bloggers blog

The group that left the IPP house in Bogotá to travel to Arauca on the 2nd of January came back to the Colombian capital as a changed group. The ten days spent in Arauca were full of unforgettable moments and lots of learning. These experiences made both the group stronger and also gave the participants new perspectives on life.

Our last evening in Tame we were invited to watch a movie with the locals and some representatives from the School of Community Justice. This was something totally different from what we had expected. We arrived just before sunset to a basketball court situated in a poor suburb of Tame. There were children everywhere running around and playing. They were all curious and happy, and we decided to do a couple of energizers with them.

In Canada, we have various forms of mousetraps. Some are spring-loaded and can be tripped only once before needing to be reset. This usually ends with the death of the mouse.

The municipality of Tame received us with open arms and hearts. We felt very welcome already the first days we spent in Tame. Now, coming back from the tour in Arauquita and Saravena, it felt like we were coming home. Familiar faces, wide smiles and welcoming words waited for us, as we were a bit late on the schedule, or in other words, on Colombian time.

Balanza IPPers had a good discussion the other night on if the expectations of the participants are being met. There were diverse understandings of what is an IPP and different viewpoints to the questions. Are we here for the community or for ourselves? What is the balance between these two? How much do we need to concentrate on what we think is important for the community and how much to focus on our questions?

Editor's note

It was so ironic to be sitting around with a bunch of CISV hippies discussing peace and community justice and to look up to see the silhouettes of three soldiers just 10 meters away with guns half my size pointing skyward at their side while a fourth walked behind them using his like a cane. Halfway into discussions I would forget about them and suddenly hear footsteps in the blackness outside of the hut and I would occasionally catch a glimpse of a far off cell phone being used as a flashlight in the dark dark night.

Today we left Bogota very early in the morning to fly to Tame in Arauca. It has been a busy day filled with new people, new experiences and new thoughts. I am however not going to use this entry to describe our whereabouts throughout the day. Instead I am mostly going to try to describe what I have come to realise about the probable progress the next couple of days after today’s meeting of different expectations and expected expectations as well as different realities.

Community Justice as an Alernative Method of Conflict Resolution