Introducing Local Peacebuilding in South Kivu

After being here for more than a month I'm excited to share with you about some of the organizations I'm working with in the DRC.

I'm going to start by explaining in more detail why I can't name the organizations I'm working with in my post, because I think it tells you a lot about the context here. Several participants in my research project have indicated that they fear violence as a result of their work. This is because the organizations that they work with challenge local power structures in a serious way. These activities include confronting the government over human rights abuses, trying to demobilize members of armed groups and generally working in unsafe parts of the country. As a result of their work members of these organizations receive death threats, have been arrested and have been the victims of violent attacks.

Here are some general trends I can note about the organizations. Two of the three organizations I'm working with are underfunded to the point that some or all of their staff are currently working for free, while the other is well financed. Two of the organizations work, at times with the states. All three of the organizations are heavily engaged in peace education, conflict resolution and have projects focused on women and/or children. They also work on human rights, ethnic discrimination, land conflict and natural resource management. 

The staff of the organizations that I'm working at are made up of men and women, although there are a lot fewer women, and they generally range in age from 30 to 60. They are almost all University educated, pursuing programs in human rights and law, rural development and teaching.

The employees of these organizations engage in a wide variety of daily tasks. The ones that I have directly observed include the intake and accompaniment of rape victims, facilitating peace clubs, conflict mediation, facilitating of inter-community dialogue groups, public defense services at the local jail, the delivery of sensitization and training programs and research on the local causes of conflict. From speaking with them I also know that they participate in disarmament activities, ensure the safety of prisoners, coordinate with field staff (extensively), participate in regional civil society mechanisms and engage directly at the community level in conflict resolution, the demobilization of armed groups and in community building activities. 

I often find myself inspired by the people who I am working with. I'm inspired by their commitment to peace, their willingness to continue their work despite some pretty significant structural and security challenges and their bravery when facing some very heartbreaking situations. 

I'm really grateful that I'll have the opportunity to write about what I'm observing in greater detail in my thesis and beyond.

There Aren't Any Stop Signs in Bukavu

It didn’t really hit me until I was visiting Rwanda. We were driving down the road and my eyes kept being drawn to the bright red signs that of course read “stop” across them. For some reason they seemed out of place. That was when I realized that there aren’t any stop signs in Bukavu, or traffic lights for that matter.

Although this isn’t terribly surprising given the lack of well paved roads in the country and the inability of the government to maintain effective control over its territory, this somehow seems like an excellent analogy for my time here so far.

My research is challenging. I am working with three local peacebuilding organizations to better understand the ways that they identify, address and represent the needs of their communities in peacebuilding processes while examining the dynamics within and between the organization. The way that I’m considering these factors is by observing the daily activities of each of the organizations and by conducting interviews with their leaders, staff, beneficiaries and international partners. It turns out, that this is quite a lot of work. I spend 1.5 days per week with each of the organizations, sometimes during these periods I’m also interviewing and or participating in meetings, field trips or special events. It becomes even more complicated when I’m invited to special events which don’t fall on the days that I’m supposed to be visiting a specific organization. On top of this I need to find time to write field notes and transcribe interviews. All of this to say that I could probably spend every waking hour working while I’m here but Bukavu is a bit exhausting at times, not to mention all of the work that I’ve done to try to achieve better work life balance. But where do I stop or draw the line? It seems risky to miss out on an opportunity to meet beneficiaries and participate in meetings because I may not have other opportunities to meet with those beneficiaries or observe that project, and if I don’t work on transcribing my interviews I’m going to have many painful months ahead listening to fuzzy French audio recordings.

