Live Adventurously

Many of my friends and aquaintances know that I’m always complaining about the internet, computers etc. and I’m aware that my whining and wittering is often irritating.  The last piece I wrote had some damning things to say about IT and I stand by what I said in relation to drone warfare.  However, I am about to launch into a hymn of praise for how my life has been enriched by IT in general and Apple and Amazon in particular.  I realize that, as an activist, these two Leviathans should be shunned, but I have to acknowledge truthfully that they do help, if I keep them in their place!

A few years ago I was lucky enough to buy a second hand five year old Mac for £250.  This meant that as well as the usual functions such as email and the ability to write essays, journal entries, letters, articles and leaflets, I also had access to a decent DVD player and learned how to use BBC IPlayer as I don’t have a TV.

The greatest joy, however, has been the ITunes library where I can store all my favourite books in audio form and then transfer them to my IPod.  I buy audiobooks from Audible, now an Amazon company.  I have always loved to read and my failing sight has meant that I haven’t been able ro read normal print for the past few years.   It’s a pleasure to be read to, and if I have a favourite book on CD, I can use the computer to listen to that too.

After returning from Afghanistan, Beth and I gave several talks.  I decided to buy an IPad so that we could show pictures of our visit.  Beth set up a Prezi presentation and I was delighted to find that running through the pictures was a breeze, even when I gave solo talks.

The IPad has been a revelation to me.  When I bought it the man in the shop told me that they are very popular with children and the elderly!  I’d like to add the visually impaired to that.  Even though I use my hand magnifyer to look at certain icons and buttons, adaptations make it easier to read emails on the IPad and the picture on IPlayer is really clear and bright.  Despite the fact that the on screen keyboard took some gettting used to, I really like it now and whilst on retreat recently I was able to write all my retreat reflections on the IPad.  During the same retreat I used the camera to take some beautiful photos of the garden which I can look at any time and remember, and be happy!  (I’ll buy a coffee/tea for anyone who gets this reference!)

When I first got the IPad I didn’t use it much, apart from the presentations.  When the police “seized” our computers after our Waddington action, I followed my friend, Henrietta’s, advice and made friends with the IPad.  By the way, we now have our computers , thanks to Keith’s persistence.

I’ve discovered a real interest in Art History and have already completed several courses at the Oxford University Department for Continuing Education.  My methods for viewing pictures in a gallery are for another article.  However, the websites of various galleries really help in looking at pictures before visiting.  One particular website which I like is the BBC’s ‘Your Paintings’.  Nothing replaces visiting a gallery and looking at the original painting, yet the computer makes it possible to pick out detail I might otherwise miss.

In the past few days I’ve found out that I can put a Kindle app on the IPad and get ebooks from Amazon.  I’ve been able to set text size and font and use a white on black screen so that now I can read print again!  The first book I downloaded was ‘Seeking Justice’ by Keith Hebden, with whom I planted the peace garden at Waddington.  I’ve also bought two Chekov stories which we’ll be studying in the Russian Shorter Fiction course which starts in October.

Information technology is a good servant but a bad master.  Apple and Amazon give me what I need; the ability to write, access to well loved books, paintings and programmes, and the facility to discover new ones.  What I need to do is to keep a safe distance from other webs they may try to weave around me!

On 3rd of June six of us, now known to our friends as the Waddington Six, entered RAF Waddington in Lincolnshire, from where the British drones are now being operated.  Our aim was to find out what was happening there and to give information, by leaving photos and descriptions, about the effects of drone warfare on innocent people.  We also planted a peace garden containing a vine and a fig tree, echoing the prophets, Isaiah and Micah, who spoke of these as symbols of genuine peace.

