CPTnet
August 28, 2003
COLOMBIA: Letter from Barb Howe

[Note: The following letter from Barb Howe to her supporters has been edited
for length.]

Hi all..... it's been awhile but here is my 5th letter to friends about life
with CPT and friends in Colombia. I miss you all.

August 24, 2003
Julian laughs and patiently waits for me while I marvel at the ubiquitous
leftist graffiti that one can see on the walls of Colombia's largest public
university. It's nothing at all unusual to him and he's amused that I find
it so fascinating.

With about the same number of students as the University of Florida in
Gainesville, the campus of Colombia's National University spreads itself
out with spacious parks and grassy areas, a sea of green tranquility in the
midst of the grey noise of the mega city.

I could forget that we are in Colombia, in a war zone,and that in a few days
I have to return from my week long vacation/study break in the big city and
go back to the steamy town of Barrancabermeja and the mosquito ridden Opon.
I close my eyes and savor the sensation of feeling like I'm back home in
Gainesville, sitting under an oak tree in the Plaza of the Americas,
talking with some cute student I met at the Civic Media Center.

Julian is a student who was volunteering as an intern with the team in
Barranca for a month. He is thoughtful, mature, smart and big-hearted. He
loves the work of CPT, loves the people on the river where we work, is sure
that God is good, justice is coming and peace will reign in his country and
around the world. Someday.

The bus ride back to Barranca was long and hot. Ten hours. I had been a
bit nervous about taking the bus to Bogota instead of flying. The plane is
45 minutes and much safer than the rural highway known in the past for
kidnappings, but it's expensive. I worked out different scenarios in my
head: what to say/do if
stopped by _________ [fill in the blank]. For the groups on the right: "I
work with a church group from the US". For the groups on the left who
finance their battle by kidnapping, I practiced saying in Spanish "but I'm
not a miracle fish (what they call a gringo who could potentially bring in
a large ransom), really! I work for a very small international human
rights group who doesn't pay ransoms. I'm a minnow! I'm a minnow!"

The trip was blissfully boring.

Now I'm back in the hot lands and as busy as ever. There was recently an
assassination attempt against a unionist we know well here in the city and
threats against the civilian population in the rural fishing and farming
communities where we work on the Opon River continue. Life goes on. People
dance and sing and fall in love even in the midst of war.

Your letters are a source of inspiration for me and help keep me feeling
like part of a larger community. Please keep in touch.

Love to all of you,
barb