Notes on Barcott's: It Happened on the Way to War

I am working on a book review of Rye Barcott's excellent It Happened On the Way to War: A Marine's Path to Peace Following are my notes on the first two-thirds of the book. 

My thoughts after meeting Rye Barcott.
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 It Happened on the Way to War: A Marine’s Path to Peace Review

p. 27
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world.  Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”  -Margaret Mead, legendary anthropologist and one of Rye’s mother’s favorite quotes.

p. 28
Rye relates his moment of spiritual realization when “the force swept me into its embrace”  following his near-drowning episode during his adolescence.

p. 30
“Reach out to a bunch of people and eventually a few will give a damn.” Ted Lord’s advice to Rye as he seeks a way to spend the summer in Rwanda

p. 33
Rye related the travails of networking:  “I had spent 3 hours for a 10-second offer of an introduction that might be able to take me where I needed to go.”

p.36
Rye’s Rwanda plans are scrapped and professor Jennifer Coffman suggests Kibera.  Rye’s begins anew searching for the next 5% who gave a damn.

CHAPTER TWO FIST BUMP (BIG GOTA)
p. 38
“Did poverty alone make people less trustworthy” Rye ponders after conversation with Kenyan businessman on flight to Nairobi.

p. 40
Kenyan couple can’t comprehend that someone would only have one child (BIG cultural difference).

p. 41
Rye gets his Kenyan nickname: Omosh, based on the time of day he was born from Elizabeth and Oluoch. 

The Challenge of Nationhood by Tom Mboya

p. 42
In the book, Mboya points out that: “the second generation leadership would inherit a framework that is so dependent on personality that it cannot survive the person on whom it depended.  This could bring with it a phases of deep political problems—tribalism, personality cults, foreign intervention and even military coup.  (march 1960, six years after Kenya’s independence.  4 months later he was assassinated. 

p. 45 “Sheng” is the language of the youth in the slums, an extreme slang of Swahili

p. 46 The railroad tracks separate Kibera from Nairobi (part of the Kenya-Uganda railway).  VERY poorly maintained. 

p. 47  The thumbs-up is a sign of the NDP  and ‘mzungu’ means white person.

p. 48  Rye describes the sounds of life inside Dan’s compound in Kibera.  These sounds could be the start of a movie…or even combine into a song for the movie:  boy’s shout, dog’s bark, man’s cough, door slaps shut, water splashes, broom whisks, pickaxes ping, stereos rattle music etc…

p. 53 While it seems a little callous that Rye is so hesitant to share/donate his money to someone like Baba Chris (even though it’s only $7)…it’s also important to note that mids don’t get paid anything at all (or at the most $50 a month).

CHAPTER 3: THE PRESENT AND FUTURE LEADERS

p. 56
-less than 30K Nubians in Kibera
- reside in only 4/11 villages there
-  Kibera is the only slum where residents have legitimate land claims dating back to colonial era (this is the Nubians)

p. 57
Nubian settlers called their new home on the fringes of Kibera “kibra” which means “bush” because of the heavy vegetation.  Thus the Nubians stalwartly believe the 4 villages belong to them.  “They were proud of Kibera in a way that was distinct from the attitude of other ethnic groups.”

p. 58
The most common snack in Kibera is white bread and butter.

p. 59
One of core research areas for Rye was finding what organizations existed in kibera for youth and if they helped prevent ethnic violence.
-MYSA was the most well-known youth leadership organization (Mathare Youth Sports Association)…much to Taib’s chagrin. 

p. 60
Most NGO’s are top-down and enter slums with preconceived notions of what they problems are and the solution…instead of asking or involving local population. 
-Youth in Kenya could refer to anyone under 40. 

p. 62
As Rye stands beneath the blue gum tree with Ali—his minds drifts to a spiritual place.  Include this tree in movie. 
-kiroboto = African bedbugs

p. 63
Kassim gives Rye rundown on ethnic clashes of 1995…it began with the decapitation and castration of a Nubian teenager. 

p. 64
Matatu = minibus

p. 65
Rye investigates what MYSA is and meets Salim Mohamed. 

p.  66
Rye “Money can cause more problems.”

p. 69
“Youth aren’t the future leaders.  They’re the present and future leaders.” –Salim in his discussion on Kenya politics with Rye. 