The three reasons why I acted with my friends can be summed up thus.  First, I acted because of my belief that war and preparations for war are contrary to God’s will for us.  The second and third reasons are summed up in a chant heard at a public demonstration at Waddington earlier this year;

‘EVERY AFGHAN HAS A NAME:

WAR IS NOT A VIDEO GAME’

For many years I have believed that Jesus left us a powerful message of nonviolence, summed up in the Sermon on the Mount and in the example of his own life and death.  He urges us to love one another and to love our enemies.  This is incompatible with war and warmaking.  One of the reasons I became a Quaker was because of the Peace Testimony, which, together with the Testimonies of Simplicity, Equality and Truth, form the basis of Quaker practice in daily life.  It was in the spirit of the peace of Jesus given in the Gospel and the Quaker Peace Testimony that I joined the others at Waddington on that beautiful summer’s morning.

EVERY AFGHAN HAS A NAME

Over the past five years, since joining St. Francis House, I have met and got to know many refugees from Afghanistan.  This, together with several direct actions I have taken part in, resisting the war on Afghanistan, led me to go with Voices for Creative Nonviolence to Afghanistan last year.  The people we met through the Afghan Peace Volunteers told us many stories about the effects of thirty five years of war.  The use of drones in Afghanistan is the latest in a long line of violent interventions the people of Afghanistan have had to suffer.  One young man, Raz Mohammed, spoke movingly of a drone strike which killed members of his family and uttered the heartbreaking words: ‘Drones bury beautiful lives’.

WAR IS NOT A VIDEO GAME

Drone warfare is remote control warfare.  The operators of the drones are thousands of miles away from their targets and so operating drones resembles the kind of computer war games which are so popular today.  Because of this remote control warfare, innocent people lose their lives.  The sophistication of information technology and the internet make drone wars possible.  Whenever I turn on my computer or IPad I am aware that I am part of a world which idealizes and idolizes this form of communication.  Even at this moment, as I write,  I am admitting that I accept this kind of impersonal communication, which is often no communication at all.  This can isolate and dehumanize me.  Modern warfare, of which drone wars are but a part, is possible because of the devotion we have to computers.  I am also complicit in this.

“We are called to live ‘in the virtue of that life and power which takes away the occasion of all wars’.  Do you faithfully maintain our testimony that war and the preparation for war are inconsistent with the spirit of Christ?”

Quaker Advices and Queries n. 31

 

“Visual impairment is neither a shame nor an honour: it is simply a limitation.”  These words were spoken by Mahdi, the deputy director of Rehabilitation Services for the Blind in Afghanistan, whom we met in Kabul.  As a visually impaired person myself, I had contacted Hakim before our journey, to ask if it would be possible to meet some visually impaired people and find out what kind of services existed for them in Afghanistan.  One of he APV set up the meeting and on our first Saturday in Kabul we set off in taxis to visit the project.  Mahdi and his co worker, Yacubi, are also themselves visually impaired.

During our visit we learnt that the project provides skills for children who are visually impaired.  Unfortunately the workers are able to help only a percentage of those who are registered with them, due to scarce funding.  Advocacy is also one of the aims of the project and we were told that International White Cane Day, 15 Octobr, gives an opportunity for raising awareness of issues surrounding visually impaired people.  The problems are many and, given the enormous difficulties of life for all Afghans, life for the huge number of people with disabilities is even more challenging.  Blindness and partial sight, as with other disabilities, are caused by a number of factors; hereditary, accidents, preventable diseases and, of course, war.  We also visited other projects specifically concrned with disability.

At the end of our visit we met a class of children learning braille.  They read to us and sang for us and Hakim made a short video about our visit, which contained a moving message from Mahdi at the end.  In his message he stresses our common humanity and speaks of the need for all peoples to live in peace, love and kindness in order to make a better world.  You’ll find the video on YouTube, along with several others about the APV.  Type

ourjourneytosmile

in the search box on YouTube.

