Saturday, September 21, 2013

Urgent Action

It's been a hectic couple of weeks and blogging, once again, got away from me. We've been fairly preoccupied with a crisis involving one of our partner organizations on the Caribbean Coast (these photos are all from my visit there last November). In  nutshell, a community leader and organizer who has worked for decades to promote non-violent social change is under threat, and another has been imprisoned.


I remember as a young(er) person, staying with my Grandma Beth in NY, and seeing her at her desk late at night writing letters for Amnesty International. As a budding social activist type I remember feeling so impressed and so proud of her. Now I feel grateful - to her and to the many people who take time for this kind of action. It might not seem like it makes much of a difference, but it can - the difference between life and death.


I won't try to explain the whole story here - in fact, there are aspects of the story that cannot at this time be made public because to do so would put people's lives in further danger. I've been spending most of my work time in the past 10 days working with an amazing network of people (who understand much more than I do about the situation and about international advocacy processes) to discern what exactly can and should be said, and to whom, and via what means, under a strong sense of urgency to have it all done three days ago.


So here are some good things to read:



It's been incredibly humbling and moving to see the responses beginning to flood in. Like over 1500 signatures collected online already. Ricardo is a dearly beloved and greatly respected in peacebuilding circles around the world. And in Colombia.

Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Photos

Wow, I have been awol. Despite my best intentions I never seem to find the time to blog. So here are some photos of the kids and other random stuff from the past month 

We got that reindeer headband in a White Elephant gift exchange last Christmas and she wore it to school 3 days in a row last week.

Here she is on her way to her first sleepover away from home without us! It was a school trip to the Farm.

This is G playing outside the school while we wait for V to come back from her overnight.

And this is right after we picked her up! She had so much fun.

G is such a goofball!

Giant ginger root I found at the local grocery store... This is one single root!!!

I walk past this mural on the way to work every day, I think it is so cool. I have a lot of other photos of it on Facebook.

Building a "house" out of eucalyptus branches and playground equipment. Look how long V's hair is!