feliz año nuevo!!

So, I spent the first christmas of my life outside the comfort, plenty and deliciousness of my great granparents' house in Lowell, MA. Thanks to the wonders of technology, I talked to my whole family on skype, a free internet program which allows you to talk to people via computer. I spent christmas eve with a group of mainly international human righs folks, and spent the night at the house of two friends, who made me Swedish pancakes the next morning to eat in their backyard garden, and told me that santa had indeed found me! I got a lovely frog mug, and the knife that Carolina, one of my friends, had "robbed" from me during the Yankee swap of the night before.

We then set out on ciclovia on my new bike: Of all the things I imagined myself doing in Colombia, whizzing along major streets on beautifully-paved and clearly demarcated bike paths through the middle of the city wasn’t one of them. Colombia produces some of the best bicyclists in the world, and though thy train mostly in the Andes, there are also bike paths for them and the general population throughout the city, and on holidays and Sundays, the city shuts down most of the main roads so that bicyclists and pedestrians can enjoy the city without fearing the usually-intense traffic and clogged roadways. Over a million people generally come out. On Christmas Day, we ended up in the Central Park of Bogota, Parque Bolivar, where hundreds of families were enjoying the holiday, renting boats to row around the pond, eating corn on the cob, and pitching tents to have picnics in and protect them from the sun. I biked around the city for hours that day, getting to know people and nooks that I never would be able to without a bike.


The holidays are a strange time for us in Bogota, because things are pretty quiet in some ways. Most offices are closed through mid-January, people are not thinking about work, and no meetings can happen. However, it is historically one of the more dangerous times for the peace community we accompany. There is more drinking, more armed groups sad to be away from home and looking for a way to blow off steam, and therefore more danger. It also means that we can't be on vacation with our families now, and that those team members in the community, especially, are on high alert amidst the celebrations. I am actually really looking forward to going to the community - which will happen, if all goes as planned, towards the beginning of the new year. Being in Bogota is amazing in many ways, but it is difficult to the work to support the community without having been there for an extended period of time.

Feliz Navidad!

I hope this finds everyone well. I am preparing to spend the first christmas ever not in my aunt's house in Lowell, MA - and it is hard, but will be OK I think. I am off to go hiking for the weekend with some friends after a long week of moving, getting over a tough cold, and doing some interesting interviews and work here. I am safe, blessed, and continuing to learn amazing amounts about Colombia, accompaniment work and myself. Lots more topics to come - but I need to run. Abrazos a todos!

knee-deep

And this was after the easy, dry hike.

I have entered the Colombian experience I was more expecting, complete with knee-high mud, a bit of sickness, barely-functioning toilets, intense work, and looong bus rides. More to come, but suffice to say I am well, looking forward to being back in ¨home¨in Bogota after some time away, and finally feel like I merit some of the prayers and well-wishes that I know are being sent my way.


My past week in pictures:
Teammates Aj & Mireille eat a leisurely lunch during our team retreat in the mountains outside Medellin. The retreat provided time for the entire FOR Colombia team to be together, break bread..errr...arepas with nutella and peanut butter, and to blaze a new trail into this beautiful farmhouse. Without a road out or any contact with the outside world, we had three intense days of bonding, singing and even working.

Tipping point?
Medellin, Colombia's second-largest city, has really nice public transportatin. Really nice. After experiencing success with a metro system that makes Washington, DC's look dirty, they put in a "metrocable," or Swiss-like gondola system. The high-tech, quiet and immaculately clean cars climb into the hills on the outskirts of Medellin, where for about a dollar they enable the poorer residents who live in the nieghborhoods along its path to descend the hill in about ten minutes, rather than making the treacherous descent on a bus. There are signs placed along the metro and the metrocable urging residents to take the clean, considerate, efficient culture of this public transportation success back to the streets of Medellin. The picture below was taken right below where the metrocable passes over.

Madres Peace Prize
During FOR's August human rights delegation, I was perhaps most moved by the work of the "Madres de la Candelaria." Since 1999, a group of family members of those disappeared in the dirty war in Colombia have gathered outside the largest church in Medellin each Wednesday at noon to ask for their safe return, or as they chant "Los queremos vives, libres, y en paz" - We want them alive, free and in peace. We had the opportunity to visit them, hear their stories, and show our support for their work, and to congratulate them on winning the Colombian Peace Prize.

settling in.

