Wednesday August 25th - Camp Midweek

There are 40 Alberta campers and 12 people from various countries ... Uganda,  Colombia,  Nigeria,  Palestine, Israel, Dominican Republic,  Jordan.  And some campers that were not born in Alberta but in Brazil, and some in Liberia.  Amazingly,  they are all finding ways to talk, to do activities, like crafts, climbing walls, sing, eat,  canoe,  swim ... together.   As one of the guests said the end of day 1,  this is a microcosm of the world, in a very small place an hour north of Calgary.

Camp Valaqua is running its normal,  last-week-of-summer camp for high school teens.   Forty or so.   And MCC has brought in 12 guests from the various countries, as named.  Ten with Planting Peace, and 2, who are early arrivals with IVEP.   We arrived at Camp Valaqua, all 12 of them and some MCCA staff,  on Sunday at 4 pm.  None of us really knew each other.  All 10, pretty much selected by Country reps of MCC.  All, except one, working with MCC Partners.  All, in one way or another, Peace workers,  peace activists.  Passionate, creative people.  A journalist from Palestine.  A young woman working with young adults who have survived the Lord's Resistance Army in Uganda, having been abducted as children.   Rosemary is a gifted, articulate, pastoral person who  helps these young adults by teaching and encouraging them to become useful to themselves, making things as ordinary at cupcakes.   Aylam, of Israel,  has witnessed the repeated demolition of Bedouin Villages by the Israeli Army who come with bulldozers and SWAT Teams, by the hundreds, to demolish a village, "in seconds".   He and others, not wanting violence, are left to watch, as this happens, though they protest, advocate, do what they can to stop this.  And then they help the Bedouins rebuild that village, reerecting their tents and other makeshift homes.  And then, the Israelis come again, and demolish it again.    Diana, from Uganda, works as  a volunteer with Living With Shalom, where, she says, the young adults, in a peace learning process that lasts for weeks, each year,  begin to live and think, she says, at another level,  as they learn, simply,  to acknowledge the rightful existence of other tribes, other people groups, and to find ways to "be together", live together, work together.   These stories, both informally and more formally are being presented to Alberta's teenagers and young adults. What is fascinating is that this group of visitors, in the middle of working with our Albertans, have bonded, including Diego, the translator for Alejandra, from Colombia, who speaks little English.  Aylam, yesterday, said that "I have a human thirst;  I know I could spend years with each of you, every one of you", and that, he said,  is unusual for him. He, as most of us, enter a group situation and may seek out 2 or 3 people.  In this case, he said,  it has become the entire group.  

Camp has its normal routine.  But that routine of meals, sleep, activities and teaching sessions now includes a multicultural learning aspect.   Today,  when Kim and I met with the counselor and administrative staff,  they said this is a hugely good opportunity for them, as staff and campers to learn, to be stretched, by this presence of this group of strangers from all over the world, who are passionate, who represent conflicts and pain that is immense, and who have come here, to this Camp Valaqua, to get to know the 40 Alberta Campers, to live, eat, play, interact with them.   Gopar from the Nigerian Christian Community, and Sani, from the Muslim Community prepare and present the morning chapel with help from the rest of us in skits, organization, theme planning.  All about our need to work together, to be together.  Yesterday,  Gopar told the story of a man, among many, carrying his cross through life,  then having it cut shorter, to be lighter, apparently because he asked God for permission to do this.   Sadly,  near the end of the journey,  the man was not able to cross an abyss, because he had too little cross left, to lay across it, while those who had carried their fuller burdens, crossed easily.  Rosemary then asked why God would have allowed this man to cut short his burden,  knowing all the while that this would prevent him reaching his assigned goal. He was "set up",   she wondered, by God himself?    This was discussed by other comments, until Sani,  twice got up and offered his own explanation, based on their work as Muslims together with Christians in Nigeria.  Gopar and Sani have written, in fact, a small book called "My Brother's Keeper"   which talks about Muslims, hiding Christians as mobbing Muslim groups massacre the Christians.  It also talks about Christians, hiding Muslims,  as mobbing Christian groups massacre Muslims, a long conflict which began to erupt in 2001 and keeps repeating itself.

At the evening campfire, we interviewed two guests from Israel and two from Uganda, with questions placed so that they would be able to tell small portions of their stories, of the work they do, of the lives of their families.   This morning,  at the outside, hillside, in-the- forest Chapel,  Sani talked about the Muslims and Christians in Nigeria, and finished with a song, asking "Camp Valaqua, what do you want" ... and it's "Peace" in the end, that everyone wants.  Peace, at all levels of living.  But as he sang it again, with us, he named a young, troubled teenage,  14,  whom everyone knows already as a serious trouble making boy,  and asked him what he wanted.  And then he walked towards the boy,  and pulled him onto the stage, and had him sing the song together wtih him.  It was a lovely moment of redemption.  The boy is quite violent, having survived serious trauma in Liberia, but later in the day,  a Counsellor told us that that young teenage seemed to be having an improved and more positive and more participatory approach to things than he had had for some time at camp.    While the risk is somewhat real here, of having a Muslim person talking to a large group of Alberta Christian (or not) young people, in the sense that their parents might have some concerns,  this, among the campers, is being very, very well received.  And among the leaders here too.  They are seeing a person as a person, and hearing about how Christians and Muslims can actually solve problems....  working together.  

By the way, on Monday,  at 12:30,  Sani and Gopar will be on CBC Radio,  all over Alberta, for 30 Minutes, talking, being interviewed, and taking calls from the public.   Very cool. 

-Abe Janzen