The Week Ahead

November 14, 2006

Today we are in the Presbytery office spending some time getting organized for the week ahead. I was able to upload photos from the finca and some of our other travels, you can view them at http://www.flickr.com/photos/svanceocampo/

One of the things I have been able to take in the last day or so has been the news. President Uribe from Colombia was in the United States visiting with Bush, today he is here in Barranquilla to dedicate a statue of Shakira, interesting work for a President….. If you don´t know who she is, you should find out and listen to some of her music, it´s beautiful Colombian music, and her popularity has grown a great deal all over the world, and she has branched out into other types of music. http://www.shakira.com/

I have had a chance to look over a few Colombian newspapers here, which have quite a few stories of killings and other atrocities in them, along with photos that we wouldn´t publish in the United States. Thanks to the PCUSA Colombia egroup, I have also received a few articles from various news outlets about issues here in Colombia. The level of the violence in some parts of the country is staggering and the level of lack of resources is equally upsetting. I have spent a lot of time the last few days wondering about what is the appropriate response, how do those of us with many resources channel them in appropriate ways. I am finding that my time here in Colombia with the IPC is leaving me with more questions than answers, more things left undone than done.

Tomorrow we are attending a Land and Law conference, going back to the issues of the finca that we visited last week, that will be held here on the University campus. Representatives are coming from the Colombian government to talk along with lawyers about land issues. That will be interesting and will continue to educate us on the issues of land here in Colombia, an issue that underpins a lot of what goes on here. Then in the evening we are having some diversion, a Shakira concert here in Barranquila, which is a benefit for a school for children she wants to build here in town. It is being held at the huge soccer stadium here in town and promises to be a wild, and fun event. I love her music, so getting to see her live, even from some seats up high, sounds like a lot of fun.