CHAPTER 4: BECAUSE I CAN (JUNE 2000)

p. 71
mandazi = east African doughnut, deep fried bread

p. 72
Jumba- the founder of micro-credit program: Ghetto Credit.
-nyama choma = roasted meat
GC gives most of their loans to older women ‘because women were generally more responsible than men.” …a sentiment echoed by Nelson Mandela.

p. 73
Jumba suggest that creating jobs is the most effective way to prevent ethnic violence. 

p. 74
‘lose your pants’ is a popular way to say ‘gone nuts’
-kangas = sheets that divide a room/space

- nimeshukura sana = I’m grateful.
- kwa sababu naweza = because I can  the response from a dying girl named Vanessa that died a week later from AIDS

p. 75
kitu kidogo = something small, a common request from beggars
- Barcott’s revelation occurs where he figures out that he can reach and support these people with whom he has incredible access since he lives among them (Ali, Dan, Taib, Jane and Jumba). 

p. 76
“Excellence begins early.” –Elizabeth on her dreams of creating a Montessori school


CHAPTER 5: WHAT’S THE KEY (Quantico, VA August 2000)

p. 87
Rye expresses misgiving over the machismo ditties/cadences…similar to my own regarding the ‘sniper’s wonderland’

p. 89
Rye describes the sentries at the main gates as ‘standing at attention’ when he drives past them leaving the gate…this is really the only part of the book that doesn’t ring true…I’ve never experienced that before…how could they see him?

PART II: CHAPTER 6: DOERS (Chapel Hill, NC, Fall 2000-Spring 2001)

p. 97
Research is the beginning, not the goal! Rye realizes this after talking with Kim Chapman following his NOT being selected as a Rhodes scholar.  She was a finalist and had produced a film shown at AIDS conference.

p. 98
Rye comes up with the name CFK (Carolina for Kibera) as he strives to do something…seeking to harness the pre-existing structure of the Tar Heel Clubs in nearly every state as he starts to try to fund raise

p. 99
Rye’s dad offers good advice: to have important conversation in person whenever possible.

p. 1000
Patton Boggs donate $1000 of legal expertise simple because Rye is the son of his friend and a fellow marine!

p. 102
baadaye = later
Rye and Nate becomes fast friends after meeting at a coffee shop.  There’s an important lesson here for others: Rye was ready to ‘pitch’ convincingly and sincerely wherever he was.
Hatari sana, na poa sana = very dangerous, very cool.

p. 103
You can choose to this book like any other.  To be entertained, to find it inspirational, to get goosebumps, OR you can read it deeply and personally, you can let it grip you and let it be your guidebook on the pathway to DO.

p. 103
Rye gets advice from Dr. Cross on how to fund-raise: “People need to believe in you, and you need to ask them.  They won’t take offense.  If they do, we don’t want their money anyway…but you have to ask, directly.”

-Rye randomly meets Andrew Carroll for five minutes and it nets CFK a $1000 check. 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Carroll

p. 104
Rye meets Alison Beckwith, who becomes CFK press manager.

p. 105
Rye meets Matt Kupec after a fundraiser…he’s the vice chancellor for Carolina University advancement and invites him to speak at the Reynolds Plantation

p. 107
Rye spends ‘hours’ preparing his uniform to look ‘shit-hot’ for a presentation at the Reynolds Foundation fundraiser.  Only a marine would (or could) spends hours prepping a uniform…If I did everything I could think of, it would still only take me 20 minutes to prep my uniform. 

CHAPTER 7: THE SWORD (Chapel Hill, North Carolina, May 2001)

p. 110
“Mentorship was a word that I rarely used when I first entered college…Four years later, as I prepared to graduate…I viewed mentorship as the single most important factor in my journey…These older, more experienced men and women were life advisers who formed a support network, a council of elders that remained invested in my development as long as I did my part to keep in touch.”  This is one of the major takeways for FAOs that read this book. 

p. 114
msichana mrembo = beautiful girl

p. 116
Rye mentions a key mentor: COL TC Greenwood, a director at the White House National Security Council.   He encourages Rye to learn about NGOs. 


