Christmas

Happy Holidays from Colombia!  Since June I have been working as a human rights accompanier with the Fellowship of Reconciliation. in the Peace Community of San José de Apartadó, in Colombia's northwest banana - and more recently coca - growing region.

My Christmas this year will be quite a change from christmas-cookie-eating, presents-under-a-decorated-fir-tree Christmases to which I'm accustomed.  Instead, I'll be spending the holiday season eating natilla (a sweet corn pudding made with milk, cinnamon, cheese, and often coconut) and buñuelos (cheesy balls of fried dough), and dancing the nights away to vallenato (accordion-based Colombian pop music).

As much as I'm already enjoying the start of those festivities, my teammates and I remain on alert.  December tends to be one of the most violent months in this region: members of the legal and illegal armed groups are anxious and on edge because they'd rather be home with their families, and attention at human rights offices of the government and other such agencies is often elsewhere as folks head off on vacation for the holidays.

Happy Christmas from John Lennon and Yoko Ono: