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Hello all...
A number of you are reading these updates, so we will keep sending them as there is time to do this. The primary reason for sending them is that we think that peace comes, from at the very least, getting people into the same room together. Around the same pot of soup together. Into the same discussion together. And emailing as many people as might be interested in thinking about this as "Planting Peace" takes its various courses here in Alberta, is our way, an effort to "bring us into the same discussion". Messy as it all is. Tomorrow, the campers, including our international guests, are climbing a small mountain. A 5 to 6 hour walk, up and down. The camp itself is, as any camp near the end of summer, delightful, and also filled with tensions, some conflicts, volunteers and counselors who are tired, senior teens who are pushing some limits. Two troubled teens needed some attention yesterday, which was only our second day actually at camp. After meeting with Camp Leaders it was suggested that Aylam, from Israel, become a big brother, for this week, to a young, troubled boy. And that Diana from Uganda do the same with another boy, whom she had befriended,, who had brought with him from Liberia, his own trauma. So, now, two our our 10 guests make sure they are at every activity in which those young teens are involved, to provide encouragement, coaching, and also some guidance as necessary to camp counsellors. Odd surprize, but I suspect that most good things that we plan for, bring with them some elements of surprize ... some presence of the Holy Spirit. (We have been hearing from the staff and director of the camp, that the presence of our group, messy and a bit tense as it has been, and the presentations of Gopar and Sani (a wise muslim man), and the interviews we do with the other international guests each night ... has had a completely positive impact on the campers. They are more attentive. They are more respectful. There is less violence. One counselor, when we asked yesterday if this was working, said, without hesitation ..."this is great. We have to do this again". These are young adults, with full workloads dealing with often unruly campers, now working with the surprizing presence of young adults whose first language is not English, from 5 different countries ... and after 4 days, they are saying... "we have to do this again". Whatever peace work is ... I think this is at least a small part of it. )
Gopar and Sani did the morning chapel again, this time with the theme of "valleys and views". In all our situations and countries, we approach valleys with perhaps some trepidation and maybe fear. But around those situations there is always a possibility of a changed view, a different perspective that begins, in that moment, to heal and rehabilitate relationships. Gopar told the story of Amina, the Muslim woman who, in Jos, Nigeria, lost her brother and her uncle and her home to the mobbing Christians in 2001. She organized a group of fundamentalists, to fight back. They trained to kill. But somehow she ended up in a workshop that Gopar was implementing. She hid her gun inside the folds of her skirt assuming that Gopar, a Christian, would mess up and offend her or the Muslims in general, and then she would shoot him. He didn't, and to her credit, she gave up the gun, went home, and began a second group ... of Muslims working for peace. She was accused of being bribed by the Christians, and her life was not easy after that. A sudden surprize, a new view, and a whole world is a little bit changed.
This evening, we heard the stories of Alejandra, a social worker from Colombia, who works at peace education with children, ages 5 to 17. A little boy, she said, recently had his bike stolen. He and his friends decided quickly to find the other boy who did this, and then to kill him. But a little girl, whom Alejandra works with, intervened and told him that the boy who took the bike is worth more than the bike, and it stopped what might have been a tragic story, from happening.
Daniel, also from Colombia, told the larger group at campfire this evening, a litttle of his life. At 10 years of age, he already was conscious of the daily and horrible violence in Colombia. Violence which he saw routinely. And he decided that his life was going to be devoted to finding ways to make peace. He is now about 23 or 24 He talked about a group of volunteers who, in a town, not far from Bogota, decided to honor women on mothers day. They walked around to all the grocery stores and asked for eggs, and vegetables, and anything else needed to make a good soup. And the paramilitary and the soldiers threatened to interfere. They invited them to come and help them make the soup, but they had to leave their guns aside to do this. Some did, and in the end, they fed over 400 people, made flowers for a over 200 women ... and with this some of the fear has subsided. Not all the soldiers nor paramilitary personnel turned in their guns. But some did.
Sharon, one of two Israelis, performed at the Wed pm folk festival yesterday, at camp. She did two rap numbers. That is what she thrives on. She is a peace activist in Israel, who worries and frets about the injustice that is run over the Palestinians. When we asked what had been difficult yesterday, she said that she has a hard time being at camp, where little that is really tragic, happens. Her life is surrounded by death, by destruction, as, relentlessly, the Israeli army and leadership continues to demolish Palestinian villages, homes, trees. It has not stopped since 1948. She says that is why her rap songs are "rage songs", sung in Hebrew. She is very talented, and her songs are entirely improvised.
All for now. This morning, Thursday, Kim, Kari and I met with Gopar and Sani, to review our plans for the FCJ Center event, which begins Sunday evening here in Calgary, when 20 young adults from SK and AB and MB will join our 12 guests, under leadership of Gopar and Sani ... for 3.5 days of discussion and, "being in the same room" together.
-Abe Janzen
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