CHAPTER 8: THINGS FALL APART (Kibera, Kenya, May 2001)

p. 118
Rye heads to Kenya after his commissioning.

p. 119
Rye comes up with ‘speed and intensity’ as the initial motto for CFK while with Nate. 



p. 122
watato = small …describing the coffin making business for children…sad
tunapenda nyamchom ya punda= we like roasted donkey
tunakula kichwa ya samaki tu = we only eat fish head
si wagoso. Sisi ni Charlie wa mtaani = we aren’t whiteys.  We are charlies—homeboys—of the street

p. 123
Dan recommends Rye and Nate meet up with John “Kash” Kanyua.   Namely to find a place for Nate the loud snorer to sleep. Kash is a 22 year old soccer star

p. 124
pata kubwa = get big!
Choo = makeshift bathrooms, more prevalent however are ‘flying toilets’= plastic bags the poor would defecate in and throw in the river. 

p. 125
Kash comments that Taib’s KIYESA is a money making scheme, not a charity.  His kids that he oversees can’t afford his tournaments. 

p. 129-130
Rye learns a lesson in who to trust, when he finds out that Jumba couldn’t and wasn’t concerned with showing him the books for what happened to Rye’s $400 ‘investment’.  Rye comments that he should have visited his home first: ‘home visits always told me a lot about a person.’

CHAPTER 9: MESSIAHS (Nairobi, Kenya, June 2001)

p. 135
Rye decides to reach out to Salim Mohamed as he seeks to connect to the youth in Kibera…perhaps through MYSA. 

p. 136
Kash relates his dreams to go to college

p. 138
Rye meets ChrisTomlinson of the AP (who was a colleague of Peter Whaley who says he’s always looking for good human interest pieces.  Chris is a former signals intell specialist in the Army. 

p. 140
Tabitha (the loanee of $26 from Rye) shows him the fruits of that loan: RYE MEDICAL CLINIC, Sacrificing for Success. 

p. 141
kanga = blanket
mawingu ya dunia ufanika wajane = The clouds of the earth cover the widows
*Rye realizes that its possible to change Kibera


CHAPTER 10: HARAMBEE (Kibera, Kenya, July 2001)

p. 143
harambee = Kenya national motto = we all pull together

p. 145
Tabitha is compared to the red cross at the fundraiser for her clinic…indeed, even the ‘red cross is afraid to come’ to Kibera

p. 146
“That was the vision.  One day there would be doctors from Kibera.”

“Do not try to do too much with your own hands.  Better the Arabs do it tolerably that that you do it perfectly.  It is their war, and you are to help them, not to win it for them.” From Lawrence of Arabia’s 27 articles.  Rye realizes that his way or approach isn’t always the best. 

p. 154
Amb Carson reminds Rye of Morgan Freeman, I have thought the same thing!!

p. 156
Rye’s mom on charitable giving is a great philosophy: “It’s good to help when you can.”

CHAPTER 11: WAR ON TRASH (Kibera, Kenya, July 2001)

p. 163
Rye’s confrontation with Oluoch (Elizabeth’s husband) over the startup costs of her Carolina Academy.  Oluoch turns out to be a major douche. 

p. 165
Rye heads to Ford Foundation for East Africa to fundraise—his in there is Dr. Mary Ann Burris.

p. 166
Salim craves leadership—this is why he is willing to leave a relatively high status job
Their meeting with Dr. Burris convinces Salim to leave MYSA and focus on CFK full-time
- From this meeting Rye moves forward to register as a Kenyan NGO and to form a formal governing board chaired by Ben Mshila. 

p. 168
The captain of the winning team in their first tournament is Rashid ‘Kapii’ Seif.

p. 169
vita vya takataka = war on trash
p. 170
Rye realizes his future aspirations for CFK: “We could be a rung in the ladder for hundreds of young people like Rashid…it was a personal mission.  It was a groundswell.”

