We want to encourage everyone following i-ACT to take a step back and reflect on the self. Ask yourself: what am I actually doing to help the people of Darfur? Have I done all the daily actions? After the reflection process with another 11 days of i-ACT and only one day left to come, I want to push the people that are involved to get others in our lives, our workforce, our churches, our classes, our teachers to take a responsibility to take action for Darfur. Find Five people in your life and get them to make commitment, take the time, and exceed their efforts to save lives in 2008. We all have a role to play and we all have a part of the weight to carry. After five years approaching and still no action on the ground, two main angles we need to look at are reflection of one’s self and responsibility.

We apologize for not putting up the challenge word for yesterday’s action. We’ve put one up, and we’ll leave it for an extra day so you can play catch up. Thanks for participating, and don’t forget to send us your list when the trip is over :)

Day 11

We begin at school today. At each camp we have stopped to speak with teachers and students about their lives and lack of resources. We don’t ever have to ask, they all tell us, they don’t have enough to feel the hope that we all strive to provide. We hand each child a small canvas panel and a pen, and they begin to tell their story.

Not one of their drawings is missing a gun or a man in camouflage. Even when I approach a girl who has drawn UNHCR tents and a woman carrying a basket on her head, there is an object I can’t decipher, and refer to Bouba for help. The straight line with a perfect 90 degree triangle made with her ruler and one half circle ends up being an AK-47. Her words, not mine.

They all draw it. The death. The blood. The burning of their lives in Darfur. Once a genocide begins, it never really ends. I think of Saad, Fatna’s youngest who is only 5 years old which means he has only ever lived in Camp Farchana.

He holds my hand as we wonder through the camp. Any other child who attempts to hold any of the rest of my four finger he is not holding is shoved away, brows crossed and a tighter grip pursues.

Today I realize how hard it is for me to help produce i-ACT. I connect with people. I speak with them. They speak with me. We hold each other’s intentions and history in our eye contact and small handshakes. Trying to capture it all on tape is hard. But it’s the most important part of my entire reason for being here. To tell the story of those I meet. And not just their words, but to try to convey all of them. The smell the overwhelms me, the colors that take infuse women and children together, the sounds of feet rushing behind me followed by, “Okay! Okay!

There is no way for me to convey all that I feel while I am here. Many of you who read this will hear stories over and over once I return home to Portland, and perhaps you will get a sense of it all through bits and pieces over dinner or a walk through a park.

My very good friend Mike and I have talked philosophy and human nature for many years now. One of the reoccurring themes is words have no meaning, only what we assume or ascribe to them.

And so I offer you this one word that had only the meaning that I can try to give. HOPE. People are depending on you and I. You can see it in their eyes. Although you have only seen only slideshow of still shots from the many we have collected. They all have names, and they all have stories. They all have HOPE. To return to a better time and place back in Darfur.

No more tents. No more begging. No more suffering.

We need to be doing more. We can wait no longer. I said to myself when I read Anne Frank’s Diary and then I wrote a report on Rwanda, I would do something if this ever happened again. It’s happening, right now.

Please, today ask someone new if they know about Darfur. Tell them one story of someone you have met on this journey. Begin with what you know. Every action that you take, every minute you spend advocating for Peace in Darfur makes the difference to Fatma, Saad, Ismail, Moustafa, Guisma, Adef, Fatne, Fatna, Fadila, Mariam, Mohamed, Abdoulhaman, Zaineb, Yakoub, Adam, Asha, and Darsalam.

No more tents. No more begging. No more suffering.

Peace Now, KTJ

All i-ACT pictures available at flickr.com