However, this little analogy of mine extends beyond my own research, indeed, it would seem to apply to the broader context in the DRC. Take sexual and gender based violence as an example. I spoke with a government official here who told me that the number of reported rapes has dropped from 6,000 in 2014 to 3,000 in 2015 in the province of South Kivu, and therefore the rape epidemic was over. First of all this suggests that 8.5 rapes per day in one province of a much larger country is acceptable. Second, it totally ignores the fact that rape is highly stigmatized in the DRC and that many acts go unreported. Civil society organizations of course mount the same complaints against such explanations many of which run programs to help victims of sexual and gender based violence access the support they need. However, I’d also note that in a private conversation, a local employee casually mentioned to me that he feels that rape is simply being used as a tool for local NGOs to get more money and that the problem was not as significant as the broader violence occurring in the country. Although local and international organizations could be taking a somewhat more broadly defined approach that takes in the experiences of both men and women as survivors and perpetrators of sexual and gender based violence as well as other violence, the vulnerability of women is evident. In the first week of my visit here I of course heard from a group of survivors of sexual violence who had been assisted in finding treatment by one of the organizations I’m working with. It became even more clear when I left a hotel restaurant on a weekday in the middle of the day down a well travelled road to discover three men standing over a woman who lay on the ground screaming while one of them straddled her. Where does the victimization of women and men through this and other kinds of violence stop?

Of course it’s hard to stop violence, exploitation of natural resources, land conflict and identity conflict in a place where ineffective governance means that even the police and armed forces are unable or unwilling to enforce territorial armed groups no less protect the land and population from public or private violence or enforce basic traffic laws. Indeed, the lack of an effective government is frequently one of the causes of conflict identified by the organizations that I’m working with. However, how to effectively support statebuilding here remains a complex problem to be resolved.

On a lighter note, I stopped over for a little visit to Rwanda this weekend where I enjoyed lots of food and a long hike to this waterfall! Nothing like a bit of distance to give you some perspective.

Cheers!

Bukavu Week 2: Getting to Know You

Bukavu changes a little bit everyday. Sometimes it's a change in the cost of dinner. Sometimes it's the weather and sometimes it's the people around you. It's tough to adjust to a place when you can't quite figure out the rules of the game. 
Different members of the expat community have found different ways to explain this phenomenon to me. One said "I couldn't figure out why but I was really emotional for the first month, it's better now" and numerous people have told me that it takes about a month to "get used to it here". Whatever the cause and explanation is, below are some of the things I've experienced over the last two weeks and my attempt to make sense of it

Local Organizations
I'm working with three organization in Bukavu, all of whom work on peacebuilding and have overlapping agendas which include peace education, conflict transformation and have strong links with local churches.On top of that one has a focus on women, human rights and justice, one a focus on development and a third that I'm still getting to know. They all start the day with a morning prayer and all are highly critical of the government's ability to govern effectively. 
These organizations all feel very diverse but also inextricably linked through funders, themes and at times partnerships. I'm looking forward to getting to know the staff better and what makes each of these organizations unique. 

Field Visits to Bideka and Kadutu
All of the organizations that I am working with have strongly suggested that I visit their partners in the field. Each of these organizations have local fieldstaff or "animateurs" who help to implement peacebuilding projects at the local level. In my first two weeks here I have been fortunate enough to go on two short field visits.

The first was with the justice focused organization where we went to Bideka. In Bideka we met with members of the community who had been victims of sexual and gender based violence who were receiving help in obtaining treatment from the Panzi hospital who help to repair fistulas experienced by rape victims. It was striking to hear women describe their experiences of sexual violence, especially from the one who was unable to speak in front of the group but who insisted on meeting with Ian and I privately to tell us her story and who broke down at the end wondering what to do with her life now, after having been attacked for the second time and losing her family to violence. It was a good opportunity to learn about the insecurity which continues to face people living outside of Bukavu, which includes threats from demobilized forces and non-state armed actors. We also got to see the school where students were writing state exams and visit the health center which offered very basic services. Vaccines are stored in a fridge, food is distributed to people sufferring malnutrition and there is a very basic nursing station equipped only with running water, a surgical table and a scale. Despite the evident poverty and violence people were friendly and welcoming.