A rainy view of Bogotá from the top of Montserrat. It rains most days in the afternoon, but hasn't gone above 65 or below about 50.


It's only been 12 days, though it feels like longer. My feet are finding the ground, and I am happy, overall. some highlights...

High-altitude truce
On Sunday, I climbed up Montserrat...the one in Colombia. The mountain is only safe to climb on Sundays - there is a kind of informal agreement between the pick-pocketers and the city residents that if you walk up the almost 2,000 feet to the top of this pilgrimage site on Sundays, you will be left alone. The rest of the week, you most probably will come down the mountain shoeless, peso-less, and a little shaken up! The city of Bogotá resides at a comfortable 8,530 feet, and Montserrat rises up on the eastern side, visible, from almost anywhere at 10,367 feet. I was grateful for my bike “training,” as I could barely keep up with my more-seasoned Bogotá friends. Overall, I don’t notice the altitude too much, except that I am hungrier than I have ever been. The steady rain also helped keep me cool!

The path up to Montserrat, with a Christmas start that lights up at night.





The restaurant at the top of Montserrat. Pilgrims come not for the food...but to visit the "fallen Jesus," whose likeness resides in the nearby church, and who is said to respond to favors from those who make the journey up the mountain. Though you can get up the mountain by cable car or train, we decided that you're way more likely to get your prayers answered if you make the steep, hardcore climb.

Bureaucracy...
wow. This entire country seems to have been trained by the DMV architects in how to make what could be single-step processes not only multi-step, but multi-locational and many-hours-consuming.
1: Last week I said I was off to confront the bureaucracy...and I did so for 7 hours. Before coming to Bogotá, I had already mailed my passport away, done some paperwork, and gotten my visa. Now that I’m here, I need a cédula, or identification card. So, naturally, that took 7 HOURS at the equivalent of the FBI offices...where I had to wait on one line to tell them why I was there, another one to tell me what I needed to do, then I had to go outside the office and get my picture taken, go 15 minutes down the street to a specific bank to pay the fee, go to the hospital, where they took my blood, and I waited 45 minutes so they could record my blood type (B+), and then wait for another hour so I could submit this important documentation. And, I have to back in two weeks to pick up the cédula. The laminating machine was out of order.

2: There is a pool down the street where I have started swimming. It is Olympic-sized, in a modern, fieldhouse-like structure. And it is way nicer than any pool I have ever seen in the US. So...Gilberto and I went to go swimming there. Our miscalculation was that we got there at 2:20, and of course we are allowed in only on the hour. Granted, the pool was empty, but we would need to wait, since that was the system. Upon entering, I was told that I would be allowed to wear only my bathing suit (none of this sarong business), my bathing cap and goggles. Towels have been deemed not appropriate for the pool area. When you have your correct bathing uniform on, you go through a tunnel with automatically-activated showers, then must step through a shallow pool to wash your feet off. You may swim for only an hour, then you must shower before leaving. No exceptions. That said, I had a really nice one-hour swim.

La mujer de la luz
On Tuesday night, I went to help out fellow FOR volunteer Trish, whose place I will be taking on the team. She , along with her compañero, have rented a big performance space in Bogotá to use for just-beginning musicians for night performances, and eventually as a space for NGOs and community-based classes or programs to happen during the day. I helped paint the space, typically getting as much paint on my shoes, nose and elbows(?) as on the wall, and all was well until the lights went out. Luckily, always prepared-ish, I had my headlamp with me, and so enabled the painting to go on, as I followed the painters with my light. They renamed me La mujer de la luz: the woman of light.

Small world
I have met amazing people since I got here. Part of the key, of course, is that other internationals in Bogotá inherently have a huge amount in common. Perhaps unsurprising, then: I was hanging out with a Witness for Peace volunteer, who a friend from the States had put me in touch with, and she took me to meet her friend...who it turns out I met last year at a PBI (Peace Brigades International) information weekend. The whole experience feels a little like college, in that we’re all away from home, a little giddy about the work we are doing and all we have to learn, and we are all looking for community here. Yesterday I attended Fulbrighters’ presentations of their work...and ran into a Harvard grad student who knows my good friend Andrew Kinney, who I have known since middle school. Of course.

