In the short time I have spent in the community, I have become accustomed to seeing members of the community on an everyday basis. I talk with them about their cacao harvest, when their next trip down to San Josesito will be, their health and how their children are. Sometimes people tell me their stories of what they have been through during the war, giving me one person´s perspective through which to see the community´s history of nonviolent resistance. Our awareness of this history in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds has brought me, to some extent, to Colombia to do this work.During the international celebration of the 10th anniversary of the peace community, however, this history lived in a way which I have not seen before. The community came together and invited the participants to join them in remembering ten years full of both triumph and almost unimaginable loss and violence. They held a silent march through downtown Apartado, an
eight mile walk from the community. On this march, each community member and some internationals carried small coffins with the name of one of the 178 community members that has been killed in the last ten years. They left these coffins at the foot of the Attorney General´s office in silent protest of the fact that every one of these murders has remained unpunished. The night before, they held a mass and candlelight vigil over these same coffins. On the return from the march, the 50 or so 
internationals and the other Colombians, together with the community members, mounted crosses along the road from San Jose to Apartado to mark places where community members had been killed.
Along with memorializing those that have died in this stuggle, the community celebrated what they have accomplaished and imagined what the future will hold. During the 5-day event, they talked about how they, together with 15 other communities who are committed to non-violent resistance to the armed conflict, will continue to build the “Universidad Campesina” which will focus on developing an educational model that liberates the children of these communities and sharing best practices around agricultural production, the possibilities of producing for the fair trade market, and marketing amongst other things. They had a workshop on better understanding the so-called “Justice and Peace” Law, which in fact guarantees that the vast majority of paramilitaries will never be punished for the human rights atrocities they have committed, and talked about the implications of this. And then the children danced in celebration of their culture, others played the anthem of the community, and we all ate the rich, wonderful food made in the community from crops they themselves had raised. And throughout, the community members 
talked, to the representatives from Colombian indigenous communities, to the Belgian government officials, to the international accompaniers, and to the other rural communities, about how to build on what they had already accomplished.The team felt that we were privileged to be accompanying this event, and also to be part of the process of thinking through how we will continue to support the project of the Peace Community of San Jose de Apartado in the future.
Community Members in front of a school in San Jose de Apartado, the community which they had to leave in 2005 when a police post was established here. The
sheet they are holding says:
"The principles: The Community Freely commits to:
1) Participating in Community Work
2) Saying no to injustice and impunity
3) Not participating in the war directly or indirectly, nor carrying any weapons
4) Not giving any information to any armed actor
