaari would approve.

And I'll just leave you with this gem from It's Always Sunny:

"street rat!"

*UPDATE: The dog pizza was amazing. Like delicious and amazing:

Jonny looks appropriately creepy standing there behind me in the kitchen. Yum, dog pizza. I might not be able to go back to vegetarianism after this. You know what I'm talking about.

A May Update

Things have been pretty relaxed around here, treading precipitously on lazy I dare say.

After IST, I spent a couple nights in Nati to just wind down, use some awesome internet, and catch the tail end of Mango Olympics, the Peer Support Network (PSN) program of the year. I had a very nice time, actually. I streamed the three most recent episodes of Grey’s Anatomy (holy love of all that is holy, that workstation internet is fast!), had myself a few beers with some good friends, and had my fair share of the deliciousness that was the mango pie that Mary made (see last post for da foto). I lounged around with glee, knowing that Imorou, my work partner back in Djougou, was still out of town on formation that I was not invited to (because of the IST business). I also got to talk to Colt for the first time in like A MILLENIUM, which was amazing and very very needed.

Since being back from Nati, I have been feeling a little under the weather. I’m not sure if this is general Peace Corps related apathy (oh no, I have nothing scheduled for months and am just going to DIE here of boredom) or a little bacterial infection. Maybe it’s malaria, but the no fever thing sort of rules that out. That and the insane, liver-destroying prophylaxis we take weekly. So I just gave myself a couple days to chill out. Yesterday, I actually went an entire day without seeing another human being and can I just say that it was lovely? It was my first alone day in like weeks.

Part of my misanthropy is a direct result of my having been robbed. Not like someone broke into my house or anything like that, but my cell phone was stolen from me. I, of course, stupidly left it on the bus on the way back from IST, and when I asked the bus people about it, they were clueless…meaning it has been taken. Which sucks. Honestly, though, I’ve been nonplussed about the whole thing. I mean, I was annoyed for sure, but when I really started thinking about it, I figured that there wasn’t really anything I could do about it, except get a new one. So I came back to Djougou planning on zemming out to the MTN store to try to get a new sim card with the same number. That plan was stymied, however, when I got out of the taxi and discovered that my helmet had been stolen. That’s right, two important commodities, stolen within a week of each other. The helmet thing pissed me off. I demanded the driver find out what happened. He asked for my contact information so he could return it to me when he found it. I, however, HAVE NO CELL PHONE. He promised to bring it to PSI next week, though, when located. He better do it, too. I got his name and number and will be passing it on to the security guy at Peace Corps if I don’t get my helmet back. Walking around this hugely sprawling city is a bitch.

Case in point: It took AN HOUR to walk to the MTN store. In the middle of the day. With the sun BEATING down on me. At least the place was airconditioned. I sat for (ONLY!) three hours and got a new sim card. I was actually pretty happy with the service there, besides the wait. The lady was professional, using the vous form and speaking really fast and courteously, almost like in Americaland. I get my same number, too, so yay for 66.23.91.13 or as we say here “soixante-six, vingt-trois, quatre vingt-onze, treize.” Thank Allah for small favors. Then I walked the hour long walk home at dusk.

I had to leave my ID card with them, though. Apparently their copy machine was down and I didn’t want to wait an indeterminate number of hours because I wanted to get home before dark. So I left it, they promised to keep it safe, and I said I’d go back for it the next day. Which I didn’t. Because of the lazy. But it’s fine. It’ll be safe until later. I hope.