I am happily getting into the office work here in Bogotá, enjoying the challenges of starting a new job, and am looking forward to going to Medellín, the second-biggest city on the country, soon. I will attempt to publish this on Sundays or Mondays in the future. Besotes y Abrazotes!

Jan y sus amigas nuevas

¡Llegué a Colombia! Ice cream, cold showers, good people...and thanks.

The view from my bed of the sun rising over the mountains that border Bogota.

Wow. After a crazy week of transporting my bike from Washington to Littleton (stripped pedals = bike-boxing Amtrak misery), packing up my house with the heroic efforts of my family, a couple wonderful send-off parties (Thank you FCU & Harveys! Thank you Gabi & Sandip!) and an amazing Thanksgiving dinner cooked by my sister...

...I am here. I am in Colombia. I arrived late Friday, and have spent a rather glorious weekend walking around the city, adjusting to the difference in altitude, and pinching myself. After the excitement and inspiration on the bike trip and the crazy hecticness of last week, I had somehow pushed out of my mind that I was actually going to be here.

What are fun tidbits that I have I learned so far about Colombia?
*That Colombians love ice cream. Even in the rain. It's amazing: there are families, couples, all types of people lining up for ice cream everywhere we go. And it's not too warm - maybe in the 50s! What happens when it's hot?
*That wicked high-speed internet can co-exist in the same apartment with an ice-cold shower.
*That arepas are small, thick corn tortillas which taste really good with butter.
*That you can get Dunkin Donuts in Bogota.

As you might sense, right now, the hard work to come seems a bit distant. I am reveling in the excitement of discovering a new city, the process of getting to know my new teammates, and laying the groundwork to stay healthy and well-balanced amidst what I expect to be overwhelmingly intense work. I woke up my first morning here and went to yoga with Gilberto and Trish, my two teammates. In yoga, I stretched and sang (yes, in Colombia, apparently, you sing in yoga class!). Yesterday, Gilberto took me on an urban tour, and we dallied in flea markets, experimented with Colombian food, and saw a movie. Life here, so far, is blessedly fun. The heaviness I feel now is about knowing how much I am going to miss people from home and sadness at leaving a life which has been so fulfilling and nurturing in Littleton.

On the plane and since I got here, I do keep thinking about the last service I went to at the Unitarian Church in Littleton. Fred Small, the minister, talked about being thankful. He said:
"To be thankful is the hardest thing and the easiest thing in the world...It’s the easiest thing in the world for anyone to be thankful when we really pay attention...By being mindful of the present moment, we remember the gifts of life we enjoy just by being alive."

I am humbled and overwhelmed and deeply thankful for all of your support. I have really been paying attention to this support...and it helps me enjoy my arrival here and feel that I am floating on all of your well-wishes in this new stage of my life.

That's all for now - off to meet with the bureaucracy and get my papers in order.

Graffiti in downtown Bogota which reads "Yankees out! No to the Free trade agreement! No to oppresiion!"

On the way home

a cell phone self-portrait in dc

The 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.

Ya! We made it! We're in DC! Yippee!

Janice and Fedelma smile after many long days.

After two delicious days of low miles while at Pendle Hill, a 77-mile, 3-state odyssey of a day, and a final lap through cold, wind and rain, we have landed safely in DC!!

After much fretting about the route on Friday, I (Janice) decided to take us the “direct” route on Saturday from Swarthmore, PA to Chestertown, MD– which turned out to be 5 miles longer than the “indirect” route which had been suggested to us. We glided through Swarthmore, Chester and Wilmington, and had done almost 20 miles by breakfast, and 45 miles by lunch. Feeling quite cocky and proud of ourselves, we decided to dine in Chesapeake City, and even – gasp – backtracked a bit to go to the perfect lunch place which let us sit right on the water in the 78-degree weather. While the unseasonably hot weather did remind us of impending climate disaster, we still managed to enjoy ourselves immensely, and even celebrated with a mid-day glass of champagne and toasted our 45-mile accomplishment. Predictably, we would come to regret this choice and our early optimism in the next couple of hours, as we struggled through a strong headwind throughout Maryland. We were on route 213 for the remainder of the day, where the mile signs which consistently poked holes in our fantasies of almost-doneness. We stopped twice in the final 10 miles to refuel, gulp the remaining gorp, and to visualize this evasive doneness. When the end finally came, we were met by comfy couches, our staple athletes’ diet of fried cheese and potatoes, and free popcorn at Andy's bar and restaurant in Chestertown. I went to see my former clients at the Kent Center, and Fedelma became one with the couch and her book for a couple hours. After a lovely dinner with old friends, we yet again landed at a warm, welcoming house – though since we got there late, we got to spend much less time with Ford and Marilee than we would have liked. We were there just long enough to infer from the Grateful Dead and “potters for peace” stickers, the amazing views of the Chesapeake bay, and the cozily eclectic house that we would have liked to stay much longer.

My friend Andy picked us up early the next morning and transported us over the Bay Bridge, where we remembered promptly that this biking thing could be hard work. After deciding to willfully ignore the weather forecast - our mutual internal narrative must have gone something like: “low of 44? that can’t be right. looks warmer. yesterday sure was warm...” Doh. It was cold, and our misplaced cynicism forced us to repack our bags in the pouring rain as we began our final day of pedaling. After 15 miles, we decided to take an early lunch at Subway...and then after finding ourselves unready to leave the warmth and comfort of food and heat, we walked next door to another restaurant, sat for another hour and ate some more. Finally on the road again, the hills mercifully returned and allowed us to warm our cold, wet selves on the final leg of the trip. We rolled into DC around dusk, and were treated to a hero’s welcome at my friend Alyssa’s house, where Fedelma got to use the upstairs steam shower while Janice soaked in the downstairs jacuzzi.

Today we met with aides to Janice’s Representatives: John Kerry, Edward Kennedy and Martin Meehan. The meetings were infinitely less stressful and more productive than we both supposed, and I am looking forward to more tomorrow, and also to joining Renato Areiza, a leader from the peace community, who is in DC. We are having an event at Provisions Library - here are the details for any DC folks that would like to come:
Date: Tuesday, November 14th
Time: 6:00pm - 8:00pm
Location: Provisions Library
1611 Connecticut Ave. NW
Washington DC, 20009
202-299-0460

Hope to see some of you there!

Caught.

People, when given the option, are good to each other. Over the past few days, we have been blessed, amazed and inspired by people’s dramatic generosity. As Fedelma said, we have taken a big risk by taking this trip, and have over and over again found ourselves being “caught” by, for the most part, virtual strangers. We have averted disaster, discomfort and isolation by the consistent generosity of those we have met along the way.

On Tuesday, anticipating a long day, our gracious host, Swarthmore parent Jim Brunkard took us out to a lusciously greasy breakfast (he had scrapple, a Pennsylvania specialty which consists of the meat not fit for sausage, in honor of the occasion), and then drove us up the big hill that would have begun our day. For lunch, we were greeted by the amazing Lepoco peace group, who told us that we didn’t need to tell them about accompaniment and the situation in Colombia – because they already knew about it, were supportive of it, and some had even visited! Instead, we were left to enjoy the food, soak up their inspirational energy, receive their donations, and talk to the press they had invited.

We began Wednesday optimistic, after hearing that though it would rain all day, it would be a warm, almost spring-like rain. Wanting to take a more direct route into Philadelphia because of some knee pain Fedelma was experiencing, we opted for the very direct and equally un-scenic route. After about 20 miles of strip malls, shrinking shoulders and 3-inch puddles which disguised curbs (and caused our first official “crash” of the trip, though no one was hurt!) we stopped at a bike shop, looking for a respite from the rain and like-minded folks to commiserate with. We got much more. The bike mechanic spent close to an hour with us, carefully detailing an alternate, fairly direct route into Philadelphia that would save us from the traffic and bad roads. We didn’t know that on the post-it note inside a zip-lock bag was written the map to paradise! Our makeshift map led us through deserted, quaint roads, down a gravel path along a raging creek lined by trees in the midst of shedding their leaves, and finally left us off at a cozy diner at the start of the Schuylkill river trail, a lovely paved bike path which brought us to the regal Philadelphia Art Museum.

On the way to Fedelma’s lodging for the night, Janice got her first of two flats (didn’t quite get that glass out the first time!) just two blocks before our destination. After walking the bikes briefly, we were “caught” once again by the Jim and Janet, and ordered to put on warm, dry clothes while Jim changed Janice’s tire and Janet made us tea and cookies, and then drove Janice and her bike to her friend Ben’s house.

After a quick ride to Swarthmore, and a wonderful event there, we have landed at the Quaker Adult Study Center at Pendle Hill, where we were invited to stay another night, do another screening of the documentary about the peace community, and rest our bodies and minds. Tomorrow we are off to do 72 miles to Chestertown – wish us luck!

MORE ABOUT OUR SWARTHMORE VISIT:
Biking into Swarthmore, I was reminded of the cramped suburban sprawl which suddenly opens up to Swarthmore’s stately, picturesque campus. We rolled into the borough of Swarthmore, and I was unexpectedly, but not surprisingly, totally disoriented by the litany of college-named streets (Which way do I turn on Yale Ave, or was it Dartmouth, to get to Swarthmore?). When we finally got to campus, I was greeted by some new buildings, a transformed Parrish, with dark carpeting (funny what we notice), a career office which had flown to the other side of the building, and a Cornell which had expanded from what I vaguely remember, as a social sciences person, as a quaint, dark corner of campus to an airplane-terminal like modern center of science-learning and fun.

After wandering around the campus with Fedelma, and searching largely unsuccessfully for staff I remembered (sorry I missed you Yvette!) I went to Tarble, where Chris, a long-time Swat employee, and I remembered each other and caught up, and also found my former brilliant student Garth Griffin doing what with his time at Swat? Playing pool in Tarble’s new and improved recreation area, of course. After a quick and unexpectedly steep and rough ride to Pendle Hill to drop our stuff off, we returned to campus to meet Alisa Giardinelli, our Swarthmore host and fellow Colombian human rights advocate. Ken Sharpe had put me in touch with Alisa, and she had been amazingly helpful in setting up the event at Swarthmore, and graciouslessly treated Fedelma and I to hot chocolate and Swarthmore news after a busy day.

Prepared as always for a turnout of 5 people, we were happily surprised by the quickly-filling room. Turns out, both Ken Sharpe and visiting Prof. Lakey(sp?) had pushed our talk in their classes, and Prof. Lakey’s class had read “Unarmed Bodyguards,” the best book about human rights accompaniment work out there. After a gracious introduction by Alisa, David Bronkema, former head of AFSC’s work in the Andean Region, agreed to be put on the spot and gave a history of Colombia...in 5 minutes. We showed 30 minutes of the documentary, talked about our reasons for doing human rights work in Colombia, and fielded questions from the always-on-point Swatties. I talked about political space, a favorite Ken Sharpe concept, and saw smiles of recognition spread across the faces of the students...and felt home in a way I hadn’t with other audiences.

In many ways, this felt like coming full circle for me. Almost ten years before, I had petitioned to get in Ken Sharpe’s Latin American Politic seminar. I was a sophomore, and the seminar was full, and Ken explained that there was simply no room and no way for me to take the class. After repeated petitions, I agreed to go to Haverford to take a Latin American politics class instead, since I was determined to take the class before going abroad in fall of my junior year. After bringing the papers for Ken to sign, he finally relented and let me in the class.

The class affected me in more ways than I, or he, I would guess, could imagine. I dove into the reading list, trying to make up for what I lacked in analytical experience with expertise on every reading on the legendarily dense syllabus. I typed up pages of notes in preparation for every class, and sat riveted and appalled as I read and discussed the US’ misguided and almost genocidal foreign policy in Latin America. After some initial missteps (I double-spaced my first seminar paper! horrors!), I felt I came into my own in the class with my paper on Nicaraguan land reform under the Sandinistas. In Ken’s 1-page written responses to the paper (he really does this!) he saw some strengths in the paper, but also pointed out some arguments which needed further development and analysis. Naturally, I decided that to answer his questions, I would go to Nicaragua and work with the farmers’ union that had conducted the land reform the following semester. And so I did.

While there were of course other things that led me to Nicaragua, I was fundamentally motivated by the seriousness of purpose that I took from that seminar. It felt to me like in those late, late nights in Trotter we were grappling with nothing less than people’s right to struggle for justice and equality, and looking at how our own country’s moral failings had led to the obliteration of these rights, movements and dreams for change. I made a lifelong commitment during that class to never again stand by while the US funded the killing of people in Latin America struggling for social change. Fundamentally, this is what has led me to become a human rights observer in Colombia.