My second little trip into the field was still within the borders of Bukavu but in a neighbourhood where not many foreigners venture. This is because this is the area refer to as "chaud" (or hot) because it's crowded and there is a lot of poverty and other things going on. On this visit we went to see children who are part of local peace clubs play a soccer game for peace. These clubs are run by the peacebuilding organization with the broader focus on development. At the beginning of each game the organization explains to the children that they're being brought together to support peace and they're invited to play together. Notably there was only one girl on one of the teams. Although it was good to see the project I was a bit overwhelmed by the large group of children who crowded around me but couldn't speak French. I tried my usual fist bump tactic which elicited smiles but didn't disperse the crowd. Again, there was noticeable malnutrition and struggle.

Expats
The expat community is notably different from the people living in Kampala. It is significantly smaller and there are weekly events that a large number of people go to so it's easy to meet people. There seem to be two age groups here. People between the ages of 25-35 who are here performing project management functions at local and international NGOs and an older group with more senior positions in international NGOs. Everyone is friendly and evidently pretty tough. It's also interesting to see the differences between organizations and how they treat their staff. While some must be accompanied at all times others are left more or less to their own devices. It's also interesting to watch the interactions between UN, International NGO and local NGO workers, the local NGO workers tending to be the most "hardcore" of the group.

Everything is "Fine" 
The mantra that I keep hearing from my international and local contacts is that everything is "fine" in Bukavu. There are political tensions, and my friends at the justice organization fear assassination attempts but everything is fine because the war is not currently knocking at their door. Expats exhibit that they feel nervous about going into the field and even places around Kadutu but everything is fine because they are not in any immediate danger. And indeed, everything is fine but it is interesting to take note of how subjective the use of the term "fine" can really be. 

That's all for now. 

Bukavu: First Impressions

I'm not totally sure where to start this post because so much has happened in the last week and a half, in fact my field notes on their own are around 4,000 words and that doesn't even cover the personal parts.

 On January 30 I finished moving the rest of my things out of my apartment and briefly held back tears as my friend Ifte drove me towards the trains station where I was to meet my friend/colleague/travel-buddy-extraordinaire Ian. Over the next 24 hours we would travel from Ottawa to Bukavu, buying stroopwaffels in Schipol, staying across the road from the main stadium in Kigali and being met by Ian's partner organization in Kamembe who then helped us to cross the border into Bukavu. Because they're participating in my research I'm going to call this organization JH and not name any names in order to maintain anonymity, I'll be doing this a lot in my blog posts about my trip here.

It feels like the Rwandan-Congolese border is a great place to start the tale of my time in Bukavu. As you may know one of the reasons that the University of Ottawa was reluctant to allow me to go on my field work to the Congo was because of the boarder crossing. However, being met at the border by staff members from JH ensured that the border crossing almost went very smoothly (I'd note that the riskiest part was probably driving across the super rickety bridge).

The reason I say that the crossing almost went very smoothly is because when we arrived at the Rwandan side of the border Ian and I got out of the taxi were in and approached the border agent window. While we were doing this the JH staff moved all of our things from the taxi into the organization's vehicle. We then crossed the border and had our visas validated by the Congolese authorities which took about 15 minutes. It was at this point that I realized that my backpack with my laptop and all of my research materials was missing. I tried pretty hard to conceal my panic as I asked in French whether my bag was in the trunk. It was not. It was lost. My heart sank. At that moment the administrator for the organization sprang into action calling the Rwandan cab company where he knew many of the drivers well. Within 15 minutes my backpack and all of its contents had been retrieved.

I stuck pretty closely to Ian this first week attending meetings, going on a field visit to Bideka and meeting the provincial minister for gender, health and social services. I also had meetings with other potential participants in my research which showed the great diversity of local organizations here which was really interesting. I also met my room mate and attended some events with other expats. I seem to have hit it off with some of the people here although I'm still waiting for a follow up coffee invitation ;). 