As a visually impaired person myself, I had to consider, before deciding to be part of the delegation, whether or not my disability would be a hindrance to the group.  I needed help during our journey from Heathrow to Kabul and back, and this was willingly offered by my travelling companions.  Once in Kabul, various members of the APV took care of me and I was helped and guided during our trips to visit various projects.  In the house, too, I was really aware that the boys were looking out for me and ensuring that I found my way safely to where I needed to be.  One fruit of my disability has been the three articles I have written for this journal.  Deprived of my accustomed aids to reading and writing, I was unable to make notes but had to store everything in my head to be retrieved as soon as I was united to my computer.  We returned just ovr two weeks ago and it has been imperative that I set things down while they are still fresh.

One memory will never leave me.  The woman who teaches sewing to the group of women making duvets, asked Hakim what faith I had and if I believed in prayer.  She asked for some Muslim prayer beads but as non could be found she produced pen and paper.  Standing near me she began to pray softly, marking down the prayers she said on her paper.  This went on in the living room for several minutes and as her prayr progressed I became fully aware of the beauty and sacredness of the moment.  Here we were, two women of different nations, cultures, languages and faith, united in prayer to the one God in whom we both believed  Our delegation had been advised to keep off any reference to faith matters in case rumours sprang up about the possibility that we might be there to evangelise.  In offering to pray with me, my new Muslim friend dissolved the boundaries between us.  Tashakur!  Thank you!

In writing this piece I am well aware that I have had no experience of being directly affected by war and that these reflections are simply the observations of an outsider in more ways than one.  It is important to say here too that these are my own reflections and in no way represent the views of Voices for Creative Nonviolence, under whose banner we went to Afghanistan.  This will be true of anything I write in this journal; I am writing as myself and not as an official representative of VCNV.  It is important to say this as I have a great respect for Voices’ ethos and practice.   For more about VCNV and the great work they have and are doing, visit

http://www.vcnv.org

Elsewhere in this journal mention has been made of preparatory reading which was recommended to us.  “Ghosts of Afghanistan”by Jonathan Steele and “Descent Into Chaos” by Ahmed Rashid have been helpful texts in presenting the recent history of war and conflict in Afghanistan and the wider region.  In our short visit to one part of one city, Kabul, most of the people we met had been affected by the wars of the past thirty five years, chronicled in these two books.  Jounalists’ facts took on human features and voices and left us speechless.

In the mid seventies civil war was already brewing between mujahedin groups which represented the different ethnic groups in Afghanistan.  These groups are: Pashtun (42%) Tajik (27%) Hazara (9%)  Uzbek (8%) and others (14%).  The Soviet invasion which began in December 1979 united the mujahedin war lords and their troops against a common enemy.  In 1989, with the withdrawal of Soviet troops, the civil war intensified.  in 1996 the Taliban entered Kabul and their reign of terror continued until their  defeat in 2001.  This defeat, as we all know, was brought about by the US/NATO attacks on Afghanistan, ordered in October 2001 by George W. Bush in an attempt, we were told, to capture Osama bin Laden.  The US/NATO war in Afghanistan increased in ferocity, causing even more suffering and death to a population already terrorised and cowed by conflict on all sides.  The war continues, bringing death and injury to innocent Afghans as well as to foreign soldieers whose grieving families do not understand why they are fighting in Afghanistan.

Kabul bears the scars of constant war and, despite the belief here at home that coalition forces are building a new Afghanistan, there is little sign in this wounded, struggling city, gasping for breath in the thick pollution hanging over it.  I was full of admiration for the people of Kabul, attempting to make a bearable life in difficult conditions.  The streets and pavements are full of potholes and there are open drains on the side of the road which require footbridges to cross.  We visited the Museum of Kabul and it was rouching to see how the staff is struggling to keep it open and to preserve the ancient culture of this dignified yet damaged land.

The people we met during our stay also have a dignity which shines through all the suffering.  The young members of the APV where we stayed, had nearly all lost a family member or friend as a result of the conflicts of the past thirty five years.  Despite this, they continue to believe that a nonviolent future for Afghanistan is the only way forward.