PART III
CHAPTER 12:  FROM PEACETIME TO WARTIME (Quantico, VA, Fall 2001)

p. 174
mtajiri = rick person

- Rye realizes Elizabeth was more an outsider than even he is.  “Her outreach was from a place of pity, not respect.”

p. 177
- After 9/11 Rye reveals his struggle:  “We wanted to be in whatever fight was to come, and for me that desire was as strong as the forces that had taken me to Kibera and had me falling in love long before I ever intended to commit to a relationship.” 

p. 180
Rye gives as solid and clear of an explanation of HUMINT as you will get on the UNCLASS side:  “CI…was often defensive in nature.  HUMINT on the other hand referred to the collection of information through human sources and was often offensive.”

p. 181
- Rye given advice on how to be good at HUMINT:  “But most important are your listening and writing skills, and asking question.  You need to know how to ask good questions.  That’s the real secret.” 


CHAPTER THIRTEEN:  CHANGE AND CONTINUITY (Washington DC, November 2001)

p. 182
- Sometimes it’s not what you know but who:  Rye’s mentor COL Greenwood is the director of defense policy at the MSC

p. 183
- Col Greenwood laments the ‘lack of continuity’ in places like Haiti where the military’s short deployment cycle result in a revolving door of personnel: “These places need long-term engagement.”

p. 184
- Greenwood arranges for Rye to brief Jendayi Frazer (President’s senior adviser for African Affairs) on CFK. 

p. 185
- Frazer tells Rye much of her work is about fighting fires, reactive. 
- Greenwood tells Rye that’s why CFK is important.  “It’s all about continuity.” 
- “Don’t forget your family” Greenwood counsels Rye. 

p. 186
“I was moving to the sound of guns.”  Rye’s comment in putting his relationship with Tracy second to CFK. 

p. 187
“For the youth, soccer is more important than who’s in what tribe.” Kash’s comment in response to Rye’s worry about holding the tournament so soon after the Nov/Dec 2001 riots in Kibera. 

p. 190
- Salim’s mentor is Dr. Mary Ann Burris and they invite her to the tournament in hopes of getting a large sponsor.  This could be dangerous but Tabitha says “In life we have to take risks.”

p. 191
- After a smooth game, Burris comments that she’ll work with them to get a grant from the Ford Foundation headquarters in New York.  This is huge!
- Rye gets to work raising money when he returns to the States. 

p. 192
- Two girls, Karen Austrian and Emily Verellen join CFK and get grants to create CFK’s Binti Pamoja (Daughters United) Girls’ Center- first leadership-development program for girls in Kibera.
-  Rye gets Kim Chapman (Canadian health specialist who was a year ahead of him at UNC) to take over as first CFK board chair. 

p. 193
- Prof Peacock’s wife offers their home for a fundraiser dinner.  Peacock first told Rye the mantra: Talent is universal, opportunity is not.

p. 195
- Rye has Kash come to speak at the fundraiser inner –to a standing ovation and pledges totaling $100, 000.  However, Jennifer Coffman says about kash:  “There’s just something about him that I don’t trust.”


CHAPTER FOURTEEN: SPYDERCO (Quantico, VA, Summer 2002)

p. 197
Kash is detained by immigration officials on his way to start at UNC.  Kash had falsified his SAT scores and forged his high school transcripts. 

p. 198
Rye struggles with his own incredulity at Kash compromising his integrity and Susan’s comment:  “but what does integrity mean in such a place?” 

p. 200
- Rye decides Kash can’t continue with CFK telling him “Integrity is everything, I hope you can restore yours.”  Rye probably made a good decision here but at the same time, is integrity the same everywhere, even in Africa where corruption is so ingrained throughout some societies? 