Zaari is good. She meows a lot less. I’m not sure if that’s because she’s growing up or because she was completely traumatized by her week of NO MOMMY when I was at IST last week. Doug came by to feed her every couple of days, but I sort of think it wasn’t enough food. She’s been eating an entire can of sardines each day now and he only gave her a can for every two days or so. I’m pretty sure she was like freaking out, thinking she was near death or something. Which makes me feel kinda bad. But at least she’s eating a lot now. She’s also freaking huge. Like almost the size of real live, American kitten. I think she’s about thirteen or fourteen weeks. After we get paid at the end of the month, I’m going to finally get her vaccinated. I know, I know. It’s about time. She’s been mostly healthy, save for the “let’s add water to this sweetened, condensed milk and see if she’ll like it” phase. Note: she liked it, but puked it back up twenty minutes later. She’s also into killing lizards. Not necessarily eating all of it once killed, but she does enjoy the killing itself for sure. She killed one the other day and ate half of it before deciding she’d rather just eat sardines. Seriously, the top half of the lizard was gone, the back legs and tail just sitting all macabre out on my patio, his guts sort of unceremoniously tangled beside him. I know it was a he, too, because of the tiny little ignored gonads on the cement. Of course, they could have been ovaries. I don’t know anything about internal lizard anatomy. I’ve only dissected felines, sharks, and pigs for chrissakes.

So that’s that. My internet is back to being shitty. I have yet to finish filling out my med school application, although I got a good portion done while in Nati. I have about four sections left to finish before June 1st when I’ll be submitting the monster. Hopefully the PSI internet will be superb this week and I can get ‘er done. Ew, I can’t believe I just said “get ‘er done.” How Kansan of me.

Running? What running? I’ve not purposely gone on a run for 9 days now. That’s like completely ceasing all physical activity. Starting up again will be akin to beginning a new exercise routine, ask your doctor style. Again, not sure if the cause is general PC apathy or actual medical fatigue, but I just cannot get my ass out of bed in the morning to go run. By the time I’m up it’s way too freaking hot. I thought this hot season was over, but apparently it has decided to hang out for a bit longer. And, um, rainy season my ass. It’s rained like once in the last month. Of course, it was so intense, the water pooled under my windows and slowly trickled from one end of my house to the other, leaving a lovely wet mark stain. The river Djougs. Anyway, tomorrow I am BEGGING PROMISING FORCING THREATENING myself to get up by 6:30 and JUST GO. I mean, I will never have this much free time to get myself into an acceptable running schedule. I should SERIOUSLY make use of it so that when I’m in med school I have some sort of precedent for getting up at ungodly hours for the HOLY WORK-OUT. We’ll see how it goes.

In general I am sort of shocked that it is already May 21st (yes I’m post-posting this post…haha). My little bros have already finished with school. It’s like SUMMER WOO HOO time there already. Finals are so last week over. Graduations have happened already (well, except for Wellesley’s which is this weekend…holy mother of mothers, has it really been A YEAR since my own graduation??). Labor day marks the beginning of pool season and I am jealous. Of pools, most definitely. Of changing seasons? Um, yes. It’s been like the summer of hell here for 10 months. Windy season, rainy season, hot season. It doesn’t matter. It’s all summer all the time. Which I love. But still. I’m looking forward to my visit home in October. Yay, long sleeves!

Well, that paragraph wasn’t very organized. Oh well. I honestly don’t have much else to talk about. Work? Hmm. Monday I’ll go back to work at the office and will probably get started on end of the month reports. I feel like I just did these for April, but that’s how it goes I guess. I think Tuesday will be much of the same, Wednesday I’ll head over to the maternite for some baby stuff…maybe…they still don’t really know what to do with me. I’m frankly considering not even bothering. I usually just go and sit and watch prenatal consultations which is like boring as shit after the first, I don’t know, million. Thursday I’ll go to the HIV/AIDS testing center, which I actually enjoy. The people there are nice, I can watch cool procedures (like contraception insertions), do some easy peasy paperwork for them, fix their computer (usually just turning it off and then back on again heh), and they have a scale which says I weigh like ten pounds less than I do. So that’s always fun for the ole self-esteem. Then Friday I’m back at PSI. Honestly, I’m not super psyched about the work I do here. Can I say that? Out of the THREE GOALS of Peace Corps, the first one sort of sucks for me. I think that’s the way it is for a lot of volunteers, but whew. I feel better just getting it out there and off my chest. I’m bored with my work. There, I said it. The rest of my “job” here I really really love. Transferring knowledge about America to the Beninese and vice versa. I’m really good at that! Just today I had about five kids hanging out and we talked about American games and I taught them some English. It was fun and 2/3 of what I’m supposed to be doing here. So that’s good. And I guess I don’t always dislike my official work. I like the health center and talking to people casually about health related issues. And I like it when I feel useful at the office. That’s just sort of rare. C’est la vie, quoi. Ou bien?