I would really like to write more about Bideka but to some extent I'm still processing what I saw and heard there and I think it's probably a long enough story to be it's own post so keep an eye out for it in the near future.

Ian left on Friday morning which was an unpleasant shock to the system. Suddenly I was very alone in Bukavu which seemed and still seems a little bit overwhelming on top of the other things that are also overwhelming about fieldwork like building relationships, culture shock and jet lag. His departure has hit me pretty hard.

Anyway I thought I'd give a general overview of the environs here for your reference as a quick way to wrap this up.

Climate: Warm during the day time and cool at night, so overall very pleasant. It is currently rainy season but so far there has only been one significant rainfall and threatening skies. 

Food: Extremely inexpensive but there is definitely a lack of variety, I'll have to make due with no lettuce in my salads for the next little while.

Culture: Friendly and generally pretty respectful. So far I have experienced very little street harassment. 

Language: French! Boy is my language proficiency getting a ork out. 

Security: Not obviously dangerous but there is sort of a constant low level of concern. So far this has really been the hardest part of my trip to navigate. Most of the other expats here are working with international NGOs which gives them access to cars, drivers, assistance finding cellphones and ongoing security updates. This is not the case for this Ph.D. student which is leading me to feel a bit uneasy. However, I'm keeping my eye on the prize and hoping that it gets a bit easier with time. 

Anyway, that's all for now. Stay tuned for posts about my research, my trip to Bideka and other crazy adventures.

With love. 

Getting to Go: My Fieldwork Takes Flight.

This is finally happening. After eight years of studying the DRC, two trips to the African Continent, multiple jobs and 2.5 grueling years of graduate work, this is finally happening; I'm going to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. 
The last time I posted in my blog was about the time that I started writing my thesis proposal. This was a long process which involved basically a 9-5 job of reading and writing every day for four months (first world problems, I know). Things started to get a bit more interesting in April of 2015 when I started submitting drafts to my committee and I had a paper accepted at a conference. In early June I defended my proposal to my committee and it was accepted without revisions, which was a very pleasant surprise. I thought that this would be my last defense for a while.
Over the summer I worked on my ethics proposal and accepted some contract work with Partnership Africa Canada which was great. I was also offered a job in the Central African Republic with the UN which would have been a dream but an inability to get an insurance and a disquieting gut feeling led me to decline the offer just two weeks before my departure date. 
I submitted my ethics proposal in September and kept busy while I waited for my revisions. Inevitably the revisions arrived on my Birthday. They were minor but included a request to visit the Office of Risk Management to discuss any necessary permissions required to travel to a country with a travel advisory. The meeting was set for October 20th, the day after the federal election.
So the morning after the M.P. I had worked with and campaigned for was voted out of parliament for no other reason that Canadians were too afraid of another Harper majority (why this meant we had to vote out some of the best NDP MPs in the country, I will never understand/forgive) I headed over to the Office of Risk Management. When I arrived I was greeted by a risk analyst who indicated that the university had a blanket policy against allowing students to travel to countries with travel advisories. She told me that there had been no exceptions and that I could launch an appeal but that it was extremely unlikely that I would be allowed to go. 
So naturally I panicked and the situation only got worse after my boyfriend broke up with me a week and a half later. This was one of the most difficult months of my life. I wasn't expecting to face another challenge to my research and I didn't have a backup plan. 
Over the coming weeks I gathered my forces which included letters of support from an MP, a UN official and civil society members. I also prepared a risk-mitigation strategy that reflected my experience in developing countries and crisis management and prepared a presentation outlining the arguments outlining the reasons I should go.
In late November I defended my project yet again to a committee comprised of a lawyer, two risk analysts and the manager of the International Office. I decided to present without the use of a powerpoint presentation or notes because the group and room was so small which apparently impressed the committee and ultimately they decided to let me go. 
I think the most interesting thing to come out of the interaction with this committee is that now that they have approved my research, they have become an incredible resource and source of support; completely defying my expectations. 
Over the Christmas I booked my flight to Kigali, which leaves on January 30th. From there I will travel with Ian Thomson from KAIROS Canada to Bukavu in South Kivu, where I already have accommodations arranged. 

