G’s Journal for Day 3
Guereda

I’m having a hard time getting started on writing tonight. Many times, if not usually, I let it flow when I’m very tired to exhausted. Right now I’m there, but it’s not flowing. I read the comments from all of you, responding to KTJ’s and my journal entries. They really moved me. The support I feel from you is only matched by the warm appreciation I receive from our friends in the camps.

Check out Adam in today’s videos. He is bright; he is passionate; he is resilient; he is stuck in a refugee camp with all of his family; and, he is still aware that he is one of the lucky ones, compared to the people suffering inside of Darfur. When he heard about all of you caring about him, he wept; damn, again the time and fatigue get me sentimental and making me join Adam in his reaction to feeling community around him, even if far away. I don’t like reading these entries in the morning or any time after I write them, because I sound so… well, soft is the only word that comes right now (and my internal mental-thesaurus has gone to sleep).

Believe me, I get down and have doubts, but they won’t stop me tomorrow morning. After spending time with Adam, Fatina, Yakoub, and all the little ones in Kounoungou the last three days, how could I let myself get in the way of myself?

A note, I met Adam through Gretchen Wallace, Brian Steidle’s sister; or should I say Brian is Gretchen’s brother, which out here is more appropriate, cause she’s the star in Adam’s eyes. Gretchen told me about Adam, who came out on the documentary she helped produce, “The Devil Came on Horseback,” so I just had to look for him. Gretchen is determined to assist Adam with his dream for a place to grow in the camp. I feel indebted to her for introducing me to someone that has definitely had an immediate impact on me.

Well, I still have to finish editing today’s videos, since I’m shooting up two. Then they get compressed, and then they somehow get slingshot to a satellite and back down, where Yuen-Lin and Carolyn get to catch it and make it available for you to watch today.

It’s just about 2am right now, and there has been no excitement tonight. No gunshots. I can only hear a generator going strong. I really wish I had a sugar-free red bull for tomorrow’s visit to Camp Mile. It’s the very first camp I ever visited, back in 2005. Wow, 2005. We’re in 2008. What excuse is there for allowing the thousands and thousands of innocent civilians, jut like the ones you see in these videos, to have died because of who they are.

Hey, do the actions. Have more people sign the petition, and let’s all get together and go to DC to deliver it in person.

Paz,
g

ps. I will do all to get to answer the comments this morning before leaving for the camps; if I don’t, I will for sure get to them ASAP. They were just amazing! Thank you for the wings, in absence from red bull, to all of you: Rachel, Gayle, Lisa, Tiffany, Amy, Marv, Connie, Ashley, Cory, Stace, and Alex.

We are leaving later than usual today but with the hopes that we will stay later in to the afternoon, as we are the convoy, that is to say the only car following our armed escort. We make the usual stop at the security office, tell them that we would like to stay until 2pm, and we are off! Our agenda includes many stops – but the first is Adam! Many of you might know him from “When the Devil Came on Horseback” and you will meet him again in today’s short video. We ask one gentleman at the school about Adam’s whereabouts – he points up a row and says “row here, end,” his arm reaches out moving up and down, “tree” his arm motions left. Okay, lets go. We pass a few donkeys, one explaining rather loud that he wants us out of his personal space, or maybe he wants us to untie him…hmmm…trying to not be too loud as most of our video already has me laughing in the background (good or bad?). We approach the end and another man appears “Adam?” we ask. He points and says something that we clearly don’t understand – he takes us passed a tree and to the left.

And there he is, Adam, a community leader, a teacher, an inspiration and a motivation to stand taller and stronger with the people of Darfur. We sit with him many hours, talking about the state of schools, his family, the library that he is building for the community and hopelessness that lies in the hearts of many who have been living here for three, four, five years. We begin to tell him of messages from you. We show him Macy Gray’s message of love and encouragement. We show him footage from i-ACT2 with Stacey and several From America with Love videos. We listen to the song that Greg Lawson from Redding, CA wrote and which has been shown all over the US. Tears slowly begin to flow down his checks. I hold my tears back – another time, another place, right? I have that feeling in my stomach, like when you go down an elevator 32 floors and land in the garage, Level 2, with a slight bounce up – your stomach a floor below.

“No hope except the international community. Without your help we don’t see any hope at all. We are desperate in need…Our people are dying everyday.” I am moved by Adam’s honesty. His willingness to share his life, his dreams and the progress he has made to make them real. But I also feel ashamed. Most people who know me well have told me on a number of occasions that I need to take a break. To go out, enjoy myself, stop looking at my blackberry, go to the coast, do something for myself. And I admit, I do these things. And I know that I do a lot for the people of Darfur. But we need to be doing more. As Adam said, the international community is their only hope. We need to be doing more. Please, today, tomorrow, and in your daily life take action, hold Adam, Yakoub, Fatina and the families in your hearts and minds. They are Us.

