Thursday, February 17, 2011

Finally!

Hellooo,

Alrighty sooo....I just spent the last few days sending off a few of my girlies to Bolivia (okay.. and the boys, I won't forget you ;)) where they’ll be messing around for a few weeks (building a laundry room for an orphanage, and getting to know some of the kids there)... and amoungst my ramblings of them being safe and humble and safe and open and SAFE, I was gently and lovingly reminded... "Carolyn, you're going to the freaking Middle East" -

oohh yeah!

SO, now it is JUST beginning to sink in that I have my own upcoming venture to Palestine/Israel (finally! I'm headed to a peace-building conference there, in case you were unawares).  It seems as though I haven't had too much time to anticipate the couple of weeks that are now before me - but I'm just gonna jump into it and can't wait to see what happens.

As some of you may recall, I was registered for a similar conference last summer with Julia and Hannah (the other two thirds of the BWC team).  As disappointed (but sure) as I was at the time to make the call to come home after being in Asia and Greece/Macedonia, looking back I am so glad that this is the route that was laid out for me (as much as I’ll miss J & H :))...

I've spent the last seven months reading journals, articles, books, and stories, and watched documentaries, interviews, and lectures from such a beautiful and shaken area of the world… and so now I am going with a deeper intellectual understanding and emotional foundation from the information that I’ve tried to digest over the past term.  Now it’s time to go and shake all that up as I encounter the real deal with my own eyes, and with my own experiences brought to the table.

Gah! Okay, getting a little more excited..

I'm curious to see how I'll react – how different or the same I will feel standing in front of the Wall and being able to touch it myself, or after hearing so many stories finally meeting refugees and soldiers face to face.  There’s not too much to write here because I have NO freaking clue what to expect, or what might be done in me as I grapple with how wonderful and how awful we humans are while trekking a bit of the Holy Land (there aren't many places that I have wanted to experience since I was supersuper young, but I remember as a small kid seeing the maps and pictures of Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Galilee, Jericho, etc... and then hearing my Grandma's stories (from not so long ago ;)) and imagining - longing to go there and one day see the very real streets and landscape myself).

What I didn't anticipate when I was young of course was the most unfortunate modern day reality - the innocence from a lack of knowledge (which I would like to blame on my age at the time, but unfortunately I don't think age is what keeps people out of the know regarding this massive and dire situation).

I’ll be flying out Sunday at 6pm (!) and then I'll kick around Jerusalem for a couple of days, just soaking it all in and prepping myself for the conference which starts midweek next week! ...eek! K, It's slowly starting to settle in..

The conference link is attached below in case you are curious.

Also, I am attaching a new doc for ya’ll to check out!! (Well, after watching Occupation 101 if you haven’t seen that yet):

Check out The Iron Wall... it's quite informative and interesting (and anytime Jeff Halper pops up to explain things, he's the man we (BWC) have been in contact with regarding our ride for ICAHD this summer - check it out!).  Gives good perspective on the conflict a little more in depth than 101 - a great perspective to think about.


I don’t know if I’ll be able to blog or not while I’m there… but hopefully I’ll be able to pop something up mid week in the least!

Conference Itinerary Link HERE, if you're curious and want to know what we're up to/seeing/doing every day.

I don't really know what's ahead (I mean besides the detailed schedule that I've got planned out for me ;))... but that's okay.  I know that I'll be taken care of and that sweet things in are in store... I know it, I trust it, I'm goin' with it.  Who knows what all this is going to teach me in the grand scheme of my life, but I know that I've got a lot to learn about other people, and this is one step I am so incredibly GRATEFUL to be able to take...

Thanks to all who have been able to help me out (including WLU <3) and to those who have met me for coffee or called me to smile and nod as I ramble - or who have supported in words and prayers... don't stop :). We're all in this together and I love you guys!

Whatever you're up to over the next little while, I hope all is well,

Best,

C.

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