It was great talking with you. The STF is amazing, and it makes me feel so good to be able to share what we do and have it in anyway help with the student advocacy at your schools and communities. Let’s continue working together. Working with groups like yours is what really keeps me going!

I’m glad you’re liking the videos, and I hope your school stays active in the movement to help our friends get back home.

I am so proud to be at all associated with you and your people in Redding. You are the definition of an “upstander,” as Samantha Power calls those that are the opposite of bystanders. I’m also looking forward to speaking to you and your friends on Thursday. Peace, my friend.

Yes, I was landing the plane! Well, I was up in the co-pilot’s seat, but KTJ was too worried about me being there, so I decided to let the pilot take care of the flying. Greg’s song is pretty cool, and it makes me pretty proud when he says that I’m the co-writer, since he based it on what I said in a short little speech up in Redding. I love that community.

You are on this journey, once again, with me (wait, I think you are stuck with me, right?). Today I heard a mother who lost her husband to sickness say that she plays both roles, the mother and the father. Although most families here have far more children than we do in ours, it still reminded me of you and all that has made us stronger. I wish you were here with me to meet these women and hold their hands. Each time we have a family sign the book, I tell them my mother is also working for their freedom. i luv u.

I have heard so much about your relentless efforts in Redding! I look forward to talking with you Thursday night! We have met many families here that remind Gabriel of Redding’s own family. Thank you for your continued support and action for the people of Darfur.

In general our reception in the camps is welcomed. Being now in the South of Chad with Masseleit Darfurians, the welcome is even more so present. In all the camps we have been in so far, there is a feeling of permanency. I think after 5 years of living in a place, would begin to build mud or straw walls and a small fence to make my space feel more mine. With this, the refugees are losing some hope. We continue to hear that they would return today or tomorrow, if they could. They are grateful for the camps, but this is not home. They need more to survive and if they were able to settle, they would be able to make it their own. Being traditional farmers, they want to farm and would be able to produce, but they are not given any land for this, only for their tents which are now small huts. We are thanked many times over by many, many people for our efforts, and I think some realize the larger picture, like Adam. I think they hold on to hope for a better future, because that is all they can do. I wonder many of the same things you wrote to me about. I offer this small opinion: If they give up hope for a better future and to be able to return to a peaceful Darfur, then what do they have to live for day by day? They only have hope.

And we have the responsibility to acknowledge and act on it. Please continue to watch and when I return I will share more than just the videos we are posting now!

The video was amazing today. Thank you so much for speaking to Crossroads this afternoon. Your words inspired every single one of the twenty-five people in the meeting. I was able to show day three of your journey in our teacher sponsor’s next class and the response was amazing in there, as well. I cannot express how much we appreciate what you are doing.

You are constantly in our thoughts,
Ginny

wow! u guys are doing a great job. I really like the new vid n especially seeing the faces. Those faces are now engraved in my heart especially Adams. It is great to know that the crops are growing were Adam is.

Keep up the great work!

My prayers are with you and all.

-Jessica Hala
Norwalk