cardboard boxes, a door, and the luxury of toilet seats

I hadn't downloaded my photos for a while, and so after doing so I realized that the last month or so is appropriate for my second installment of "Janice's life in photos." Here goes...

Alternative sledding

I love this country! No snow? No sled?...well, make it work! In one of the central parks of Cali, a favorite past time is sledding down a closed-off road on top of cardboard boxes.

Pride in Colombia

This was the 11th anniversary of the Gay Pride celebration in Colombia, and my family was here to witness it. The struggle for gay rights in Colombia is in some ways much more advanced than I would have imagined: The 1991 Colombian constitution guarantees equality before the law for all Colombians regardless of their sexual orientation, and a bill that would have guaranteed same-sex couples some legal rights was nearly passed this year. Over 10,000 people participated in the Gay Pride parade this year, and many noted that for the first time, most people were not wearing masks to disguise their identity.

the banner says: Equality for same sex couples

Rebuilding

We continue to recover from the June 2nd robbery of the FOR house, and to take steps both politically and practically to make ourselves and other huiman rights organizations safer. There are now three of us human rights organizations that have been robbed in the past month: us, JustaPaz, a Mennonite peace organization, and Yira Castro, a group of lawyers that work to legally support victims of state-sponsored crimes).

We now have a door fit for a bank.

We also bought a new chair in hopes that we will soon have a new computer to use while we sit in the new chair. I carried the chair on my head for over 1o blocks and received surprisingly few strange looks.

Puente?

In Spanish, puente means bridge. It also means long weekend, of which there seems to be at least two per month. On this puente we headed to Suesca to go on my favorite walk on the way to my "country house" (a half-camping half-cabin place I co-rent outside Bogotá). Every time I have crossed the river to get to the house there has been a different manifestation of the bridge/puente: a log bridge, two cables strung across the river (one to hold, one to stand on), and a log and a cable (same idea). This time, we crossed on the most, ummm..., difficult "bridge" yet: one log, no cable. And then we braved barb wire. Anyway, it was fun.

Salty

On my parents' first day here we went to the salt mines. No rest for the weary. But these were special salt mines: 200 meters inside of a mountain made of rock salt, a team of architects, miners and engineers built a Catholic cathedral and 14 crosses which each illustrate a station of the cross entirely out of salt. Never mind that the Colombian government footed the over $20 million for this which could have, say, helped out the 10% of the population which has been forced off their land because of the violence - point is that this was really cool.

one of the stations of the cross - it was dark down there in the salt mines, hence the eerie lighting that my camera flash produced.

the cathedral. mass is held every sunday.

Providence.

After a blissful week with my sister and Allyson, my whole family headed to the islands of San Andres and Providencia which lie about 150 miles off the eastern coast of Nicaragua. Providencia has about 4500 people, and to quote Lonely Planet, it fulfills your every expectation of paradise. Water the color you imagine it should be, reggae clubs which are sometimes wet from the crashing surf, endless deserted white sand beaches, interrupted only by occasional piña colada and fresh seafood restaurants, and lovely, friendly people everywhere who mean it when they say slow down and enjoy life.

Providencia was initially settled by English Puritans around the year 1630 - who for some reason decided to move to a blissful tropical island rather than to join their compañeros in settling in Massachusetts. Because of this early encounter with Brits, English is still the native language of most islanders, though by now it has picked up a melodious mix of Caribbean, African and Spanish rhythms which made it hard for my dad to believe he could really understand what people said.

Our shared Puritan heritage, the island's proximity to my favorite country Nicaragua, and the fact that it still is Colombia which I also really love, made Providence the ideal cultural mix for me. To boot, there were enough tourist facilities that my whole family was comfortable, while at the same time the island seemed remote and not commercialized.

However, my father pointed out that the islands hadn't yet taken the tourist-friendly step of putting toilet seats on top of their toilets. I tried to get the hotel to transfer one of three toilet seats they had to my parents' room, but apparently the seat only made it as far as the front steps of the hotel.

layovers can be fun

On the way to Providencia, we had a couple hours of layover in San Andres, which we weren't looking forward to, since looking forward to a layover would be weird. This layover, however, broke the mold. A 5 minute walk from the terminal in San Andres was a beautiful beach. So we had a swim, mom did some yoga, we waded and a walked on the beach, and then hopped back on the plane.

Another new flying fave? The airport in Providencia. This is the "waiting room," or gate, where we waited for our 19-seat plane. The airport boasts an airy lobby (there are no windows, or walls really), caution tape separating those who have gone through security and those who haven't, and a convenient flight departure notification system whereby you know you should get ready to board when you see a plane land and people get off...because that's the only plane in the airport, so it better be taking you.

Familia

Of course, the best part of the past couple weeks has been having my family here. While life is already hectic back here in Bogota (partly because I need to catch up after a week away), I feel deeply rested and ready to do this work. Here are happy pictures of the family:
My parents dancing in the Botero museum. Botero is the most famoius Colombian contemporary artist who is known for paiting and sculpting very round humans, animals and fruit.

Off to San Andres!

Thanks to all of you who continue to hang in there with this blog! I am now going to part with my computer for a week and head to the coast for some down time. I am looking forward to reading, relaxing and being with family. I'll post beachy photos in a week!

Things, knock on wood, seem to be settling down here, though another NGO was robbed a little over a week ago called Yira Castro, which is a lawyers' collective that works with displaced people and victims of paramilitary and state violence. We continue to both pray (in our own way) for and advocate for the Colombian government to get to the bottom of what can now be called a rash of break-ins at NHOs who work with threatened people, but no measurable progress has been made in theinvestigations yet. Thanks again to all of you who sent letters to the Colombian government and US Embassy asking them to pay special attention to this case.

Big abrazos...