Snowflakes, pumpkin patches, and long flat roads.

May seem unremarkable. But look close. Real close. See it? Yeah, that's snow alright.

With our sixth day behind us, it seems shocking that the trip has flown by like it has. And then I (Fedelma) think about Connecticut, and I reconsider the word “flown”. A beautiful state, and one of several places I call home, but I don’t think I had actually ever stopped to contemplate how the beautiful rolling hills could hit a biker’s leg muscles like a load of very big, dense bricks. But it was beautiful nonetheless, and at one exhausted and goofy point on a downhill slope of a quaint little Connecticut town, we stopped to chat and stretch, and realized to our surprise and delight (and horror) that it was in fact, snowing. We thought it had felt cold.

But then the cold, rainy, pretty hills gave way to a much-needed day of rest and then long, smooth, graceful fields of agricultural New York. Practically hysterical with delight, we turned around one slow, lazy corner and there were pumpkins. Fields of pumpkins, as far as the eye could see. Co-mingling with our awe of the pumpkins stretching out like Dorothy’s fields of poppies, was a slight discomfort at the thought of anyone actually having to pick those hulking orange behemoths (both Janice and I have worked as farmworker advocates). But the thoughts of pumpkin picking swept past with the landscape and sooner than we expected we were able to roll into our destination, on much-needed, long, flat roads.

In terms of people, apart from the wonderful families we’ve stayed with, and the hospitality, care and enthusiasm we’ve encountered, one of the really inspiring encounters we were caught off guard with was with the small but engaged group of students we met with at Vassar. Partially unexpected because it was the Saturday night of a Halloween party, and partly unexpected because of the spiritual and even (dare I say it) religious depth of the conversation, there in the bastion of secularism: Vassar. So, several cups of hot chocolate down, we had our expectations pleasantly blown away yet again, and talked not only about Colombian politics (one young woman, Ximena, will actually be in Bogotá with Janice...a friend!) but engaging activism, pacifism and international power dynamics and privilege through a spiritually motivated lens. It was great.

Well, more than halfway (I think), and still in one piece, we giddily look forward to Philadelphia, Swarthmore, and eventually D.C.! The weather looks promising, so we’re just sticking to prayers of enough hills to keep us awake, but not more than our poor, destroyed-by-soccer knees can take. (I am now convinced that the old Irish “blessing” that starts “May the road rise up to meet you...” can be nothing but a thinly veiled curse. I would much rather have the road slope gently down at my feet, or stretch out before me, or anything but rising up to meet me! My tires can sink to its level, honestly, its no trouble!)
Thanks to everyone who has kept us warm and fed, and supported us in all those different, good ways.



Janice and Fedelma stop at a "castle" in the middle of Connecticut. ??

2 down...and miles to go before we sleeeeeeppppppp....

Who knew that south-central Massachusetts and northern Connecticut could be so hilly? Or that pedaling in the rain could be so cold? Well, I guess the second realization shouldn't have been such a surprise...but these are some of the many lessons Fedelma and I have learned during our first two days pedaling for peace. After getting a predictably late start Wednesday morning because of last-minute packing, we biked into the ever-earlier darkness. After 48 miles, an angel (and fellow Swarthmore graduate) by the name of Peggy Collins picked us up in her van and drove us the last couple miles to her cozy house in the pitch black, where we ate heartily and were in bed by 9.

After learning our lesson, Fedelma and I got started, albeit in 40-degree pouring rain, at 7:30 am. But alas, it was not downhill from there, so to speak. The hills which had slowed our pace to a sometimes-crawl the afternoon before continued, but we succeeded in riding 25 miles before lunch. From there, Fedelma got a hard-earned break at her parents' house nearby, and Janice biked on to Ellington, CT to stay with FOR board member Martha DiGiovanni.

We are thrilled to be doing this bike ride for a good cause, and on the seemingly never-ending uphills, it is truly the support of our friends, family and FOR that keeps us going.

