A Traveller of Unknown Destinations...

Hi everyone,

Some time ago, I was at a Chinese restaurant with friends and broke open a
fortune cookie. I like fortune cookies (far better than horoscopes or any
other future reading practices); many of you are familiar with all my
favorite fortune cookie-reading games.

This one read, "You will step on the soil of many countries."
Huh. How appropriate!
I've kept it in my checkbook ever since.

Since my second year at Wartburg, I've been joking that my goal is to visit
a new country every year. So far, so good: my passport is full, and I've
trotted most of the globe: Palestine, Israel, Honduras, Greece, Germany,
Jordan, Sweden, Iraq, and now Canada. (Not counting return trips, stops in
airports, and a few hours over the border. Then I have to add four more
countries...)

So, it sounds like the path ahead is changing again, only it will be a while
longer before I can see where it leads. Most likely, it is leading to
Colombia before the end of the year. Before then, I may be in Toronto,
Asubpeeschoseewagong (Grassy Narrows), a combination of both; or Chicago. I
said I'd be willing to go in with the next delegation, spend a few months,
then I really want to get back to the Middle East.

Going to Colombia is not where I expected I'd be anytime soon. My Spanish
isn't great, and I know little about the situation. Meanwhile, my Arabic is
among the best of both teams and I've studied both situations inside and
out. But, there is a real need for people to staff the project there. It's
been extremely difficult for our regular full-time Colombia workers to get
visas--much harder than with Israeli security. I'll get Spanish study on
site. And the delegation is the best introduction to life and war in
Colombia. Colombia is a strange place, where over ten times as many people
are being killed around you than in Palestine, but you encounter the armed
groups far less often. In Palestine, you can't walk more than five minutes
without encountering an Israeli soldier. I imagine it will feel like living
in a shadow world.

It's a little strange knowing I have only ten months left of full-time CPT
work, and counting. I do want to get around to all the different project
sites, but my first love is Palestine, followed closely by Iraq. Then comes
seminary, and half-time work in Chicago. I have no idea what I'll be doing
with that yet, but many ideas. Fortunately, I'll still be able to get out
on project during summers or other school breaks. Hopefully by then, I'll
have enough other CPTers in Iowa, Wisconsin and Minnesota that I can
gracefully retire from speaking and rest on my laurels, ha ha...(aren't
laurels kind of sharp leafy wreaths, though?)

I am looking forward to organizing Colombia and Grassy Narrows solidarity
evenings when I come back to the States next, though I'll continue to speak
on Palestine and Iraq. (If I haven't learned time management by now, I
never will..) Especially since these places are quickly overshadowed by our
present occupation of Iraq. While I was in DC and Atlanta, I found out more
about the advocacy resources on Colombia offered by the Lutheran Office for
Governmental Affairs (LOGA) and Lutheran World Relief. Both have good
websites with information and action opportunities: http://www.loga.org and
http://www.lwr.org. They also have some resources on Palestine and Iraq.
I'm going to start publicizing these sites when I speak in the future. I
might even do more than just publicize--there might have to be 'action
components' to all future speaking engagements of mine...let me think about
that one....

In DC I just saw an amazing documentary on the Ft. Benning School of the
Americas (SOA)/Western Hemisphere Institute for Security
Cooperation(WHISC)--called "Hidden in Plain Sight." It will be available
for general distribution in January. Although, if you are interested in
hosting a public screening and discussion of this film now, you can do so by
going to http://www.soaw.org, the website for SOA Watch. I mention this
because I participated in one of the mass demonstrations at the SOA while I
was at Wartburg, and because there is a considerable link between
"counterinsurgency training" of Central and South American soldiers on our
soil, and many of the ongoing human rights abuses perpetrated by armies
throughout Central and South America over the past several decades as well
as today. Colombia is high on the list, too. It's food for thought, worth
chewing; hard to stomach. Anyway, I plan to get it and start showing it
around. I thought I knew a lot about the SOA, until I saw this film.

Please do me a favor: If you know of a Spanish department at a college near
you, or more particularly a Spanish instructor who is favorable to promoting
human rights work, please let me know. I am working on a recruiting
brochure for Spanish-speaking CPT workers. We need them. I'll try to visit
or at least send some info over with an impassioned cover letter.

I do hope that I can get to Grassy Narrows. I hope that several of you who
are interested in CPT work would consider going on a delegation up there
over the next few months. Cost is only $250 US, plus your transit of choice
to Winnipeg. (You can fly from Minneapolis for $250, or bus from Mason City
for $120) For a project close to home that recognizes the continuing
struggle of First Nations people on our continent (what's happening in
Grassy is pretty similar to what's happening with Nations closer to Iowa)
and lower violence level than Hebron or Colombia, it's worth a look. And I
may be up there when you get there. I feel like I at least need to
experience it so I can come back and talk about it.