Together We Can Change the World,
KTJ

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In response to a few of Connie’s questions from yesterday regarding the general state of the camp:

It seems like there is enough food both for those who have money to buy small amounts from the market and those who get food from Secadev and World Food Program (WFP). Mostly we saw sorghum in the camp both raw and cooked. Adam mentioned that about 100 of the 14,000 have jobs of some sort. In the market for refugees (separated from that for the villagers living nearby) there was few fresh vegetables and limited beans. Yakoub said that mostly it is the barter system rather than monetary exchange. Both community leaders described the limited water available for the refugees and one aid worker described a water pipe being dug up during the night and stolen, which makes one or more of the water stations out of order until a new, very expensive pipe arrives. Overall, as you have seen, the refugees are building. After five years and very little change, they have decided to make their stay more comfortable, more permanent.

I find myself awake again a 3:00 in the morning having lied in bed for sometimegazing out the window watching for the first signs of dawn to creep into the night sky. Like a old friend, I hear the rooster I have heard each morning calling in the distance.

However, it is not the roosters call that keeps me awake, but rather this thought that keeps scratching at my mind. In the face of such complexity, tyranny, and horror……. what would Ghandi do?

Knowing I should rest because today we leave for the camps and this is my last night of good rest in the comforts of the hotel. However, I cannot resist the lure of a answer, so I succumb to the temptation. Grabbing my Apple I rub the Information Genie (Google) with the question of “principles of Ghandi”. The genie answers with its 1,290,000 possibilities and I click Wikipedia as my first choice.

There through the digital connection my comfort is revealed………

“When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love has always won. There have been tyrants and murderers and for a time they seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall — think of it, always.”

You have to love the guy! I remember if he can bring the British Empire to its knees in both South Africa and India through using the principles of Truth, Non violence, and being the change, why should Africa be any different?

This is some of what is what he accomplished using the these simple but powerful principles:

Gandhi led nationwide campaigns for the alleviation of poverty, for the liberation of women, for brotherhood amongst differing religions and ethnicities, for an end to untouchability and caste discrimination, and for the economic self-sufficiency of the nation. Well that would work pretty well here.

Lets review how he did it. First by confronting his own hypocrisy. Oh boy! Integrity calls are my least favorite. Why, because it’s the mirror that often shows the problem. What have I done, to raise awareness on this issue? What more could I do? Sure I’m in Africa, but in classic Joshua Tree style complexity and the grandiose usually gets all the attention. Which usually means I have missed some simple but powerful steps or opportunities. So lets review what is already available for me to accomplish. I notice the link on the Stop Genocide now website, it is an amazing petition to the current administration to intervene with immediate support. Which I haven’t signed yet. If there is on one thing I have learned, while hear, nothing much can change until the violence stops and some level of security and stability can be brought to the area.

Signing the petition takes a whooping 15 seconds, and my voice has already been raised. I also notice there are 150 signatures on the petition and if I were resourceful I could double that number with who I know. And I could enroll them in getting just one more person to come to the SGN website and raise their voice and then do then same for someone else, how long before that whisper becomes a roaring thunder?

• If each of those people get just one person to sign the petition we are at 300
• If each of them gets 1 person: 600
• If each of them gets 1 person: 1200
• If each of them gets 1 person: 2400
• If each of them gets 1 person: 4800
• If each of them gets 1 person: 9400
• If each of them gets 1 person: 16,800
• If each of them gets 1 person: 33,600
• If each of them gets 1 person: 67,200
• If each of them gets 1 person: 134,400
• If each of them gets 1 person: 268,800
• If each of them gets 1 person: 537,600
• If each of them gets 1 person: 1,075,200
• If each of them gets 1 person: 2,150,400
• If each of them gets 1 person: 4,300,800
• If each of them gets 1 person: 8,601,600
• If each of them gets 1 person: 17,203,200

From 1 to over 17 million in 17 generations of one person spending 30 seconds to click, sign, forward.

So the question is can I get 150 people to sign the petition and commit to getting one more person to do the same.

Below ist he email I am sending to all my friends and family. I would ask each of you who read this blog to sign the petition if you haven’t already, and get one more person to do the same.

Not sure how this will work. Regardless. I feel renewed with a new energy and perspective on how I can take simple steps to be the change I wish to see in the world.

Peace,
Your Fellow Global Citizen

30 seconds to change the world!

Dear friend and fellow Global Citizen,

I am writing you from eastern Chad with an opportunity for you to change the world. Our fellow Global Citizens here in Africa are in as bad as a situation as you can imagine. With war, famine, poverty, tyrannical government to name a few. As bad as it sounds, there is hope because situations like this have been solved before with the collective action and focus from people just like you.