With all of this being said, I'm re-launching my blog to share my experiences while I'm away! check back in coming weeks to see a description of my research, photographs and of course stories about what I'm sure will be an adventure of a lifetime. 

Pourquoi #JeSuisCharlie

On Wednesday, along with thousands of other people I tweeted #JeSuisCharlie. I did so after some careful consideration and after seeing international human rights organizations and organizers who I respect including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Alex Neve did the same. 

If I read the critiques posted in the news or by my friends on facebook it sounds like I have made a mistake. After all Charlie Hebdo has published inflammatory images of Mohammed and of Muslim leaders, which I do no condone. They have also published images of other religions and their leaders which are offensive. They have also published images promoting conservative views on feminism which I don't agree with. 

But I stand behind my decision to use the hashtag because the attacks in Paris which reflect other attacks that have happened around the world are not about a cartoon and Michael Deacon of Telegraph agrees: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/11332535/We-think-the-Paris-terrorists-were-offended-by-Charlie-Hebdos-satire.-What-if-were-wrong.html.

So what are the attacks about?  They are about the need for greater tolerance and peacebuilding between and within societies and fundamental human rights. 

When I was a first year human rights student Maher Arar's wife came to speak to our Introduction to Human Rights class and described her anguish at the disappearance of her husband who had been extra-judicially extradited to Syria where he was being tortured and her efforts to help him return home. Following her presentation, despite being warned against such outbursts one of my classmates raised her hand and asked Monia Mazigh how she thought she was making other Canadian women feel by walking around in public with her hijab on. While I had raged against this kind of insensitivity throughout highschool and my first year of university this was the first time I witnessed it head-on in such a public context. Unfortunately it is not the last. In the ten years that followed having worked with immigrant and refugee populations as well as being active in social media circles it is more than apparent that in Western societies Islam is most often generalized as being violent and degrading towards women, rather than as a faith centered around peace the emphasizes the importance of charitable work and respectful living. While these views are most visibly advanced by papers such as Charlie Hebdo they are also quietly advanced within my social circles by my well educated, "classy" friends who laugh whenever the "brown guy" card is played in a game of Cards Against Humanity. 

Unfortunately, research on radicalization has shown that the marginalization which results from this kind of attitude and exclusion results in pushing religious men and women further towards the point of extremism and when these attacks do occur we use them to justify our fears. 

Yet, as my friend Stéphane aptly pointed out today our own record recently isn't looking so great either. Objectively, as a coalition of western actors we are currently bombing insurgents in Iraq and Syria in the hopes that they'll abandon their convictions and go home and that peace will prevail. We also seem to hope that if we imprison all of the "islamic fundamentalists" that might prove to be a threat to our citizens that the problem is going to go away. 

Instead of looking for blame, whether it lies among religious extremists or intolerant conservatives we need to come together to start tackling some of these issues. At the community level this means promoting inter-cultural and inter-faith dialogue to promote better understanding between neighbours. Provincially and nationally we need to continue to enact and enforce laws that protect people's religious freedoms and we need to develop more effective policies to address exclusion and the resulting extremism. Internationally instead of dropping bombs to try to end wars we need to put our boots on the ground and actually work with people to build peace because killing more people will not put an end to the issues that caused the rifts that started the problem in the first place. Indeed one Canadian life is of equal value to that of anyone from another nationality and you should feel just as uncomfortable when you hear about the number of people killed as a result of our lack of concentrated peacebuilding efforts in the Middle East as you would if it was happening in your own neighbourhood. 

