a cell phone self-portrait in dcThe rumble of the train is somehow less comforting than I thought it would be. While my legs appreciate the rest, I feel pretty lazy and couch-potatoish after a few days off the bike. This may be due, in part, to my failure to return to my pre-bike trip diet of healthy foods like fruits and vegetables and Trader Joe’s fare, and the continuance of the presence of lots of eggs, cheese, breads and sausage in my system, despite the lack of exercise. While sausage and eggs made sense on mornings that I would bike 50 miles, interestingly that does not hold true for days that I will sit in meetings or on trains.
We took a break from our lobbying to visit Mr. Cerutti’s class at the Maya Angelous Charter School, an amazing place in NW Washington. With small classes (10-15 students), long days (they serve 3 meals a day to the students, and they stay until 7:30!) and attention to the development of important life skills (they start bank accounts for the students and match their savings), it seems like there are really positive things happening. The students were engaged and attentive to our information-intensive presentation, and even stayed with us as we experienced technical difficulties. I always hesitate to talk “at” students, but it’s hard to do otherwise when you have a short period of time and so much you want to convey! That said, they were great...and many of them had even read our blog! I hope to keep in touch with them over the next year.
We finished up our time on Capitol Hill with two more Congressional meetings, where we joined Peace Community leader Renato Areiza and Eric Lopp from Peace Brigades International. Hearing Renato speak about the serious threats to the community brought a weightiness to the work we have been doing. Underneath the adventure, success and fun of this bike trip, the reality of the Colombian situation and the work that I will be doing in the next year is really...hard. At the event on Tuesday night in DC, Renato talked about the importance of PBI and FOR’s presence in the community. I continue to be inspired by the work that the community is doing, and am proud to be part of supporting their work, and of raising some of the funds to permit this work to coninue.
The next week will be a whirlwind of packing, quick goodbyes, final preparations for departure, and some sadness at leaving the amazing life I have in Littleton, and that I had while teaching at Parker. When I update this next, I will most likely be in Colombia. Thank you to all who have read this,
Janice & Fedelma.