So that’s that, folks. Not much to see here, move along. I wish I could recount harrowing tales of heroism or breathtaking displays of poverty and the romanticized happiness and carefree attitude of the people or even just talk about how I’m saving African babies and wiping the sweat off my brow with my red-dirt covered palm…but, I’m too busy being lazy and watching my cat eviscerate lizards right now. Maybe tomorrow.

E

PS. I actually DO have a story about traveling through the backwater villages on terre rouge, but I still have to bust it out. I’ll put it up as soon as the creative juices are flowing.

Ew..flow. Heh.

A food post!

So it's been awhile since I posted pics up here and since I'm at the workstation in Nati I thought I'd drop by to post some of my favorite kind of photos: FOOD!

The food here is amazing, honestly. Most of the time I cook for myself in my little kitchen, lots of couscous, oatmeal, pasta with tomato sauces with onions and other random veggies. I also like to add soy cheese (basically tofu). I've started really getting into black eyed peas, too. They take a while to cook, but are so much healthier than a bowl full of bleached pasta. Every now and again I'll do something fancy, like make a pizza or attempt a dessert. I had a cookies phase...which is essentially satisfied by cooking in a dutch oven, very interesting. You can probably find a picture of one on the internet. Imagine that, but more ghetto and you've got my oven. I also used to bake my own bread, but I'm trying to lesse the carbs a bit if possible and trying to get into tip top shape. I figure I'll never really have this kind of time again to devote to it, so I might as well take advantage. That doesn't stop me from enjoying my watche, yam pilee, and wagasi, however. One good thing about yam pilee? It's not processed white, empty calories. You're actually getting some bang for your buck there in nutrients. Woo hoo!

Anyway, here's some food fotos:

Watche and wagasi. The watche is rice and beans and the wagasi is that fried cheese that is amazing and might be the only food I really actually miss. Must be eaten with cold, natural sugar coke. Ah.

This is mango pie. We made it up in Nati yesterday at the workstation. Mary is a genius. I had it for breakfast today and it was awesome.

This is from my three month "let's pretend I eat meat" phase. This was taken at Chateau Vert, an amazing chicken and fries place in Djougou across from my office. You have to order an hour in advance, but it's worth it. That's Colt on the side there, dipping his french fries in this delicious tomato and onion sauce they serve avec les frites ici.

This picture didn't load quite right, but it's the New Years cake Colt and I made when he was here. It's chocolate and amazing. Affissa tried it and thought it was fabulous. Ah cake. Thanks to Alex for providing the mix. It was loved.

Colt eating yam pilee for his last time in Djougou. He started getting pretty skilled at it by the end. 

Me eating yam pilee. The pounded yams are stickier than mashed potatoes and you scoop up the sauce (usually a tomato, onion, palm oil mix of awesomeness, occasionally with a peanut sauce that is my absolute favorite) with the piece of squished yam. If lucky, you'll also have a few pieces of wagasi to snatch up to make the perfect combo. And of course, a cold coke next to ya.

This is the coconut curry at Hong Kong's in Cotonou. This meal is like real Chinese food. I can sometimes be tricked into thinking I am in Americaland when I eat out in Cotonou. This meal was awesome...but so expensive I've never been back!

Colt at Livingstone's, the expat hangout in Cotonou. The pizza is expensive but real. I think it's good even by American standards, but I am a fan of thin crust pizza. Colt was unimpressed I think, but screw him. He can get Papa Murphy's whenever he wants! Ahhh, pizza. I blow some money here pretty much every time I'm in Cotonou. 

Not really a meal, per se. But this packet of barbecue sauce I got from Becca was a vrai delight on some watche. I wish I had some more. See how excited I am about it??