Here's the catch. We need to continue to allow the freedom of expression which permitted Charlie Hebdo to publish offensive comics in order for the situation to change. Not because if we don't we're letting the "terrorists" win but because it is what will allow us to call on our political, community and religious leaders publicly for change. It is what allows us as human rights defenders or otherwise to freely share our ideas and through conflict develop new and better approaches to the problems that our society faces. Amnesty International was formed to support two Portugese men who were arrested for toasting to freedom. http://www.amnesty.org/en/who-we-are/history

Alors oui, bien sur, #JeSuisCharlie. 

If you want to change your perception of Islam as an element of Canadian society I have one more observation for you. As you already know following the Ottawa shooting my friends and I went to the War Memorial and gave out free hot drinks and coffee to the people visiting the Memorial. While I was there I was approached by a man and his son. He explained that he and his wife were recent immigrants and were Muslims. He went on to share with me about how horrified they were of the attack that occurred and told me that he and his wife had come to visit the War Memorial everyday since the shooting and how they planned to continue to do so in the memory of Cpl. Nathan Cirillo's. 

2014- Five Stories from a Year of Hard-Fought Battles

As the title suggests, this year has been one of hard-fought battles. After struggling through the second half of my course work, french classes and two comprehensive exams I'm happy to share that I'm now a Ph.D. Candidate. At the same time I'm disappointed to share that after great efforts on the part of myself and Paul Dewar, and our supporters, the Conflict Minerals Act lost by a close margin in the House of Commons in late September. 

Because I've been delinquent about updating my blog, this New Year's Eve I've decided to share five stories that rocked my world from the past year. 

Grad Student Politics

In September 2013 I was acclaimed the external representative for the School of International Development's Graduate Association. This meant that I had to represent our association at monthly meeting of the Graduate Student Association. The relationship between the Council of which I was a member and the Executive became strained early in the year after the Council was asked by the Exec to retroactively approve a loan for the grad cafe that was spiraling out of control in November of 2013 (it has since recovered). 

In February of 2014 the Finance Officer presented the proposed budget for the 2014-15 Academic year in which $25,000 was allocated for a position, that had been interim and has not been sufficiently reviewed to determine its relevance. As the meeting progressed it became clear that there was strong dissent among the exec members regarding the renewal of the position and I led the call for the position to be reviewed before the budget was approved. I also volunteered to be on the review committee.

After agreeing to be on the committee it became apparent that I was in way over my head. Soon several members of the exec and staff of our association came forward with complaints regarding bullying and harassment against not only the person occupying the position but also his most vocal advocate among the exec. After sharing this information at a subsequent meeting the exec member tried to force the renewal of the contract. In response I brought together a number of the Council members to work together to find a solution. After much discussion we called an emergency meeting of Council which eventually postponed the renewal of the position and unsuccessfully tried to impeach two of the outgoing exec members. 

I felt pretty good about what we had done as a group to stop what appeared to me to be a great injustice to Council and the employees of our association and ensured that the additional $25,000 would be available for student programming. 

However, what really rocked me about this small endeavor into grad student politics didn't happen until months later. When I returned as a Councilor to the Association in September, the employee at the center of the harassment complaint thanked me sincerely and indicated that their work environment had dramatically improved. It then became clear that our actions as a Council had a profound impact on creating a safe working environment for her and other employees of the Association. 

The Coady Institute - Being a Leader

I'm not sure what story specifically to tell you about the Coady Institute. If you read my previous post I'm sure you have the idea that attending Skills for Social Change had a profound impact on me and more specifically my self-perception. In the last week of our certificate course one of the other young women in my program referred to me as a role-model. This really shook me. I had never really considered the possibility that I was accomplished enough that someone would aspire to be, or perhaps more accurately, do like me. At the end of the week my friend Kambwali from Zambia who was participating in another program at Coady stopped me in the stairwell and told me that I was a leader and reminded me of some of the responsibilities that, that entails (which, on a lighter note, includes not swearing in my facebook statuses!). 