Thanks to the many of you who have contributed already, we have raised close to $6,000. However, we will have to pick up the pace to reach our goal of $15,000 (when Fedelma joined, the goal went up!). If you haven't supported the ride already, please do so now by going to my website, www.pedalingforpeace.org

Thanks so much to everyone who has offered to house us along the way - the solidarity of strangers is making this ride possible. We are now guaranteed housing for every night of our journey! We invite you to join us in helping to organize an event in Philadelphia, PA on November 8th, or to attend our speaking event and fundraiser in Washington, DC on the evening of Nov 14th. Please to go to our website, www.pedalingforpeace.org, for more info.

Thank you, and keep those positive thoughts coming our way!
Janice

Launching...

wow! People are giving! People I know and love...and just wonderful people from all over the place. I am inspired to keep doing this, and now just hoping I can work out all the logistics beforehand. I guess camping wouldn't be so bad...

I had my first speaking engagement last night, and it was truly incredible. People were so enthusiastic, and they didn't even know me very well!

As for the ride itself, I am eager to buy my trailer so that I can start doing long rides with the wight attached.I alternately think that 50 miles a day is going to be way oo easy, and fairly impossible.

Overall, feeling excited and inspired,though.

Janice with kids in San Jose de Apartado, where she will be living after her bikeride.

The facts:

Today in Colombia...
Human rights defenders are being disappeared.
More than 40,000 people, most of them civilians, have been killed in
Colombia as a result of the armed conflict since 1990 alone*

Campesinos are being displaced from their land.
There are 3 million internally displaced people in Colombia.
Second in the world only to the Sudan*

The military/paramilitaries are killing and disappearing people with impunity.
Colombia has received more than $3.5 billion in largely military aid from the US since 1999, and their forces have been trained at the School of the Americas.

What are you doing to stop America’s other war?
The Fellowship of Reconciliation is working to demilitarize US policy and support peace initiatives in Colombia. Please help support their work by sponsoring me**:

In early November of 2006, I will ride 500 miles in10 days on my bicycle from Boston to Washington, DC to raise awareness about and money for FOR’s work in Colombia.

My goal is to raise $10,000 for FOR. I hope to get 500 people to sponsor me for each of the miles I will ride, at $20 per mile.

*statistics from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.
**”Me” is Janice Gallagher, janicekgallagher@yahoo.com. I was a member of the August 2006 delegation to Colombia with FOR, and am a former teacher, and long-time social justice acitivst.

In thinking about what motivates me to do this work, more than anything else it is the phenomenon of disappearances: this woman lost her son when he was taken away by men dressed in military uniforms. She has been unable to determine his whereabouts since then.

Yeah! I am really oing to do this! After being seriously tempted to work crazy hours in order to try to take back Congress from the Republicans this year, I've realized that what I'm really passionate about is raising awareness and support for peace in Colombia, and that I can (and will) volunteer to get out votes, do phone banks, etc. in order to support the dem's in the election.
In the meantime...Alyssa Kelly came up with a great website name last night: PedalFORPeace. FOR because I am raising funds for the Fellowship of Reconciliation. I think it's good, and am trying to buy the domain name now from the personwho owns it. Yeee. So excited - I also got my first sponsors, so I would like to here and now officially thank:
1. Stan from Charlie's
2. David from Charlie's
3. Tia
4. Amy Adams
5. Jen Spingla
6. Scott Call
7. Alyssa Kelly

7 down, 493 to go! Oh - my idea is that since the ride is roughly 500 miles, if people sponsor me for $20 a mile, I will raise $10,000 if I get 500 people to sponsor me for 1 mile a piece. Now to figure out all the technology onvolved in this.

Thinking...

After traveling to Colombia this August with the Fellowship of Reconciliation, I was tired, sick, and lacked sleep. But, besides from physically ailing, I was moved by the stories of the people I met, and wanted to do what I had said to them over and over that I would do: to bring their stories back to the US and tell people how US policy was affecting them. So after finally getting better, spending a week in the woods meditating on this, and conveniently having some time off from work - I think I know what I'm going to do...
...bike to Washington, DC from home, Littleton, MA.
The pros: I could raise money for a cause I feel passionately about; namely, working to mitigate the incredibly negative effects of US foreign policy and working to demilitarize US foreign policy.
The cons: I did a long bike ride this weekend...and it was only about 25 miles. I have no idea what it would take in terms of gear, training, planning, mapping a route, to ride to DC; I don't know if I could raise a lot of money doing it; and I don't know how long it would take me to plan and do.
Next step is to figure out the answers to some of these questions!