On our first full day in Kabul we visited a camp of Kuchi refugees.  The Kuchi are a nomadic people and are Pashtun.  The group we met had returned from a refugee camp in Pakistan because they had been promised land on which to settle.  Neither the government nor the UNHCR had made good this promise and they had found space in Kabul, far from the north where they usually live.  Maya Evans, from our delegation, also visited another refugeee camp in Kabul where, once again, people displaced and made homeless by war tried to survive.

Our second day was very much a women’s day, during which we heard more about the effects of war on ordinary Afghan families.  In the morning we spent time with the women of Pandora’s Hope, the fledgling sewing cooperative which is based at the APV community.   They expressed their fears for the safty of their children and, in a refrain we heard repeated many times, they told of their anxiety about the future in 2014, when the international troops are scheduled to leave.  During the many conversations we had, people returned to this and told us that weapons are pouring into Afghanistan so that people can arm themselves against the ethnic battles which are predicted.  Another fear is the return of the Taliban who are by no means a thing of the past.  We had no answers to allay these fears, just an overwhelming sense that the international governments which sent forces into Afghanistan in 2001 have done nothing to ensure the peace and safety of the people when they leave.  Time is running out but we need to speak out for Afghanistan now more than ever.

In the afternoon of the same day, we went to the home of a woman who had lost two children in a suicide bombing in Kabul.  Since 2003 suicide bombings have become an added threat to the already vulnersble lives of ordinary Afghans. As this woman told her story we heard how her young sons were returning home from schoool one afternoon to be caught up in the bombing.  The mother told if her grief and anger and sense of powerlessness and her fears for her remaining children, whom she was afraid to send to school in case the same thing happened to them.  This was one mother’s story.  How often is it repeated?  Suicide bombers target foreign forces but it is the innocent bystanders and their families who suffer the most.  Many who at first welcomed the US/NATO arrival in 2001 fear now that the presence of international troops increases insurgent activity and that the spiral of violence spins ever faster, befuddling logic and reason and destroying innocent lives.

Our conversations with Afghan people from various sectors of society raised more questions than answers but there were also definite signs of hope amid the pain.  We met journalists, human rights campaigners, advocates for disabled people, women’s rights workers, educationalists,  representatives of young Afghans, all of whom were working tirelessly to confront injustices and inequality in Afghan society.  The people we talked to, either in their own premises or at the APV, were working with ordinary people as well as approaching government bodies, to campaign for a fairer society.  We heard often about government corruption and the failure of the international community to make good its promise to help rebuild the war torn country.  Despite the fact that Afghanistan has been brutalised by internal strife and foreign invasion, the overall belief that a peaceful future depends upon nonviolent cooperation and care for the most vulnerable, shone through.  No one said it would be easy or quick to arrive, but the Afghan people we met are prepared to be in it for the long haul.  Here at home, we have to discover how we can best stand with them in the struggle.

We, the Voices for Creative Nonviolence UK delegation , have now returned from Afghanistan.  We spent two weeks in Kabul as guests of the Afghan Peace Volunteers.  This is a remarkable and unique community of young men who first came together in Bamiyan under the guidance of a local doctor, Hakim.  Inspired by the nonviolent spirit of Gandhi and Martin Luther King, the group first came together in 2008 to create a peace park in their locality.  Bamiyan is a mainly Hazara area of Afghanistan and the local people have suffered at the hands of the Taliban.  In March, 2001 the Taliban destroyed two ancient giant statues of the Buddah in Bamiyan.  For a more detailed background to the APV, visit their website,

http://www.ourjourneytosmile.com

The community relocated to Kabul and has worked closely with Voices for Creative Nonviolence over the past few years.  The dream of the community is to form a multi ethnic group, committed to nonviolence and work among the poor of their neighbourhood.

To say that the APV has a vision of being a multi ethnic community does not give the full picture of the task they have set themselves.  Ethnic divisions in Afghanistan go deep into a painful and violent history.  The community is mainly Hazara but there is a Pashtun and aTajik among the group.  It is a privilege to be part of their sincere desire to heal old wounds and build a society for the future of Afghanistan, free from ethnic chains.  Their task is not an easy one and they don’t seem to be under the illusion that it is.  The community and the country has a long struggle ahead to build a peaceful Afghanistan.  Spending time with these young men gives one the feeling that it is possible and that a commitment to nonviolence holds the key.