When we drove away in the airport shuttle that afternoon I cried for the first time since arriving (there seemed to be a lot of crying in my group over the three week course). My heavy heart was not only from the new friends I was leaving behind but also a reflection of the transformation I experienced being there including my perception of myself as a leader and who I am as a whole-person. The driver reassured me and the other distressed passengers that 90% of the people he drove from Coady to the airport cried. 

I now keep a page on which my classmates all wrote notes to me about our time together on my desk and I read it when I need a reminder of who I can be. 

Grandmothers 

For the most part, the Just Minerals Campaign, which I have been coordinating since October 2013, has been driven by grandmothers and students; so it was appropriate that on the evening of the vote on the second reading of the Conflict Minerals Act I was surrounded by about 20 grandmothers from the Grandmothers Advocacy Network (GRAN).

I had felt reluctant to go to the vote on Bill C-486 which we knew would fail, not because of any problem with its content but because of the political divide that persists in Canada. However, in the days leading up to the vote several people expressed interest in attending and so I knew I had to be there in solidarity with our supporters and Paul Dewar, who had introduced the Bill around which our campaign grew. Paul seemed surprised when he saw me in the office that day but seemed somewhat lifted when I told him members of the campaign were coming to watch. So I sat among 20 grandmothers and we all glared at the Conservative side of the House as the Bill failed. I can't describe the gratitude I feel for the grandmothers who came out that night.

In the immediate aftermath of the vote in decided what message to send to supporters about our defeat I proposed "this ain't over" to Gavin, Paul's legislative assistant, which has since become my slogan, not only for the campaign, but life in general. 

A Birthday Surprise

This year I promised my friends in Ottawa something different, a surprise for them at my Birthday party. They knew the time and location of the party but nothing else. My initial plan was to play a paperclip trade-up game where teams have two hours to trade a paper-clip up for the most 'valuable' prize they can.

And then the Ottawa shooting happened.

Wondering if my friends would be nervous about approaching strangers in the immediate aftermath of the shooting I dramatically shifted the plan and decided to do some good. After consulting with my friend Kate I went out and bought art supplies and sandwich supplies. I also provided two envelopes with a bit of cash for anyone who wanted to choose their own adventures. Wow, did my friends ever step up. 

When I revealed the surprise I asked my friends to choose between making sandwiches for homeless people, giving free hugs, doing random acts of art or choosing their own adventure. What happened next totally surprised me. 

I brought the group that decided to choose their own adventures to a separate location, and returned to the main group in my apartment. Ten minutes later the buzzer sounded, the group had returned to announce that they planned to use the money to buy coffee and hot chocolate  which they would give away along with free hugs to people visiting the war memorial, where the shooting had occurred. Moments later, everyone was in. Some of us stood and offered hugs and hot drinks to visitors, others went further downtown to distribute the sandwiches. 

I was deeply moved both by the generosity of my friends and the people we met at the Memorial. I couldn't have asked for a better Birthday Party. 

Being the Change 

What I like best about this last story is that it's not really mine.

Over the autumn I spent a lot of my spare time painting ceramics in Old Ottawa South. One of my favorite bakeries, Life of Pie, is in the same neighbourhood so I became a Saturday regular stopping in for a coffee and a cupcake. I quickly got to know the young cashier who served me every week. One Saturday she told me that she was in her grade 12 year and was hoping to go University in the autumn to study forensic science and nursing. She also told me that her High School wasn't offering enough university level math classes for all of the students who needed to take them.Somewhat shocked, I urged the young woman to contact her school board trustee. 

About a month went by before we met again and when I walked into Life of Pie one Saturday morning the young woman's face lit up, "I did it!" she said and told me about how her school board trustee had followed up and that the school was now offering an additional university level math course. The young woman was not only thrilled to be able to take the course she needed to graduate but she was also overwhelmed with pride in taking control over her own future. 

I'm sure graduate school life and politics will continue to have their ups and downs over 2015, but one thing is for sure:  

This. Ain't. Over.

Happy New Year!