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Colombia - Report from San Josesito

Imagine there is a little hamlet surrounded by a river and jungle. You are in the middle of green, green, green forest ... From 6am on the fires of the outdoor kitchen are smoking. The Tamerian group is meeting for a morning attunement in a small stone circle. After having meal about 30 to 50 people -all ages- but mainly youngsters were called to the kiosco by a communitarian song created in Mulatos – Aldea da Paz. The kiosco is a big round meeting place with a wonderful palm leaf roof. Rita shares with us some energy and communitarian games loved by everybody. We have a plenary to launch the day, then we divide into work groups: Media group, seed garden, compost toilet, roof of the school (the wood is being cut directly in the forest) and a biogas station. In the late afternoon, after a volleyball game we meet with topics like community, water, vision of Mulatos.


Laure: ”I appreciated especially a short geistig input from Juliane of maybe 15 minutes about Community and Trust. I saw the minds of the people opening with shining eyes as well as my mind opening too. Gildardo was very touched by this speech and gave thanks to Juliane.” In the evening we meet in men and women circles, fire-camp, dance or games. These young people like to come together and you could see how they opened their heart and spirit.

The women and men circles specially served to open a space to talk about love and sexuality, truth and trust and the roles of men and women in our current patriarchal society and a potential new path of solidarity between the genders. Once the men cooked while the women continued to have their meeting amongst them.


We celebrated the Global Grace Day with prayers and rituals. As it was the last day of the youth camp the media group prepared a slide show about the whole time.


Next day, as a direct practice of Grace, we went to Rodoxali (a walk of about 6 hours) to support with international presence in this paramilitary zone where some campesinos families are trying to resist them, and finding in the Peace Community (PC) a realistic option. When we were there, the leaders were away and it was not possible to decide or do anything further but the journalists from Al'Jazeera could make some interviews.

The youth camp is over and the buildings go on!

German, the leader of the Peace Community visited with two of us (as international accompaniment) the nearby hamlets (2 hours walk): La Esperanza and La Resbalosa. It is his task to keep the overview of all people in the PC, what is happening there what they need.


On Sunday 17th in the evening we heard from a passing-by neighbor that there are paramilitaries camping about 20 minutes away, which is quite unusual in this area. A big tension ran through the village. Other neighbors joined to discuss the situation. Next morning two of us went with Gildardo for a walk to get a clear picture about the situation and show international presence, but this group was gone already. Later a neighbor said that they rather looked and behaved like normal state military. The question if paramilitaries really came that close to the Aldea de Paz remains open.

Coming back to San Josésito we had a meeting with the consejo (leading team of the PC). We heard about an incident in the hamlet Arenas Altas not far away from San Josésito. There, a group of paramilitaries captured 5 boys with weapons in the house who were collaborating with the guerillas. Normally they would have killed them immediately but as they were under 18, they didn’t this time and kidnapped them. The PC was directly informed and denounced it to the world and some civilian institutions. As for such cases, they spontaneously mobilized a big humanitarian commission, together with their families, to claim for the kidnapped campesinos. Then started a “Hollywood episode” to release the young prisoners from the paramilitaries forces to the state, as an act of respect for the human rights and the international law. Many institutions were represented as well as the press, and the Social Department (Bienestar Familiar) received the youngsters and will orientate them to a “social and economical re-integration”. The consejo thinks that it was intent to clean the image of the paramilitaries just when “peace” negotiations are running in Cuba between all armed actors in Colombia. It was at the same time a clear demonstration of forces and control of the paramilitaries in the area as they could coordinate the transport of these campesinos between Arenas Altas and near the town of Turbo, without any trouble with the army and police.

Here we see the globalized war in such a direct and close-to-life-and-death way that touches ones heart directly. Reading the reports of our “colleagues” of the Global Campus we could see this war everywhere, with a different face.


The outer movements were mirrored by a movement within our group: some got sick and had to go down to San Josésito to heal. Nevertheless we all felt guided and mostly safe, at the right time at the right place. Like this we had two stations to be in contact with the youth: Mulatos and San Josesito! In Mulatos we offered a full program with various activities. In San Josésito some of us became more and more part of the village and thus had a lot of informal and trustful contact to the community members.


A BIG LOVE AFFAIRE!


We ended our time with the youth at the beach, with women and men circles, playing volleyball and swimming in the gulf of Uraba. In the women and men circle the groups prepared a gift for the other group. It was a shy and joyful process to co-create those performances of appreciation and admiration towards the other gender. Amongst other things the women for example created a natural mandala saying: “Gracias por compatir la vida y la lucha con nosotras.”


It was a special day for them because even though the see is less than two hours away from San Josésito some of them have never ever been at the beach yet.


Before we will leave the Peace Community there will be one more final meeting with consejo members and a celebration in the village where everybody is welcomed to see another photo slide show of our common time.


There is no doubt anymore: it makes sense and it is necessary to create a new world and find friends and compañeros on this path.

Venceremos and thank you for this opportunity to serve.

The Global Campus Team of Colombia


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