Hey Everyone!

I wanted to give an update on the day that I just experienced being present in San Francisco for the official torch relay. It started with a ride on the public transportation system down to the water front. I hung out all morning talking to people that were showing up for the event, but mostly the Sudanese that were arriving from all over the nation. The streets were more full than I have seen with people from every race and religion, and it really brought the feeling of culture, and humanity into perspective. There was something so powerful about the day from the start of the morning. I pulled out my camera just in time to watch a Darfuri child Eric 9 years old, who now lives in Seattle shake hands with a boy from San Francisco. I sat and listened to them tell each other about how much they like sports, to ride bikes, and described to each other the differences between Darfur and Seattle. Our children are the future of this world, and watching two boys unite so naturally was more powerful than I can explain in words. The whole afternoon was full of unity after that.

We were going to have an opening ceremony for Darfur but as time creeped closer and the crowds set in the speeches we scheduled were canceled. Around 1,000 locals, and Darfuri supporters walked behind 30 Sudanese that were carrying a banner readying “Sudanese Standing Together.”

The thing I struggled with the whole time while planning for this event was that Free Tibet invited us to come out and team up with them. They wanted Darfur to be at the pre rally on last Saturday, we were invited to the candle light vigil last night, and to team up for the relay but always turned it down. There was a drive and motivation to try and out do them, to compete for press and in the end I think that it hindered just how much we could have achieved. For without unity we can not achieve a common goal. Deaths in Tibet are as tragic as deaths in Darfur, and neither group deserve to live in fear.

I never saw the torch. In fact not many people that were on the water front saw the torch. They canceled the opening, and closing ceremonies, and never allowed the runners to make it down the major part of the route. The press is now referring to this relay as a hide and go seek game, and certainly not common as the games near! By mid afternoon we had twice the number of people wearing green and chanting down the streets with us. When we found out that the officials were not going to bring the torch in, the plaza lifted in uproar. I was approached one by one from the Tibet groups to meet on the park where they had mic’s set up to celebrate. Thousands gathered together from Burma, Tibet and Darfur in pride. There was speech after speech given about how we are working together to achieve peace through unity throughout the world. Mohamed and a Tibet man shared the Mic and together we all rose and chanted “Free Tibet, Save Darfur.” The park was alive. The Sudanese wanted a chance to speak out and they did so with the people of Tibet beside them!! We were living the Olympic Motto “One world, One Dream.” The night ended with everyone in town at a private dinner where we all had the chance to get to know each other, talk about the days events, and what the next step of action should be. This week the Olympic committee meets to discuss the continuation of the torches travel in general since so far it surely has not been a success…

I didn’t see one arrest. All in all people were more respectful then I would have ever guessed and the experience was one in a lifetime! There is such a huge sense of hope coming from here in San Francisco and I hope that we all go home and carry that with us!

Ben Cohen, of Ben & Jerry’s, is providing three cars to travel from Vermont to San Francisco in preparation for the April 9th Olympic Torch Relay. The cars have billboards attached that encourage China to engage constructively in Sudan. Upon arrival in San Francisco, the cars will tour the San Francisco Bay Area to build momentum for the Torch’s arrival on April 9th.

Caravan Schedule:

Wednesday, March 26 Burlington, VT - Washington, DC

Wednesday, March 26, 2008, 10:30am Burlington, VT
City Hall Press Conference with Ben & Jerry’s Co-founders and Mayor Kiss
Click here for media advisory and additional information.

Detour to San Fransisco

Thursday, April 3
Caravan crosses the Golden Gate Bridge and arrives in San Fransisco!
Friday, April 4
TGIF…the Caravan joins Financial District and Union Square rush hour.
Saturday, April 5
Farmers’ Markets: Alameny and San Francisco’s Fery Building
Sunday, April 6
Marin County Farmers’ Market
Monday, April 7
Ben & Jerry’s Haight Street
San Francisco State University
Giants Game
Tuesday, April 8
UC Berkeley, 12-4pm
FREE Ice Cream and meet Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, Co-Founders of Ben & Jerry’s

How you, your friends, family and community can get involved!

1. Sign a letter to President Hu urging China to do all it can to protect the people of Darfur. http://www.savedarfur.org/page/content/china
2. Show up and support the caravan when it arrives in one of the destination cities. Stay tune for updates.
3. Help us keep the media informed!
4. Donate towards the cost of the trip.

Caravaners:

	Liz Brown 22 years old from San Francisco, Graduated from Point Loma Nazarene University I am a driver on this trip Very excited about bringing awareness and traveling the country on this adventure!
	Jeffery Litsey Jeffrey Litsey - joins us in Omaha I am Jeff Litsey, 24 from Indianapolis, IN. I’ve lived there all my life, and I am trying to figure out what my next step will be. I believe that I have been blessed with the responsibility to share anything I can with whoever I can, and this responsibility will guide me to whatever is next. Besides being invited on the trip I feel that we all can be instruments of peace and reconciliation in this world, and that’s exactly what I want to be. I hope that this trip will make people aware of China’s and our own personal influences on the state of things in Darfur and in the rest of world. And then by being made aware we will be able to act boldly and peacefully to see that China, and all nations and peoples of power, will use their influence to bring about peace and reconciliation rather than division and genocide.
	Deng Jongkuc “My name is Deng A. Jongkuc and I came to the United States from Southern Sudan as a refugee. I am a student at San Jose State University majoring in Health Science with a concentration in Health Services Administration. I am graduating in the spring of 2008 and I have been accepted at Touro University graduate school for Public Health. I am proud to be the first person in my extended family to graduate from college. I left Sudan in 1987 when I was five or six year old and walked to Ethiopia for refuge in 1987 and then to a Kenya refugee camp in 1992. This was due to the civil war which claimed more than two million lives, including many from my family and my village. I am part of the group known as The Lost Boys of Sudan. I returned to Sudan in 2005 for the first time in 18 years. The war had destroyed the health care system and people are dying from preventable diseases such cholera, amoebic dysentery, and malaria. Health centers were abandoned during the war and are completely out of use. Children go to schools under trees and have no school supplies. This tragic situation inspires me to be of change in Sudan, therefore I have initiated small projects to help villages in Sudan. Last year I delivered a grinding machine to my village so that young girls who spend most of their time grinding grain for their families have time to go to school. I am also raising funds and collecting medical supplies to be ship to the village clinics in Sudan. My fellow students and professors at San Jose State University have helped me raise funds for these projects. I also do presentations at schools, churches, rotary club, and other social gatherings. My long term goal is to help underserved population in the villages in Southern Sudan to have access to basic primary health care services, promote disease prevention through education, community advocacy, good nutrition, health screening, child immunization, good sanitation, and clean drinking water. These are my promises to my village and the rest of Southern Sudan. My short term goal is to gain experience in the field of community health and disease prevention so that I will be more productive once I return to Sudan.”
	Brandon Tatum Brandon Tatum - joins us in DC “My name is Brandon Tatum and I’m from San Clemente California. I heard about the trip from Liz just after I read What is the What by David Eggers and, consequently, was extremely interested in your efforts to raise awareness regarding Sudan, particularly Darfur and its interactions with China.”
	Mamer Kuer Ajak “My name is Mamer Kuer Ajak. I am a Sudanese Lost Boy and I work for Humanity United as a program Assistant. I served as an intern on Capitol Hill in the office of US Senator, Sam Brownback and helped with the passing of Darfur genocide legislation. I am also the secretary of Coalition of Willing, an organization started in 2005 by Lost Boys of Sudan to help build schools in Southern Sudan. I’m participating in the caravan to highlight the prolonged human suffering in Sudan with the hope that our voices of conscience will rise to the challenge now.”
	Ashis Brahma “Hello I am Ashis Brahma Indian Dutch physician working in Asia and Africa since 1999. Working in environments where injustice rules extreme is where I flourish. It is there (in refugee camps) where you see the resilience, humor and dignity of humanity. The people in Sudan have been going through violence, exploitation and genocide for the last 19 years at least. The last group to suffer are the Darfurians. China is helping the Sudanese regime by exchanging oil for weapons and by blocking resolutions in the Security Council of the United Nations. This relationship needs to be highlighted.”
	Tiffany Wheeler I am Tiffany Wheeler from the Stop Genocide Now team and STAND chapter. I was born and raised in Idaho where I am finishing my last year at the university and a few hours away from being a private pilot. I am on this trip because we are months away from the Olympic games and there has been a funded genocide taking place for 5 years that our country may not be aware of, or taking a stand against….

The Caravan for Darfur would like to thank the following people and organizations for making this trip possible!

