I arrived at Johannesburg airport with aching limbs after a grueling 18 hours on a plane from Washington D.C. via Dakar, Senegal, where we stopped for refueling. This was my first trip to Africa in half a decade; working on programs in the Middle East and Asia over the past five years has taken me to very different parts of the world. Stepping into Pretoria, I immediately felt a jolt of energy as I recognized the unique flavor of Africa. Like the bright purple jacarandas that carpeted the streets at the time I was there, being in Africa conveys a feeling of warmth and vibrancy, even as the continent faces unimaginable challenges.  

I was in South Africa to attend a Training of Facilitators for BRIDGE – short for Bridging Resources in Democracy, Governance and Elections – organized by International IDEA. BRIDGE is the world’s premier adult-learning curriculum on elections with the aim to build the capacity of professionals working with electoral processes worldwide.  

During the two weeks we spent in Pretoria, we learned about the BRIDGE methodology and honed our own facilitation skills so that at the end of the course, we would have the ability to facilitate workshops for our own colleagues.  The workshop had a particular focus on gender, so the participants and facilitators consisted of 24 women – there was only one brave gentleman who was one of the four facilitators of the workshop. 

The BRIDGE methodology is very lively and interactive, so there was never a dull moment as we received intense training in various topics and techniques related to gender and elections. Without a doubt, however, getting to know the other participants while enjoying Pretoria was just as fruitful as going through the BRIDGE curriculum.  

As a Finn living in the United States, I was constantly fascinated by the women in the group. They hailed mostly from different parts of Africa, from Sudan to Cameroon and Sierra Leone to Malawi. Being exposed to their perspectives on everything from the standing of women in their various countries to the food we were eating was a treat. Indeed, it was the diversity of the participants from a cultural, linguistic and a personality point of view resulted in many memorable shared moments – for example, the telling of macabre Liberian jokes, much to the horror and amusement of the non-Liberian participants.  

As we were shuttled to and from the BRIDGE training center and spent most of our free time enjoying long, delicious meals, we exchanged many stories on our lives, countries and families.   

We emerged from the experience with great insight into the merits of different facilitation techniques and many ideas for how we would use the BRIDGE methodology in our countries. But above all, we realized that we had also formed a sisterhood of semi-accredited gender and elections facilitators. At the end of the training, we pledged to utilize our newly established network to increase understanding of the specific issues women face in elections across the world. We had once again proven to ourselves that across continents, cultures and oceans, the political plights of women, while dramatically varying in degrees, are best mitigated through unity across borders.