This was our delicious attempt at crispy potato soft tacos. The purple bowl is filled with chopped up and fried potatoes with taco seasoning. The green bowl has an awesome fresh salsa I made with guacamole, tomato, onion, and pimantes with a dash of lime and salt. The strainer has fresh, bleached, chopped up lettuce, those are definitely homemade tortillas in the back and we made a ranch-like dressing for the typical Taco Bell ranch sauce they put on top. We didn't have shredded cheese, but what do you want? Eggs in your beer? Geez.

Here we are pounding some yams for our dinner at Affissa's house. We pounded just long enough to get this photo, haha. Colt is such a dork.

Lapain and frites (rabbit and fries) et La President's in Porto Novo. This was the first meat I purposefully ate (there was the auspicious hot dog incident of 2008), and this rabbit was fabulous. I thought it was amazing and I wondered why I had been a vegetarian so long. Then I went to America and ate meat there for a month and wondered why the hell I would even bother eating meat in this country. So I'm a vegetarian again...after a short vegan stint in March and April. But that rabbit still looks good, huh?

Another Livingstone's pizza shot. I mean, Matt looks awesome, Scott is mid mouthful, how could I not post this pic? Eat that pizza, Matt!!!

Oh, wow, three Livingstone pictures. I mean, I thought this epic cheese string was pretty badass. And note my cool Beninese soccer jersey. Their team is the Squirrels. 

After all that food, pretty much we just go out for beers. It's the best staple of any good Peace Corps Volunteer's diet!

I hope you enjoyed the pictures! 

Director William's testimony and the Congressional Hearing Results

I apologize for the delay in posting; blogger has been having massive issues and I haven't been able to get these up because of bad internet, but here are the links following the hearings finally, albeit a bit late.

Here is the news release from the Peace Corps, reprinted below for your convenience followed by many different links about the testimonies yesterday and results coming from them*:

WASHINGTON, D.C., May 11, 2011 – Peace Corps Director Aaron S. Williams testified before the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Peace Corps’ enhanced safety, health and support measures for volunteers serving around the world. The hearing, entitled “Peace Corps at 50”, also included testimony from returned Peace Corps volunteers (RPCVs), Peace Corps’ Inspector General and members of the Peace Corps community.

In prepared testimony, Director Williams outlined ways the Peace Corps has increased its support to volunteers who have been the victim of a sexual assault or other crime. Since Director Williams took office in August 2009, the Peace Corps has instituted several new measures to improve the agency’s sexual assault risk reduction and response program. Director Williams’ testimony can be found in its entirety here.

“The health, safety, and support of every member of our Peace Corps family is my number one priority,” said Peace Corps Director Williams in a prepared statement. “The Peace Corps of today takes the issue of sexual assault prevention and response seriously and we are dedicated to providing compassionate victim-centered care. Since I became Director, the Peace Corps has put in place new policies to reduce the risks faced by volunteers and to ensure they receive our full support when a tragedy occurs.”

The Director continued his statement by detailing the measures the Peace Corps has taken to strengthen global operations and improve the quality of care provided to volunteers. He concluded his statement by offering sincere thanks to the Peace Corps volunteers of yesterday, today and tomorrow for their commitment to public service.

The Peace Corps will continue to make additional changes as the agency works with returned volunteers, other government agencies and leaders in the field of sexual assault risk reduction and response. The Peace Corps has instituted the following reforms to strengthen safety and security procedures and ensure compassionate care for victims of crime. 

• Issued Peace Corps’ Commitment to Sexual Assault Victims, a set of core principles to ensure we provide timely, effective, and compassionate support to victims of sexual assault.
• Implemented and trained staff on our new Guidelines for Responding to Rape and Sexual Assault. The guidelines emphasize a victim-centered approach with specific procedures posts must follow to respond promptly to an incident and provide the best possible support to a victim.
• The agency’s Sexual Assault Working Group is developing a comprehensive sexual assault prevention and response program. The working group includes returned volunteers and survivors of rape and sexual assault, as well as staff with expertise in trauma response.
• At the suggestion of returned Peace Corps volunteers with First Response Action, Peace Corps hired a nationally recognized leader in victims’ rights to be the agency’s first victim’s advocate. The victim’s advocate will make sure victims of crime get the emotional, medical, legal, and other support they need.
• Created the Peace Corps Volunteer Sexual Assault Panel, made up of outside experts and returned volunteers who were victims of sexual assault, to help Peace Corps design and implement sexual assault risk reduction and response strategies.

