May our hands be your hands and our purposes your own -a prayer

Monday at the beach, which for Barranquilla is Carribean coast.   Row or swim due north to arrive at the south tip of Cuba.  A coconut oil massage after a swim, dinner with friends,  a hammock represent tranquility and refreshment.  

Arrival back at campus brings another reality into focus:

·      Milton sent an email carrying the statement from a leader in the Baptist church of Colombia, announcing his departure from Colombia with his family. For more than a year he was aware that he was a military target; the State would not guarantee his safety despite many efforts with government agencies and the U.N.  When his children were detained for questioning the family decided it was time to leave. He worked with World Vision and the Evangelical Council of Colombia Commission for Restoration and Peace (CEDECOL)  He is a sociologist who works in conflict resolution, and with the displaced population.  

·      Semana, a Colombian type of Newsweek, brings a detailed report this week of the regrouping of paramilitary groups which disbanded 2+ years ago with much government support and acclaim of progress.  One guerilla group (ELN) thought to be nearly extinct, has resurged.

·      Medellín, a world-acclaimed city for its impressive transformation more than 10 years ago from domain of a drug cartel to an enjoyable place to live and visit, in 2009 is on track to have a murder rate double 2008 figures.  

Semana details three major “eyes” of militarized conflict, each of the three involving 2 or more Departments/Provinces of Colombia.

Accompaniment:  Mamie, the last of 3 of us to get a massage, thought this woman who'd been working hard taking care of us needed to sit down and receive some care herself.  The woman quickly agreed, shared drops from her bottle of oil and Mamie, an ordained minister, took action. Today the beach was very empty of people -making it delightful for our visit, but hard for an entrepeneur needing income.   

mysteries

too much cut & paste creates google havoc beyond my capacity to repair.  11-22 entry reports an amazing trip...so have patience to scroll past the odd, long blank spots.

Leaving that retreat site (11-22 entry) on a deeply rutted path, with even deeper slippery mud, one jeep of the caravan of five rolled onto its side.  Fortunately no one was seriously injured.  At a rest - recover stop once we'd all passed through the mud, the musicians among us  helped restore spirits.

Commitment

Leonardo, high school math teacher M-F, is designated youth leader of Presbyterian Church in Barranquilla. This young adult team prepared a list of questions they'll ask as they go door-to-door Saturday afternoon in a local neighborhood to learn about violence and young children.    

Young adults take lots of initiative in local congregations. They are determined to find ways to change the violent activity they see "at all levels in the society," he says.

Commencement

Like graduations everywhere, speeches were made, music played, finally diplomas were awarded, lots of cameras flashed.

 dad with daughters

Today marks the second commencement of the newly established Universidad Reformada owned by the Presbyterian Church of Colombia.  12 completed the theology degree, 1 received a psychology degree.  Music is the newest established major, and 5 more majors/programs are in some stage of readiness to become accredited programs in Colombia. 

The beautiful colonial style campus was formerly a girls’ high school.  

classroom door

door posting

good choice

Vigil at Peace Park

Tonight several hundred people gathered for a vigil at Parque de la Paz (Peace Park) in Barranquilla observing International Day To End Violence Against Women.  Groups from the President’s office’s, the Govenor’s, the mayor’s offices, NGOs such as World Vision, and Churches were among the organizers and supporters.  How remarkable so many abhor violence against women!

Domestic violence statistics in Colombia are disturbingly high –as everyplace where violence is the star policy tool that dominates at national and local levels. Not only war, but also poverty, and too few jobs are policies of violence.

Parque de la Paz symbolically represents the hard work of peace.  It’s possibly the largest slab of solid concrete I’ve ever seen –exception being highways and runways. A thin border of trees outline the park, but not a flower, plant, bench, children's slide, or water in the Peace Park. Barranquilla day temperatures range between 88 and 97 degrees farenheit!  The concrete slab is mostly vacant by day.  After sundown food vendors set up their grills and fruit stands in one corner where commuters pass. Precarious lanterns on several carts provide light. This evening scene reminds me of fragile and small acts that are part of constructing peace; of transforming the massive, hard and impervious into space for friendly interaction around common needs and interests.

The music and poems on the stage at tonight's Vigil brought laments, determination, and hope.  An angel with arms outstretched to wave large gauze wings walked the concrete slab on dangerously high stilts. 

hear our prayer for nations at war

“Here’s where the ___ River, fed by a hot spring, enters the ___ River.  Want to stop?”  We were enroute to Debeibe in Antioquia, with Executive Secretary of the Presbyterian Church of Colombia.  Six of us scrambled down the steep embankment to check out a favorite take-a-break-swim spot for DH, the only one traveling in swimming gear. 

Four soldiers were under the bridge bathing.  Their heavy gear, guns, boots, and uniforms strewn on the rocks.  Exchanging greetings with the soldiers and comments on the refreshing water during a hot afternoon, DH jumped in to swim.  We fellow travelers began wading.  Three soldiers quickly strapped on their gear, climbed the embankment and took positions on the bridge and observed our river visit.  The fourth soldier dressed, put on his gear and remained on the rocks. A brief swim, a longer time to show our respective talents for launching pebbles to skip over the water’s surface, and our trip to Debeibe continued.  The soldiers were not in sight.

