Hello,

I am in Rwanda; Africa after having completed an intensive retreat called Bearing Witness Rwanda. The purpose of the Retreat was to bear witness to the 1994 Genocide that occurred here and its aftermath.

In short, over 800, 000 people were brutally killed because of their ethnic background and a conspiracy by other nations who knew what was about to happen and turned the other way. This genocide has left Rwanda in many ways devastated. Of course, after 16 years the country is rebuilding itself; yet many resources are not present.

70% of Rwanda is comprised of youth with the average age being 17 years old.  As a result of the genocide, many children are orphaned or living on the streets.  Many people are still in a state of post traumatic stress or face trauma related issues.

The unique and interesting thing about Rwanda is that the memory of the genocide is still fresh.  There are many mass graves and memorials, some of which still have bones exposed and decomposing.  There are many survivors who have stories fresh in their minds.  Some are willing to talk and some are still not yet ready. There are also stories of heroes/sheros who risked their lives to save others.

And, in the midst of all of this; Rwanda is absolutely beautiful.  Rwanda actually means land of one thousand hills. The people we have met have been generous, kind, and unbelievably resilient.

Why am I interested in sharing with you about Rwanda?

I believe that Rwanda offers many opportunities and lessons for humanity such as the capacity of humane beings to be profoundly evil and/or profoundly good. Also, an opportunity to be conscious of our freedom to choose in any given situation.

During my time here, I have hugged survivors and shook hands with killers. I have stood face to face with thousands of skulls, bones, and clothing worn by those who perished. I have comforted young adults as they visited the memorial sites which held the remains of their loved ones in mass graves. I have cried. I have laughed. I have prayed and been in deep silence.

I have asked myself: What is the work of my hand? Why have I come here? How do I commit little genocides each day through my words, thoughts, or actions?

While here in Rwanda, I have been the died; I have survived; I have been the killer. I have been the rescuer. American; African; and the world that closed its eyes and pretended nothing was happening and nothing happened.

The three tenets of our Retreat was:

1. Not knowing
2. Bearing Witness
3. Loving Action

Not knowing involves suspending judgments and the ways we think things should be. Bearing Witness involves being with everything just as it is and is not; being present. Loving action for me involves looking at what ways I can consciously act and be differently given all I have witnessed.

As I continue to be with and process my experience, I continue to be in the spaces of not knowing, bearing witness, and loving action.

So, I guess I am having a personal retreat after the retreat. I guess it is no accident that the entire Retreat group is still here in Rwanda because of the Iceland volcano eruption.

Thank You.
God Bless You.
Peace Be Still.

Lorraine

Name: Andrew Murray

Nationality: Scottish

Attended GYV: 1994 & 1995

Education: B Ed (Hons) in physical education

Current work: Deputy Head Teacher of a special school for students with behavioral difficulties.

Biography highlights: After leaving Legacy in summer of ‘94 I drove right across the USA with Paul Harvey and Will Russell, also of ‘94, until there was no road left! Washed my feet in the Pacific and drove all the way back again. Saw some crazy things on that road trip! I came back in ‘95 stronger than before and didn’t complain once about the bugs or the food!  Spent the next 15 years teaching and getting the experience to do what I do now — helping young people re-engage with their life and education.   I met Julie and now have a 7 year old son called Lewis, who is a wee gem!  

My memories of GYV: So many, I still have flash backs! The mind can take years to analyze everything that happens at Legacy! I can still see the faces of the other staff as if it were yesterday. The children of Legacy, I imagine them all grown up now.  The zero waste days when I had to finish all my tofu.  Building the trim trail, I must have been fit when I was younger.  Reciting Burns poetry into a cassette tape for the Legacy archive.  I wonder who got the job of transferring all that tape onto MP3?  Sitting at Mr. Rash’s  fire and being poured mint tea.  Mostly though I remember the unconditional acceptance and humility of some of the best people I have ever had the pleasure to spend time with (Paul, Will, Linn, Cheryl, Celena, Rebecca, Arianne, Karl, Amir, John (the Navaho), Bob so many).   And then there are all the students….so many….peace to you all…don’t stop believing.

Nationality:

GYV Participant: 1996 (staff)

Education: PhD research student at the Faculty of Health & Life Sciences, De Montfort University, Leicester, UK. The research aims to get a fresh look at the mind of State governance and deepen the moral debate about the provision of targeted and support services for young people in the UK.

Most Interesting Countries Visited: Japan, Basque Country and the US.