For more detailed information on Peace Corps’ safety and security practices, including the agency’s commitment to volunteers, please visit the Safety Section on the Peace Corps website.

***


 I was also given a couple different links to videos that show some of the testimonies of RPCV sexual assault survivors as well as Lois Puzey, Kate's mom. Please be warned that these videos could very likely be triggering:


AP video of the hearing: here
CSPAN video of the hearing: here

In response to these hearings it looks like Congress is in the process of actually working on legislation to protect whisleblowers and to protect the rights of sexual assault survivors. They're also looking to better support the Puzeys in their fight for justice for their daughter's death. Here is the follow up response from the NYT to the hearings yesterday and you can get a good summary of the proceedings from the San Francisco Times here.


One amazing result of all of this seems to be that the Peace Corps is scraping the shitty sexual assault training video that was such a hell for me. Read about it here. This is one amazing thing to come out of this thing. If you're curious about really shitty sexual assault awareness training, you can actually watch the original training video. I don't know why you'd want to, though. It's really pretty awful.


I don't have much else to report except that many of us have been discussing these events the last few days. I'm actually in the south of the country right now for our semi-annual inter-service training and all the health sector volunteers are together for the first time since our last one in December. It's crazy how quickly time has flied on by. It seems like we just had our last one and yet it's been almost half a year since then. It'll be June in a couple weeks and just a month after that the new stage will be here and we won't be the babies anymore. Crazy.


*I would like to immensely thank Jessica, from Jess Under African Skies and one of the first volunteers I befriended in Benin, for these links that I shamelessly bouffed. You rock, girl.

Sexual Violence and the Peace Corps at 50

This article is a preview of the hearings held by congress today, which can be streamed here.

Kate Puzey's mom, Lois, gave testimony as well, speaking to the need for whistleblower protection and confidentiality breeches leading to her daughter's death. I couldn't watch the video so someone should let me know if anything unexpected or promising occurs. I doubt it will, but I am feeling extremely pessimistic and bitter about the Peace Corps as an organization right now, although I just want to preface this entire post by saying that I love the Peace Corps and simply want it to reach its potential as the force I know it can be, the organization that I believe in. But right now it needs to make some serious changes.

The first time I was made aware of the Peace Corps inappropriate response and attitude toward victims/survivors (I will use the word survivor in my own words and only use "victim" when quoting others) of sexual assault and rape was the third or fourth week of training. We were all gathered at Songhai for our weekly medical training session and most of us were dreading pretty hard the "rape talk." We were actually surprised with it on that Tuesday as we were expecting it the following week. Immediately I knew this was going to be bad. You should never surprise a group of people with a sexual violence discussion because you never know who will be triggered in the audience. That day, someone who needed to avoid the conversation would not have been able to without causing a scene. I was very interested in how they would present the information. As a women's college graduate with a modest but passionate background in women's studies, I was worried about the ability of the male host country national physician employed by PC/Benin to give a sensitive and appropriate talk on the subject. My concerns were, at first, made irrelevant because they showed a video. I thought, "Oh good! The Peace Corps knows that HCN doctors probably aren't the best resources for this information so they've prepared something with a strong survivor-empowering message for us to watch instead." Oh boy was I so wrong. The video very clearly focused on survivor's use of alcohol and culturally inappropriate attire as reasons for getting into risky situations, a clear case of "victim-blaming" that I was disgusted to see from an official Peace Corps Washington video. The rest of the video was similar; women cried and were vague about the help they got from Peace Corps. It was made clear that pursing legal action would be difficult and the primary message was "don't get too close to men and drink too much." I was horrified. When the HCN doctor finally did start talking I was further devastated. There were casual references to rape and assault situations, joking and making light of the video, more victim-blaming, and discouragement for coming forward if anything ever actually happened here.

I excused myself, went to the bathroom, and cried. I was already tired and frustrated with stage (training is just, in general, sort of a frustrating time) and the idea that statistically SOMEONE in the room had experienced an assault or rape and was being forced to listen to this crap was so disheartening I literally couldn't take it. One in four American women has had an experience like that and most of us know what it's like to get close or feel the threat of it and discussions of rape and assault can be extremely triggering and must be treated with respect. Dismissive attitudes of both our facilitator and the video itself were disturbing and so inappropriate for an organization representing America that I had to literally grieve for a few minutes.

I put this information in my training review of course. It was one of the biggest problems I've had with the Peace Corps and since then I've learned increasing amounts of information about the inappropriate response of the Peace Corps to volunteers who become victims of crime. Current PCVs and RPCVs should absolutely participate in the First Response Action survey regarding our sexual assault training here.

 I've felt extremely compelled the entire time of my service by Kate Puzey's story and the response of PC/Benin and Washington. PCVs in Benin are intimately aware of inefficiencies in this area and it is a source of constant frustration. I find it hard to believe that ALL Peace Corps countries have this much malcontent on administrative issues. I know it's tough everywhere, but I honestly think the ET rate would be higher worldwide if it was like Benin everywhere (approaching 25% here). That gives me hope that we just happen to be in a more "malignant" program that is doing its best to change and become better equipped to handle itself. The idea that other countries might be better is encouraging. But as far as crime responses go, it seems like it's a worldwide Peace Corps fault. Especially as far as sexual assault and rape reporting goes.

I won't repeat statistics and stories you can read elsewhere, but it's a problem in reality and not just the attitude of the training video screened. Reporters are not valued, treated like they were the cause of their own effect, and discouraged from pursuing justice. This is often done in the name of cultural sensitivity and understanding but really it's just bullshit. No culture condones rape even if the details are varied across the spectrum. But the important thing is that American norms on the subject are very serious and frankly, the Peace Corps should treat these incidents exactly the same as if they happened in America. The fact that host country nationals are in administrative positions shouldn't matter. Train them to respond as an American to these issues. There's no excuse.

A few solutions were presented in the NYT article that I agree with wholeheartedly and think are feasible and legitimate. One, hiring someone trained in sexual assault survivor empowerment to specifically overhaul the Peace Corps's approach to these incidents and their appropriate response through trainings and policy revamping. Two, get rid of that fucking video and replace it with something created by a knowledgeable and credible crisis center or organization. Three,  the development of "sexual assault response teams" to collect forensic evidence and provide advocacy to survivors. I also think there needs to be an advocacy group established in each country of volunteers and trained professionals who can counsel on that specific country's procedures for filing a report and pressing charges. Another suggestion would be to follow the First Response  Action group's 7 point plan to specifically address issues of sexual violence against Peace Corps Volunteers including the "Survivor Bill of Rights" with standardized protocols of response. These things should be legislated in the states and enforced abroad immediately.

Politics should not enter into the equation at any point. This is not a Democrat/Republican issue at all, but an American one. We are serving our country and the world and should be protected appropriately under law. These arguments do not devalue the promise of the organization promised by JFK or hurt the Democrats and should not lead to funding cuts or compromised legitimacy of the Peace Corps. Director Williams needs to commit to supporting future legislation protecting the volunteers because it's the only responsible course of action he can follow as the head of an organization with increasing numbers of female volunteers in the world.

These criticisms are not aimed at breaking down the Peace Corps or discouraging future, interested volunteers, especially women. I think this has been and will continue to be one the most life changing and powerful experiences of my life. I love Benin and I love the people. I feel at home here and am more proud than I've ever been to be an American citizen and a representative of my country abroad. I think joining the Peace Corps is one of the best decisions I ever made and would encourage people to follow me. But I also know that the organization can be improved, the experience of women in the world can be made safer and healthier and more in tune with truer American values. The Peace Corps has a responsibility to act as a role model in how it responds to sexual violence; it is a visible organization and a powerful force in a world that generally mistreats and devalues women. It's about damn time it started acting like it.