On our arrival in Kabul after a long but uneventful journey, we were met by community members and taken to their home.  We shared their living space for two weeks and were given typical Afghan hospitality. The four of us and later two friends from the US, Kathy Kelly and Martha Hennessy, slept on cushions in the main living area where, during the day we had meals, English lessons, discussions and meetings.  Kathy is the founder and coordinater of Voices and Marth                                                                               a is part of the New York Catholic Worker community.  She is also the granddaughter of Dorothy Day who co founded the Catholic Worker movement.

Through its connection with Voices the APV have played host to several delegations of international visitors over the past year or so.  Delegates share fully in the life of the community and during our stay we were present at many community meetings during which a wide range of subjects was discussed, from practicalities of daily communal living to deep philosophical reflections on the nature of nonviolence and its implications in a country reeling and bowed down by thirty years of war and conflict.

The APV as a community are involved in the life of their neighbourhood.  The house has a constant stream of visitors, young and old and all receive a warm welcome.  Each morning there is an English class, atttended by some of the APV and other local young people, both boys and girls.  Hakim conducts the class and often emphasises that the reason for lerning a language is to communicate.  During the lessons, which some of us attended, there was often a sharing of ideas and feelings about the future of Afghanistan and the aspirations of the students.  It was very moving to be present as these thoughtful young people expressed their hopes and fears and also posed searching questions to us about our role in the future of their country.

In the afternooons the APV themselves, along with other volunteer teachers, hold classes for local children, teaching Dari and maths.

The community is also home to a sewing project for women.  At present this project focuses on making duvets for poor local families as the bitter cold of winter approaches.  Financial help from Voices means that women can earn money by sewing the duvets, either at home or on the APV premises.  The sharing out of the materials to be made up into the completed products is carried out by the young men of the community.  The duvets are then distributed by the APV.  There is a video clip on the website showing the most recent distribution on 21 December.   Other duvets were also given to a nearby refugee camp during our stay.

As ewll as living community life and working on these projects, some of the community members attend school or university.  The overall atmosphere of the community is of generous hospitality,                  cheerful enthusiasm, hard work in difficult conditions and, above all, a belief that they are living out a model of the society they wish to see for a future Afghanistan.  This model has at its heart a true desire for people of all ethnicities to live together and to work together for a better life for the poorest and most vulverable.  These young men really do think globally and act locally.

It is now six days before our Voices for Creative Nonviolence UK delegation leaves for two weeks in Kabul.  We had our final preparation meeting last Sunday and set up media coverage and made all sorts of practical decisions.  Despite anxieties I am feeling confident and hopeful.  We have certainly done the groundwork necessary, both individual and collective, and we are all clear about our objectives.  It is wonderful to be going to Afghanistan as part of the wider Voices for Creative Nonviolence and communication from them has been thorough and encouraging.  I feel very comfortable with my four companions and we are different in age and character but united in our aims.   It is encouraging to see how we are all supporting each others’ projects and offering help.

Personally, the past few weeks have been at times fearful and at times exciting.  I find that if I am not dealing with my day to day life in an ordered fashion, fears about the trip grow.  If I live in the day and do the things required of me, then I become more positive.

Apart from practicalities like shopping for warm clothes, writing a will, making sure I have all necessary documents and photographs, I’ve been preparing myself mentally.  Maya recommended that we read “Ghosts of Afghanistan” and relevant entries in the “Lonely Planet ” guide.  Such reading helps to concentrate the mind and I find that if I spend some time each day reading about Afghanistan then fears subside.   Other reading consists of  “The Brothers Karamazov”!  I’ve signed up for a ten week course on the book, starting in January and I’ve been reading it in audio form.  It’s serious and entertaining enough to be an ideal read before spending two weeks unable to read anything.  Let me explain.