Favorite GYV Memory: My memories of GYV include cultural sharing nights, (very) early morning Ti Chi, playing football in the hot sun, reciting poetry, slap stick comedy with custard pies, drumming, and the wonders of tofu (before and after consumption!) GYV introduced me to a type of education that values individual worth and builds inclusive relationships rather than generate resistance or rejection. My experiences at GYV still influence my passion for youth work as I remember the stories that the young people brought with them and the optimism and joy of the potential futures they took away – transcending culture, language, opportunity, and the even the politics of war. It left my spirit with a global footprint and the knowledge that changing beliefs can change behaviour.

Biography: My background includes youth work, social work, research, civil rights & police monitoring. I remain particularly interested in helping young people in times of challenge, often based in settings that are characterised by conflict. From the Caen Peace Museum to integenerational projects in Funibashi my work has taken me to the Netherlands, Basque Country, Japan and France to meet with cabinet ministers, colleagues, and young people.

In 2006 I published an article entitled ‘Keep It Together, Keep It Safe: Violence, Peace and Young People’ (Development Education Journal, October 2006) and the following year I set up ‘Peace Techniques’ a self-founded company that offers training and projects to promote youth perspectives and actively challenge the acceptance of aggression and violence.

I now also lecture part-time at De Montfort University at the Faculty of Health & Life Sciences and the Youth affairs Unit, where I am studying for my PhD. This year I am really excited about the potential of a new project called ‘XL’ that plans to create safe communal spaces as part of an international network to holistically integrate age, culture and ability.

For all my friends of 1996 Alumni, please get in touch and send me pics and your memories at my email mikeo_2007@yahoo.co.uk.   Peace.

Nationality:

Education: MA in European Studies (Bogazici Univ, Istanbul), BA (hons) in Political Science & International Relations (Univ. of Tasmania, Australia)

Current Work & Volunteer Projects: Instructor in Academic English at Bogazici Univ. and freelance academic proofreader/translator.  I’m marginally involved in civil society projects on democratization, ethnic conflicts, environmentalism/agriculture and workers’ rights in Turkey but I’m not as active as I’d like to be! (I’m busy raising my baby daughter at the moment!)

Biography: I was born in 1972 in Tasmania, Australia and spent the first 20 years of my life there.  From my earliest years, I was aware that there was a much larger world and endlessly dreamed of travelling.  As soon as I graduated, I moved to Israel where I lived for several years as a yeshivah (rabbinical school) student, then a Kibbutznik in the Golan Heights & near the Judean desert.  I was active in the Israeli peace movement and was deeply affected by my witnessing, as a naive Australian Jew, of the Palestinian experience.   Although I left Israel in 1995, my time there has profoundly shaped my attitudes to issues of identity, nationalism, peace and basic love for humanity.

After leaving Israel, I decided to become an English teacher.  After two wonderful years in Prague and Gyor, Hungary, I made the fateful decision in 2000, to come to Turkey where I met my wife Ebru and, subsequently, have ended up an ‘honorary Turk’.  Turkey is a rich, dynamic society with many echoes of the issues I faced in Israel.   I love living at the nexus of European, Asian and Middle-Eastern culture.   Living in Turkey also helped me to consolidate my long engagement with Islam.  I finally took the step of embracing Islam, allowing me to explore the profundities and inner dimensions of this extraordinary religion as a participant rather than sympathetic observer.  Since then, the teachings of Sufic Islam have subtly but profoundly reshaped my understanding of life and the world.

In 2008, on December 14, the greatest happiness I have ever known came into my life in the form of my little daughter Ela Nur, and I have since discovered the indescribable joys (and trials) of being a Dad.   Between my work on Bogazici University’s breathtakingly gorgeous campus and my much-treasured ‘Daddy-Daughter Time’, I try to follow and engage with the struggles of life in this amazing, chaotic, beautiful city in this breath-taking, mad, delirious country.

My Memories of GYV: My wife first took me to GYV, having previously been a cabin counselor, and convinced me I would find the place inspiring.  Actually, ‘inspirational’ seems a weak word for what seems to transpire, each time in its own unique way, as people from impossibly different backgrounds become drawn into such powerful, lasting friendships.  It is astonishing to me to see how, even now, years after the GYV experience, so many people remain in close contact with each other.  The life-changing power of GYV cannot be overestimated.  I have been actively involved in GYV only twice, yet, whether we have an active position or not, my wife and I come back to visit almost every summer.  GYV above all, inspires so deeply, because it shows us, in microcosm, a living example of how the whole world should and could be, if only we collectively dared to dream it.  GYV is living proof that diverse people can live together in more than just tolerance, but mutual love, respect and friendship.  At its best, GYV opens a window in the heart to what it is to be truly human in the sense of embracing the best of the potential in all of us.  As an experience, it is unforgettable and transformational.