Ben & Jerry’s Foundation
ENOUGH
Genocide Intervention Network
Humanity United
San Francisco Bay Area Darfur Coalition
Save Darfur Coalition
STAND: A Student Anti-Genocide Coalition
Stop Genocide Now
Brandon Cloud
Ben Cohen
Jerry Greenfield
Mayor Bob Kiss, Burlington, VT
Lisa Litsey
Maaco Bodyshop, S. Burlington, VT
Amanda McKay
Metalworks, Burlington, VT
Yipes!, Williston, VT

For more information, contact Esther Sprague, San Francisco Bay Area Darfur Coalition, esprague11@yahoo.com or 415-713-2495

If the caravan would have followed the original path I realize I would have seen 6 rally’s in different states, talked to hundreds of people, handed out pounds of free ice cream 4 times from Ben and Jerry but this morning I woke up in San Francisco for another day of work. I never could have imagined I would be in the presence of such an opportunity a year ago though. I sat with a Sudanese man for dinner; I have spent every night calling locals from the area to get them to come out on April 9th for the official torch lighting, and witnessed people from all over the city come closer together agreeing in the idea that this genocide in Darfur can no longer continue. I have realized the past week the importance of working together locally, nationally, American, white, young, or old. In this movement we are leaders to those that aren’t educated on the crisis. In this movement we truly hold the chance to change the situation on the ground, and save the lives that sit in fear, longing for protection…

Finally Day 1: We unloaded two trucks that just traveled from the east coast to the west. I spent all afternoon capturing them in different areas of the city. We crossed the Golden Gate Bridge. We drove down Lombard Street and all afternoon I watched heads turn to read our message. We spent hours speaking out for the people that are trapped in refugee camps; who long for the world to know, to care, and then to act. About mid day I turned around in a parking lot to a luxury car with the back seat window rolled down. A little girl dressed in all uniform about 7 years old said in a curious tone, “What are you protesting?” We sat and explained to her what was taking place in Darfur, how China could help end the genocide and about the suffering that kids her age were going through. As I sat and looked in her smiling face I couldn’t help but see the kids in my mind from camps. Her smile took me back those children that got to play soccer with Gabriel and Katie-Jay; laughing, calling out plays, running around in a zone forgetting for a second their memories, or their fears. The next 6 days will be full of reaching out to the community here in San Francisco, talking on college campuses, catching locals at the Farmers Market to ensure that we can get as many people possible to come out and be a voice for those that don’t have the chance to ask for protection themselves. Although there is an amazing event about to take place that I will invite everyone I meet to participate in, the thing I am looking forward to most is sharing the stories of our friends that we have met in the camps, to show their faces, and allow their requests to be heard!

It is hard to know what kind of expectations to have when trying to prepare for a week of driving across the nation with 3 cars and 5 drivers. Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream donated 2 element cars and one van with 5-foot billboards on them to draw attention to America about the current crisis going on in Darfur, and the lack of position that China has taken to stop genocide! There were the two lost boys, Ashis, and Liz present for the first part of the ride! The morning started with a Press Conference with Ben, Jerry, the Vermont Mayor, every large newspaper, and local civilians that were excited to see the cars pull out and head westward. Interviews from the Lost Boys to the press, Ashis sharing stories of our friends in the camps, free ice cream, and a great lunch put us behind schedule. We were intended to be in DC late the night of the 26th.

We stopped along the way to fuel the cars, talk to locals, laugh with each other at how many U-Turns we had already done in 300 miles of driving, and make sure we were on track with our maps! I knew that spending so much time with Mamer, Deng, and Ashis left me in deep thought often of all the things they had been through in their lives and how honored I was to get to know them personally. There was something about our group’s energy that made each mile of the drive more exhilarating. I knew that 3,672 miles was a long road trip, but all I could think about was how I wanted to know everything that these three had experienced; their stories; and then have their friendship. We were all smiles around 9:00pm with only 2 hours left to DC. We were already talking about the next morning, what we wanted to accomplish at the Embassy’s, what we wanted to target in the interviews that we had in place, and then what Chicago was going to be like.

As you never can expect we were switching drivers and looking for the interstate when the devastation set in. One of the drivers was going to make a left-handed turn in an intersection and met an Ambulance that was not going the speed limit head on. The impact sent the Honda Element 20 yards and tore off the whole front end, totally the car. After looking back and seeing the damage I am blessed that he was able to walk away without a scratch. I think that everything happens for a reason, but I hope some day since we were not able to continue the drive from coast to coast due to the set back of time this caused, that I still get to share in on the stories of travelers; the friendships and laughs that were already obtained just after hours of our introduction can continue to prosper. Each person on that tour had a story to tell, that America could benefit from hearing!

The cars are being shipped out to the Bay area where they will travel from campus to campus, city to city to pre rally for the event going on April 9th in San Francisco. Ben and Jerry will be present to speak out for Darfur!

Unfortunately, an accident with one of the vehicles has forced the Cross Country Caravan for Darfur to be canceled. The remaining two vehicles will be shipped back to San Francisco. We are still waiting for details and will continue to post updates.