tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2930935463149403379.post656809062613438340..comments2008-08-16T00:11:49.293-07:00Julia Nelsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05162022232204690137nelson.julia@gmail.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2930935463149403379.post-13905309949882666962008-08-16T00:11:00.000-07:002008-08-16T00:11:00.000-07:00hey girl!!! soo glad to hear your doing well in La union!. i miss is dearly!.. and its funny to think we had the same experience... i got my boot stuck in the mud too one very hot day.. near arenas altas...show me pictures of the garden.. i was there when Daniel started it.. we would go to the store to buy the seeds.. what happened to the basil?? i asked him to grow that.. dont know if it did. ohhh and he made me an amazing lemon grass soup... let me see if i can get the recipe .. please write to me, you have my email.<BR/>LOVE rita<BR/>be saferunritarunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07010322008653375618noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2930935463149403379.post-48178431029436843352008-06-30T08:00:00.000-07:002008-06-30T08:00:00.000-07:00Julia,<BR/>Hey babe. The blog is great, keeps all your friends updated here in the ATX.<BR/>What you are doing compared to us here makes me feel like I need to go do some serious volunteer work! <BR/>Miss you and hope you come home soon.<BR/>love from home,<BR/>Shannonshannonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15402820213530272770noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2930935463149403379.post-62594520450709722912008-06-30T07:45:00.000-07:002008-06-30T07:45:00.000-07:00thanks for the update, julia! i found yr words to be incredibly insightful and illuminating... esp. since i have little understanding of what life must be like for this community. the story of the PC is inspiring in its reality.poshdeluxehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16571510703085536587noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2930935463149403379.post-55074174426422978182008-06-28T15:40:00.000-07:002008-06-28T15:40:00.000-07:00dear Julia,<BR/><BR/>thank you so much for sharing your story and perspective on the life of the small peace community you're living with. you can't imagine how much i appreciate every word of your first-hand account about the daily life of campensino families who have lived with this conflict for this long. since i started my (remote) work on Colombia 4 weeks ago this is what i find most challenging; to try to create and implement projects for conflict-affected communities while not having direct interaction with the people on the ground, not seeing where they live, who they are, what their most important needs, grievances and potentials are and what can damage rather than help of support from outside. as you say, we can never reach that level of understanding, since we didn't live through what they did, but at least we have to make the best attempt...sometimes just for our own growth and for experiencing the undistorted truth and reality and sometimes for being better able ot help on a larger scale. if i could, i would travel there right now, go through the areas the projects 'desarollo y paz' are being implemented, meet the people in the villages and cities who here in the files of the office are only called the 'beneficiaries' and try to tackle the question if that's really true, if they really benefit from it, the limitations, the hopeful signs, the internal dynamics, etc, etc.<BR/>Take good care of yourself and thank you again for sharing this with us who can not be there right now.<BR/>CsillaCsillahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03498141983183827434noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2930935463149403379.post-57057332342382989942008-06-28T11:27:00.000-07:002008-06-28T11:27:00.000-07:00So glad you're blogging your experience! It sounds... incredible. Hard to believe that such normalcy can co-exist with such tension and conflict. May God bless and keep you.chikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04206352132892938214noreply@blogger.com