- Rye experiences divine intervention while doing a Land-Nav exam coming across a bear while lost.  In fleeing from the bear, he comes across the final target!

p. 203
- Rye meets his HUMINT XO 1^st LT Michael Dubrule 

p. 204
- Rye naively worries that he might miss the action even amidst his skepticism preceding our entry into our invasion of Iraq. 

p. 205
- Rye struggles with his priorities.  Tracy is a saint for sticking with him and Rye admittedly places CFK and the Corps first. 

p. 207
Rye address the importance and value of communal/community respect in responding to Taib’s written threats—Cantar (CFK Nubian Youth Rep): “This guy is nothing.  The community has no respect for him.  Don’t worry.  We’ll take care of it at our level, ghetto level. 

p. 208
- Leading opposition candidate election in a landslide after Christmas: Mwai Kibaki. 
- Celebration held same place where Wangari Maathai (Nobel Laureate) staged her protest against President Moi in 1989.  

p. 209
Unbwogable = uncrushable and is the oppostion’s theme song
-they also use two-fingered peace sign “Tosha”

p. 211
Wisdom of Salim:  “You know, with life on the streets you can only be helped when you’re ready to get help.  This thing, it’s got to be in you.” 

p. 212
After Rye gets jumped, he conjectures that perhaps these two worlds (USMC and CFK) weren’t meant to exist together—perhaps they were better suited to exist apart.



p. 212
Maybe FAOs should have the option to do an ICT with an NGO.  With the Navy FAO program we have the opportunity to do things DIFFERENTLY.  To coalesce military-NGO relations and to not only win hearts and minds abroad by to change hearts and minds in our own ranks


CHAPTER 15: COMPARTMENTS (Kibera, January 2003)

p. 215
Rye gives a good explanation on HUMINT (or at least the HUMINT course): “No matter how much technology we had at our disposal, HUMINT would always matter.   We relied on it to isolate the enemy, to protect our own forces, and to minimize death and injury to noncombatants.”
- Rye notices some similarities between his interrogator training and fund-raising: example being with ‘mirroring body language’. 

p. 217
- Rye discovers that transparency isn’t always all its cracked up to be when he reveals(or plans to reveal) the CFK budget to the youth representatives.  As Salim points out, then the upaid volunteers will insist on stipends which defeats the strength of CFK’s volunteer  ethos. 

p. 218
Rye on corruption in Kenya (one byproduct of bad leadership): “The culture of corruption reached nearly every facet of life.  It started with the government graft, from the rookie policeman on the street right up to the Office of the President.  By one measure from…Transparency International, urban Kenyans paid an average of more than 8 bribes per month. 

p. 221
Rye learns a lesson in leadership in how he deals with the CFK youth reps as CFK’s influence spreads and everyone tries to get a piece  (this is when they try to oust Salim on trumped up charges that he’s not ‘from Kibera’, despite all the time he has spent growing up in poverty): “My role had changed, but I hadn’t changed with it.”

-Rye realizes that he must compartmentalize to effectively deal with the dual spheres of his life. 

p. 223
- Rye describes his “inner call to battle” , to be in the action, ‘the dark corner of [his psyche] that mingled with a sense of service and led [him] to fantasize…
-detritus- good vocab word- Disintegrated or eroded matter:

p. 224
CI/HUMINT interviewers told an enlisted HUMINT colleague of Rye’s that “there was no better training for HUMINT than selling used cars.”
*Now this would be a good weeklong training program for FAOs to learn about negotiating- a weeklong internship at a used car lot!

p. 225
-Rye goes to his first overseas job:  Operations officer for USA LtCol NATO Batt CDR.  Rye finds himself a young LT in a position of significant responsibility in Bosnia.

p. 226
-Rye comments that his work ‘was too important to slow down.’  My comment on that is that in the military it will always seem that way—you have to decide what’s important in ascending order to you on a personal level.

p. 228
-Rye loses his cool with a croat man who calls him a boy- and laments after that he was still missing the essential Marine experience of combat…


CHAPTER SIXTEEN: GRASS, FLOWER AND WIND (Camp Lejeune, NC, Winter 2004)




p. 302-3
This book is the embodiment of compassion and empathy. 


BIO SECTION