Because of my visual impairment I am unable to read without the aid of magnification.  Being unwilling to take anything to Afghanistan that is precious or difficult to replace, apart from myself, I won’t be taking my magnifying glasses.  I’ve come to realise that I have enough material in my head and heart to keep me going for many hours!  After all, I am sixty six and have a good memory and vivid imagination.  The same goes for writing as well as reading.  I can no longer write with pen and paper, which is why I’m reduced to keeping an online journal to share my thoughts with friends.  So, I’ve bought a simple battery operated voice recorder to record my thoughts and impressions while in Afghanistan.  I can then use these reflections to write up accounts for the journal on return.  Wordsworth’s “emotion recollected in tranquility” is my method!  I neither like nor trust the immediacy of internet communication; information without wisdom is a phrase I recently heard and feel it sums up my distrust.  Even composing these journal entries takes me several days and I’m not a prolific writer, as can be seen by the number of posts since August.

I’m now signing off until January, trusting in God that whatever happens it’s meant to be.

Yesterday, 21 September, our delegation met to continue our preparations for our journey to Afghanistan.  We are four in number at present but there is a fifth person who has not been able to make the meetings yet.  We hope she will join us for our community building in October.

Maya, Beth, Ariadne and myself met up at Caffe Nero in Kensington and set off for our first visit to the Afghan Embassy which is opposite Hyde Park.  Our intention was to apply for our visas but, although we had everything else, we discovered we needed letters of invitation.  Hopefully these will come soon and we were not too disappointed not to get the process underway yeaterday.  We all feel more confident now about returning to the embassy to deliver our papers.

After Kensington, we decided to visit Whitechapel to shop!  We hopped on the District Line and were soon in the market.  Our aim?  To buy shalwar kameez to wear  in Afghanistan!  Really, all we need are clothes which cover us and are loose fitting, so that we don’t look too Western and so that we can wear thermals underneath!  It will be very cold!

After Whitechapel, we took off for Kings Cross and the Peace News office for the most exciting part of our day.

The group we shall be staying with, Afghan Peace Volunteers, hold a Global Day of Listening on the 21st of each month.  By using the internet, skype and telephones, it is possible to set up a time to speak to them.  They stay connected all day and speak to many groups from all around the world.  Someone from the Voices for Creative Nonviolence coordinates the conversations and yesterday it was Kathy Kelly, founder of VCNV and a frequent visitor to Afghanistan.  Indeed, she may well be there when we go in December.  I met Kathy many times whilst I was living in the States and she is keen that I go to Afghanistan because of our house of hospitality in Oxford, St. Francis House, which is an example of people from different countries and  cultures living together.  She is a remarkable woman and has been visiting and supporting people in war zones for many years.  She was in Iraq throughout the early months of the U.S. bombing in 2003.

As we joined the skype conversation, a group of students from Long Island, New York had just finished their slot.  Linked by Kathy we introduced ourselves and the young men in Kabul introduced themselves.  They asked us questions and I was touched that they were so interested in St Francis House, particularly asking questions about how people got on and how conflict is resolved.  Beth and Ariadne talked to them about their hopes to produce a book and a documentary on our visit and asked them for ideas about linking up when we return.

The conversation was then joined by someone working with children in Gaza and another group of thirteen year olds from the States!

We hope to do the same thing in October, when hopefully Mary, our fifth delegate, will be with us.

After the skyping we had a meeting addressing practicalities of our travels and found a relatively inexpensive ticket option on line which we will be able to book once we have our visas.  Our projected travel date is 17/18 December and we will stay for two weeks or perhaps a few days more.

I am enjoying getting to know the other women and working together to make this journey possible.

My Becoming Friends companion at Oxford Quakers, Gwithian, has suggested that we set up a support group for me  from Friends at the Meeting.  This is something that Quakers do for community members who are contemplating doing something out of the ordinary or particularly difficult.  Our first meeting is on Wednesday and Beth, who lives in Oxford and has been associated with Quakers, will join us.