Well, in this next week I have our regional group meeting, followed by a
likely trek to Iowa City and West Branch to fill-in as a speaker for the
Iowa Friends Yearly Meeting. My teammate Marian Solomon fell and broke her
hip and has been in surgery. Uff-da. I'm happy to do it, but need to be on
a plane the next day to Michigan. Perhaps three days after, I need to be in
Milwaukee, but that's still up in the air too.

I guess I've been stepping on the soil of many states and provinces, too...

peace,

Le Anne

home again, home again

Hi everyone,

Well, after being a recluse here for about two weeks, I thought I'd better
write and let everyone know I am back in Mason City. My lack of speed in
writing probably has a lot to do with my lack of energy following the tough
spring. It is good to hear that even major US media is questioning the
trumped-up case for the war; it is still difficult to gently combat peoples'
stereotypes and prejudices about Iraqis and Arabs in general. It has also
been nice to come home and have thunderstorms almost every night, but not
too many rainy days. People here are commenting on our 'Camelot' weather,
and I can't get the theme song out of my head...

It was a tough spring, and I have felt as though I've come home from the
war. Many of you commented on the reflection I sent from my time over
there. It turns out that under the stress, I dropped a size in a little
less than a month, without really trying. I had been thinking while over
there that my clothes had just stretched out (a consequence of hand-washing
and drip-drying) which usually is fixed by running all my stuff through an
electric dryer when coming home. But no, everything's still pretty baggy. I
had a similar sudden drop last year during the invasions. Being surrounded
by so much disaster makes it difficult to think about eating, or really
anything at all. I wouldn't really complain about the downsizing itself,
but still, I cannot recommend this particular means of diet for others.
First of all, I don't think any of us have surplus friends to lose in
horrible circumstances. I recommend sticking to a a Nordic Trak.

On the topic of clothing, usually I wear out clothes in about three months
of project work, but was pretty impressed that my latest pair of jeans had
survived quite well. Yet oddly enough, after warming an office chair in the
Toronto CPT office for about a week, the seat wore through!
Hmmm...fortunately a yard sale (in downtown Toronto!) replacement pair saved
the day.

I have some pretty interesting speaking engagements coming up over the
summer--it is really my 'Lutheran Summer.' Beginning July 13th, I'll be in
Atlanta talking about CPT work and overseas peace work for the Multicultural
Youth Leadership Event, then up to Washington, DC by the next weekend to
represent CPT at the US Campaign to End the Occupation conference. [As part
of that trip, our Hebron project coordinator has asked me to meet with
members and staff of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. So far I have
a tentative date with the staff of the head of the Middle East Subcommittee.
Wish me luck. I'm glad I'm getting a workshop in on lobbying before I
go!] Then I'm home for a bit and over to Michigan where I'm speaking as
part of the Lutheran World Federation Post-Assembly Visitation program.
Finally, I should be running a display table at Churchwide in Milwaukee if
all goes according to plan. I'm looking forward to all, but I think with
the travel I should not take on any more speaking closer to home.

Towards the end of summer I may perhaps spend a short stint up at Grassy
Narrows, Ontario, with our newest project. The Anishnaabek indigenous
people there are trying to maintain their right to hunt and fish on their
traditional lands (as guaranteed by treaty), while the government is selling
off the trees on their land to logging companies which are destroying the
environment. So there is a nonviolent blockade of the logging trucks that
our team is accompanying. You can find out more about this by looking at
our website, http://www.cpt.org under 'CPT in Canada.' After Ontario, or
perhaps sooner, I will be heading east again into Iraq to shore up our
little team there. They are looking forward to my Arabic, I hear. It will
be a while, I think, before I am returning to Palestine. But I think also
it will be a much-needed break and change of pace.

In work closer to home, though, I'm also working to get a CPT regional
group started here in the upper Midwest. As of the latest training, I
discovered we have 2-3 more CPTers from Minnesota and Wisconsin, for at
least a dozen CPT-related people within a 3 hour drive of my house.
Regional groups are formed by trained CPTers and people who support CPT, and
gather regularly to share reports from the field, 'bond' (over food, no
less), practice violence reduction skills, and occasionally organize public
witness actions (like vigils against the war, etc). The group meetings are
really good places for people who are interested in getting more involved
with CPT to find out more. I am throwing this 'plug' right into the middle
of my letter because I do believe there are a few eager CPT supporters who
get my letter and might want to come to a meeting if I organize it for later
this summer. If you are one of those types, or know one of those types,
send me an enthusiastic reply...

I was going to write quite a bit more about my time in Canada, but that will
have to wait for another time. I should have gotten this letter out days
ago!

peace,

Le Anne