We were traveling in an area where all of the armed groups of Colombia are engaged in frightful activities.  Today the Comision Intereclesial de Justicia y Paz issued a lengthy account of military and paramilitary actions and victims in their “social cleansing” in and around Debeibe. 

I’m seeing powerful lessons in ways to “love your enemies.”  I see the deep respect and kindness toward everyone, including soldiers and paramilitaries, creating space for a new society.

See, I send you out as sheep among wolves. Be then as wise as snakes, and as gentle as doves. Matthew 10:16

Joyous praise instead of a faint spirit

Urubá:

·      Rainiest area in South America,

·      Where Panama and Colombia connect on map though no road has ever been built.

·      Region of displacements by paramilitary groups

·      Site of Urubá Presbytery retreat Nov. 13-16, hosted by local churches deeply impacted by all of above.

serving tables and kitchen area for 145 adults and 30 children

part of rhythm section

• 
• lots of borojo to drink
• 
• grating coconut to cook with rice
• 
  
• 
• women pastors meet
• 
  

By jeep caravan, motorcycles, and boots people from Urubá (a peninsula part of wealthy Antioquia Department of Colombia arrived at a remote piece of land called Los Angles California. (Land long held by the Presbyterian Church).  

We passed Maconda!  Note sign.

In the last 5 months men from this California and surrounding area contributed the materials and constructed a lodge, kitchen, a well, brought in a generator, the whole works for this exciting, unprecedented gathering of believers in an area fraught with displacements, now “calm” under the tight control of paramilitary forces. Paramilitaries were present at many of the activities. 

Many of the attendees from towns of Urubá were experiencing their first visit to this rural, isolated area,. --Yet not isolated in terms of economic exploitation.  The valuable trees were cut 60 years ago by a transnational company. Locals say that newly formed corporations formed by paramilitary groups own the land which has rapidly converted to cattle growing.  The cattle operation is the primary source of employment in Los Angles California and surrounding area for the families that remain. 
How extravagantly they welcomed and hosted us!

Those who were sad will be called

Oaks of Justice, planted by God

to rebuild what has been destroyed

to rebuild what has been in ruins

for many generations. Isaiah 61:3

Camelot Upside Down

Not the knights of King Arthur at a round table.  However the displaced people in today’s Camelot, located 30 minutes outside the major Colombian city of Barranquilla, do sit together and imagine a different world.  They strategize. Then they take action. 

Their children lack access to public education.  So families of 50 elementary age children are paying a Colombian bank rent for one tiny house which they use for their education efforts. 

There are no textbooks for the 50 children who crowd into the space from 7 a.m. to noon each day. The tiny space becomes a kindergarten in the afternoon; on the weekend it’s an adult education classroom. The adults are continuously in contact with the Education Ministry to make Renacer a public school with textbooks and teachers. 

There’s no fancy castle in today’s Camelot. People live in very close quarters, tiny one-room dwellings in some stage of construction on sun-baked, eroded soil. 

“You can meet people from all parts of Colombia with a visit to Camelot” according to Luisa, a community leader, who with her husband and children fled home and land in the mountains of a distant Province.  People who did not know each other until their common fate brought them together share common dreams:

Adequate food

Education

Employment

A health clinic

Community kitchen

Space for children to play.

Community leaders are planning a workshop to help neighbors understand a law passed by the Colombian Congress in April 2008 granting land and reparations to displaced people.

Raising pet iguana

visions of .... far North?

Militarized Planet, local reality

Thinking the violence in Colombia is an internal matter? Here’s an excellent, accurate, quick read article about a hugely significant part of the current political violence in Colombia. 

Note how the symbolic “drug war” in which US regularly extradites guys to the US for trial on drug charges works directly against the cry of Colombians to hold these same individuals responsible for the torture, disappearances, assassinations, massacres, rape, and forced displacements from land which paramilitary groups continue to carry out. 

A corps of dedicated people in every part of Colombia assiduously and methodically documents human rights violations associated with political violence.  I'm writing today while seated next to such a person, a lawyer who oversees documentation efforts in the Atlantic Region. 

Every 6 months a record of each documented violation, organized by Province, municipality, by date, type of violation, and armed group responsible, is published.  This cumulative data bank is a memorial to victims, and some day will be part of national reconciliation and reparations for victims.  The documentation is done within the framework of international law and is financed by the European Union. 

The number of documented cases for January through June 2009 total is 917. 

my apartment at La Universidad Reformada

Today I'm grateful for
• Brilliant blue skies, sun, and fragrant air after a day of copious rains;
• An apartment on the beautiful campus of La Universidad Reformada. The ambiance speaks tranquility and industriousness;
• The generous acts, love, humor, values, and sociopolitical analysis of the men and women leaders of the IPC (Colombian Presbyterian Church);
• The privilege to collaborate with J. who documents human rights violations
• J.A., twice displaced from land, unemployed, who serves as President of the Atlantic Region of the Association of Displace People in Colombia;
• Participants from around Barranquilla who are part of a global advocacy network for just wages and decent work in a globalized economy. The IPC is a member of the network which held a local forum Thursday;
• La comida costeña.

In the face of all our realities:
we are the people who heal each other,
who grow strong together,
who name the truth,
who know what it means
to live in community,
moving towards a common dream
for a new heaven and a new earth
in the power of the love of God.
(#200, Sing the Story)