It is comforting to kow that my two journeys, towards Quaker faith and life and to Afghanistan, are so closely linked.

In the little red book, “Advices and Queries”, used by Quakers in Britain,  no. 27 urges us to “live adventurously”.  Recently, for me, this has meant the possibility of travelling to Afghanistan.

Last year my friend, Maya Evans, went to Afghanistan with Voices for Creative Nonviolence and on her return gave talks about her experiences.  I had always thought that my days of travel abroad were over, after time spent in the United States, Madagascar and Cameroon.  Indeed, I had announced to all and sundrie that I would not renew my passport and would give up air travel because of the environmental damage it does.  I should have remembered the words, “a foolish consistancy is the hobgoblin of the narrow mind”.  Maya encouraged me to think about joining her on her next visit as part of the first British Delegation of VCNV.

The main reason for my joining the delegation is that for the last eight years I have lived and worked in a House of Hospitality for asylum seekers in Oxford, St. Francis House.  The house is part of the Oxford Catholic Worker community and since I have been there we have given hospitality to six Afghan asylum seekers.  Maya said she felt my direct experience would be of value and that perhaps links could be made between our guests and the young people we will be staying with in Kabul.

Apart from the flying, my main reason for not going is that I am visually impaired and a senior citizen.  I felt I might be a liability.  Maya spoke to Kathy Kelly, who started VCNV and who knows me, and they felt it would not be an obstacle.

VCNV hsa been working for some time with a group in Kabul called Afghan Peace Volunteers.  They believe in creating nonviolent ways of resolving conflict and in reconciliation.  At the end of this article I shall put web addresses for VCNV, APV and any other groups I mention.

Our delegation has five members and we met for the first time last week end.  At this point I won’t say too much about the others as they too have online journals .  Suffice it to say that I found our first meeting invaluable and inspiring.

This journal has the headline “Reflections on a Journey in Faith” so I will confine myself to my own musings about our preparations.

We are hoping to travel to Afghanistan at the end of the year and to spend two weeks there.  Our first joint meeting was very positive and I feel a great trust in my companions.  We all feel the importance of building our community and are prepared to put energy and time into this.  After all, this is potentially a dangerous undertaking and we don’t know what may happen.  As a group we have begun to talk about this.  However, personal preparation is essential so here are some of the ways I have begun to prepare.

First, my faith in a loving God and in Jesus, whom I like to call friend and brother, is my anchor.  In my prayer I pray for courage and fidelity and, most of all, humility.  It’s possible that in the end something may prevent my going with the others but I believe that whatever happens it will be God’s will for me.  Any preparations I make will not be wasted even if I don’t make the journey.  I firmly believe that if God wants me to go to Afghanistan, I shall go.  Praying for humility is also important to me as embarking on such an adventure could be a real boost to my ego and pride; I know myself too well!

The second preparation is doing some extra reading and study on the background to Afghanistan and the present war there.  A good friend recommended “Descent into Chaos” by Ahmed Rashid and I’ve nearly finished it.  I’m also reading Norman Kember’s book, “Hostage In Iraq”.  Another member of the group has sent us links to several documentaries and other clips available on the internet.

Such reading and viewing confronts me with hash reality and sometimes heartbreaking stories.  To counteract this I am also nourishing the spirit by immersing myself in beauty through art, music and literature.  This sounds rather pompous but I’ve always been an avid reader and have also done some art history and appreciation of late.  As an act of faith that we will return safe and well,I have signed up for two course which begin next January at the Oxford University Department of Continuing Education: “Art in Focus” and “Dostoevsky: The Brothers Karamazov”.

A healthy body will be important as life will be tougher than in England.   I’m hoping to do some exercise and eat healthily in the months before we go  to give myself a good chance of coping.

I feel privileged to have been asked to go on this journey and to share the hopes of the people we will meet.

The websites for Voices for Creative Nonviolence and the Afghan Peace Volunteers are:

http://www.vcnv.org

http://www.ourjouneytosmile.com