This will be my sixth trip to the continent of Africa over the past thirty five years. I am very excited to make this visit as part of the Jewish World Watch delegation. After spending the last month reading about the tragic situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, I am expecting the visit…
After three days of travel within Chad, some of which got a bit dicey, we finally boarded the Air France plane which would take us home. We were very happy that we had made it through this harrowing experience and very excited to be going back to the US and to our loving families and…
Today we had the most intense experience we have had to date. We went to the Touloum refugee camp to see the expansion of the Solar Cooker Project. We were escorted by a truckload of armed police to Touloum. As we approached the outskirts of the camp we saw a caravan of donkeys and refugees…
Man’s inhumanity to man is limited only by the creativity of his cruelty. Today we cried. We have sat with small and large groups of Darfuri refugees for the last several days and talked about solar cooking, with the details of the horrors that brought us together silently hanging in the air. Today, however, we…
This was our last day in the Iridimi refugee camp ALREADY. Clearly it is not enough time to develop real relationships with the people there, but I do feel that we have touched their lives in a very important way – by helping them feel more secure, more safe. I participated in one of four…
Bearing Witness What does it really mean to bear witness? Having been here in the Iridimi refugee camp now for several days, it seems to me that “bearing witness” takes on new meaning. As we visit with these women and question them about their solar cooker training, their usage of the cooker, the results when…
My thoughts today are focused on Janice and Rachel. Today was our second day visiting the Iridimi refugee camp in eastern Chad. Refugee camp! In eastern Chad! I had to stop every once in a while and repeat that sentence to myself today as we sat in the “homes” (mud brick hovels) of 5 different…
My friend Monica wrote me a sweet note before I left. In it, she said to think of her “when there are laughs, and there are bound to be some.” Not only have there been periodic laughs, there have been many. How lucky I have been to travel here with Tzivia and Janice. They are…
Today we continued with the evaluations of the Solar Cooker Project inside the Iridimi camp. At the end of each 30-minute interview related to each woman’s solar cooker practices, we asked if she would mind sharing her personal story about what had brought her to the Iridimi refugee camp. Each of the women we interviewed…
Today we visited the Iridimi refugee camp, where our Solar Cooker Project was launched 18 months ago. The sense of being, literally, a world away, finally holding the hands of the women working to manufacture the solar cookers and speaking with the Sudanese refugees about how our project has impacted their lives for the better…