So heres the deal, you can send money, you can travel here for support, but today I am suggesting neither. Today I letting you know that for 30 seconds of your time, and more importantly your voice, you can have a huge impact for the people of this region.

So what do you do? Below is a link to a petition that asks for our government to come to assistance of this region with peacekeeping forces to stop the violence and bring some stability to the area. This small effort will help immensely and allow for other solutions to begin to work. But more importantly it provides leadership from the US to the rest of the world that this will not happen on our watch.

1. Click on the link below to sign your name and raise your voice. This process will take you 15 seconds to click and sign your name, but your not done yet.
   http://stopgenocidenow.org/petition
2. I ask that you get just one more person to sign the petition and commit to getting one more. Whether you forward this email, step into the next office, or make a phone call, just let someone else what you have done and that they can do the same. If you ask some you know it shouldn’t take more than a few seconds.

Then your done, and today you have changed the world. And done so through the wisdom of Gandhi, by being the change the change you wish to see in the world. Thank you for time, attention, and your voice.

More Thoughts on what would Gandhi do to come……

In Gratitude,
Your Fellow Global Citizen

Here are a few snippets of my thoughts (KTJ) that didn’t make it in to the above journal entry since they are more about me, but some of you might find it… hmmm… well just read it if you want to…

I’m out of chocolate. There are not too many things about myself that I can claim as “typical woman,” but my need for chocolate happens to be one of those. I need my chocolate, and I am not talking about milk chocolate or snickers. I need good, dark, fair trade chocolate. At home, we have a special part of the fridge designated for dark chocolate mixed with various flavors such as mint, lavender, green tea, ginger or espresso nibs (okay I admit I am a chocolate snob). When traveling for Camp Darfur, or any trip for that matter including backpacking, I come with a stash. For this trip, I only brought a small ration thinking that it would be so hot that it would melt, seep through the seams of my bag and make some sort of mess in my clothes or god forbid the tech equipment! Well, it’s not hot, and the last of the ginger chocolate are gone! Alas, I am just now remembering that with the fancy mountain bag/stove we left in Abeche, we can make chocolate cheesecake and brownies (thank you snobby backpackers) when we get to Goz Beda!

Portland’s growing season was rather short this past year, but two things I did grow a lot of were tomatoes and arugula. If you don’t recognize the word, arugula is a crisp salad green that can be tangy and refreshing and it’s good in just about anything – salad, omelets, sandwiches, stir fry and, my personal favorite, arugula hazelnut pesto. One of the great things about Portland is that people that grow their own food, grow the good stuff – not just roma tomatoes and basil but BIG, purple and gold heirlooms or pear tomatoes. We don’t just grow basil but Thai basil and lemon basil and mammoth basil. So today, when I finally made it into a market, the first thing I naturally spotted was the HEIRLOOMS and ARUGULA!!!! Gabriel held me hostage in N’Djamena claiming that the market there had too many “red” flags – I thought to myself, back in America we have been on “orange” alert since Bush got into office and that never stopped me… or in any other country for that matter – specifically remembering a trip that an old friend Amanda and I took to the capital of Morocco super late on train with only an hour to kill – two women wondering around a city that most people avoid when traveling!

For all the gardeners, farmers, roof top herb growers, and in general food lovers the market in a small village on the outskirts of a refugee camp in Eastern Chad had: watermelon, guava, heirloom tomatoes, arugula, shallots, red onions, green onions, garlic, mint, thyme, yellow split peas, black eyed peas, white beans, and big grains of great looking salt! So today, for lunch I ate an heirloom tomato and it was juicy and good! I may get travelers diarrhea from the water it was washed with (knock on wood - in a place that is running low on firewood and trees - this hasn’t happened to me before, in all my travels) but it was worth it.

It seems there are a few things that most places have in common in the developing world. Here are a few questions that I have been thinking about – some more serious than others… Why is coke easier to find in some corners of the world than drinking water?How is it that some people are wearing wool hats when I just want to wear a tank top? Western toilets aside, would you rather use a squat toilet (at ground level) that is ergonomically correct or squat hovering over a western toilet with no seat?Would you rather stand under a steady stream of cold water or use a small bucket to splash water onto yourself? Does it make sense to have a no weapons sign on your car when you are following an armed vehicle? How many kinds of cows are there in this world? And why is it that it is more likely that I will eat a free-range chicken here than in the States? Have you ever eaten tuna out of a bag? If you ever do remember to bring salt, pepper and red chile flakes because it sucks and these condiments make little difference in weight, but would make a huge different in taste.

More i-ACT pictures on flickr.