What am I doing in Colombia this time?
Isabél and Salome
I’m starting with this photo just to get your attention. I was staying in home of Isabél. Her
cousin Salamé lives next door. They both
will turn 3 later this summer. Isabél’s
mom had given her an empty cooking oil bottle and Salome a plastic cup just a
few minutes before. They left, I
assumed, to go outside and play, but it turned out they were running across the
muddy street, past the calf, into the back yard of the house next door, past
the sleeping pigs, through grandma’s back door, through her house, and into the
little store that faces the street on the other side. They returned with the bottle full of oil and
a half cup of sour cream. When’s the last time you sent your two-year-old out
shopping?
Erik
This community is being supported by several Colombian and
international human rights organizations.
Christian Peacemaker Teams and a Swiss organization do direct accompaniment
of threatened individuals like Erik.
Other organizations are working on the legal side. A Colombian group called Justapaz that was
born out of the Colombian Mennonite Church in 1995 and another group went to
Bogota with 3 representatives of the community that same Friday June 30 and
were able to get the ruling that set aside the eviction for now. The way it worked out, getting that ruling
delivered and acted upon didn’t actually happen till late afternoon on the 4th
of July. It was a very stressful weekend,
watching and waiting as things unfolded.
In the end I was able to be present at the gathering of the
community on the 5th that embraced this one important victory. It is only one step, though. One of the community leaders, Alvaro Garcia,
has been in prison since April 24, 2016 and actually just had his first hearing
of witness testimony on July 5. Those
testimonies were not finished, and the next hearing date is in September. I got to visit Alvaro in prison the day after
I arrived. He is healthy but frustrated
and deeply sad, as we all are, at the lack of accountability and slow pace of the
justice system here.
Alvaro
Being part of this process is humbling, and I am deeply grateful
for the support of friends and family who encourage me to keep making these
trips. This is my ninth consecutive year
spending a month working in and traveling out of the team office in
Barrancabermeja. It is so hard to write these updates, because
I have to choose what to leave out. Just
in Guayabo I want to tell you about last winter’s flood, the total lack of
books, the doubt about the peace accords, the amazingly healthy children. The list goes on and on.
There is nothing simplistic about life along the Magdalena
River. I encourage you to do an aerial
map search to see the town of Guayabo.
If you use Googel Maps you’ll need to search first for Vijagual –
Santander Colombia, then scroll north on the river a couple miles and El
Guayabo will show up. It feels like southern
Louisiana along the Mississippi River in July, only hotter.
The people of Guayabo are so grateful for our presence and
how it allows them to keep focused on the work at hand. We inspire each other.
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1 comment:
Thanks, brother!
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