At about 4:30am, I start to hear the roosters compete for loudest. Then the donkeys follow with their heehawing, along with some confused horses jumping in to the fray. I toss and turn for about an hour, on my foam mattress on the floor, trying to get just a few more minutes of rest before starting another long day. I give up.
The night sky was amazing. The dark dome was completely filled with stars of all colors and brightness, and I had never seen a milkier Milky Way. Although I could really use electricity to work during the night, I was OK with trading those extra hours on our powered-up machines for that view of the vertigo inducing sky.
Today will be another full day at the camp. We have to prep for a live video conference that will happen tomorrow, connecting a Washington, DC VIP event with the camp and our VIP refugee friends, celebrating World Refugee Day. The camp has about 17,000 of these VIPs, so we can only invite a few.
We are also preparing for a marathon of live-streaming on the actual World Refugee Day, June 20th. We will show camp life, walking the camp, as we regularly do for i-ACT, but this time with a camera that is feeding a live stream through the web. You can see this at refugeedaylive.org, with the show starting at 9am EST. You get to walk the camp with us!
On our walk yesterday, I met an older woman named Jimya. She has one sick eye and two sad eyes. She lives alone. When she thinks of home, she sees her field full of trees and vegetables. Everything was destroyed by janjaweed, but she still sees it. She wants to go back, but not now. Peace first, she told me. She was collecting water. Jimya had the two smallest container from all the women at the water station. It’s all she can carry.
2 replies on “Night and Day”
Hi Gabe and team,
I’ve followed the posts and watched all the videos including day 4 and I know that many of us that have followed you on the 8 i-Act journeys feel very connected to the faces we see again and the new ones we meet and I always think that if only the world could watch these videos for sure that would make a difference and it would trigger that massive chain reaction that would pressure the powers to be to ACT.
I’m looking forward to following the coverage on World Refugee Day and hopefully millions of others will be watching as well.
Ian and Eric thanks for sharing your insights about your first experience at the camps, I can relate to much of what you have expressed.
Will your event with DC today be broadcast as well?
Teresa Stauring
Hey Tere!
Our event in DC was “private,” kinda. You will see our side of it on Day 5, going up soon!
Yes, if only many more could see and feel what we see and feel out here. It’s just that most can’t take 3 minutes from their daily lives to do something that might then grab them. If they know, then they must act or feel guilty or put effort in forgetting.
More to come from out here! Say hi to all familia!
hug