Dining Diversity
Today is the tenth day of our journey across the country. So, as luck would have it, it is also the tenth day of delicious Subway sandwiches! I can only hope that the rest of the journey brings one of 8 delicious subs (we can only choose between eight because that’s where our budget lays) every day at the crack of noon!

Hello Ohio State!
We’ve reached Columbus, OH safely today: home of the Ohio State Buckeyes! We drove through the city and through the campus a little bit and it was the epitome of a college town. Big campus, a kickin’ down town and of course…collegiate cuties.

The Central Ohio Darfur Solidarity Network
When Matthew told me we were coming to Columbus and said that we’d be meeting with a group of anti-genocide activists I was extremely excited. In my mind I envisioned a big reception with around a hundred people cheering and coming together for the cause. Matthew kind of designated me as a keynote speaker for the group so I naturally prepared a little ten minute speech for the event. I was excited.

However, to my surprise, the arrival was not quite as I had pictured it. We walked into the church where the event was being held and there were only about 16 people in the room…12 of them us.

We proceeded to grab some seats and commence the awkward silence that comes so naturally in a large group of unknowns for about ten minutes. Then I finally stood up and met a gentleman I believe named Glenn (I’m so sorry if that’s wrong). Anyway he was incredibly knowledgeable and very personable.

It gets better…promise
So as we began to eat a potluck thrown by CODSN (the groups chosen acronym), more and more people began to show up. About 22 people were sitting around eating….

And then it happened…
Like a prayer was answered from the boys who’ve been together for 2 weeks, ten girls from Columbus School for Girls walked into the meeting. It was a sight to be seen. Not the girls, but all the guys to my left and right looking across the room like they’d just been stricken blind deaf and dumb. Hilarious.

And then Adrian had the brilliant idea to mix and mingle…and so every guy proceeded to run to one of the girls and initiate conversation. Huge laughs… anyway on to the meeting.

A brilliant, insightful evening
To my great surprise and appreciation, three Darfuri refugees had come to the meeting that evening. I was so happy because I would finally get to hear some real life accounts.

Khamese and Halima
I first met Khamese when we were putting up tables for some more guests. He didn’t speak English very well at all but he was the nicest man I’ve never really spoken to. He spoke first with his beautiful wife Halima.

Khamese and Halima spent 4 years in a refugee camp in Ghana. They spoke of how the Janjaweed destroyed their village and displaced thousands of people. When they tried to flee into Chad, they were turned right back over to the Sudanese government and thrown right back into Darfur.

After this, they ran into the mountains and hid for two months with their family and friends. When they decided to go back to the village for a fresh start, within days, the Janjaweed attacked again…but in a fiercer fashion.

Halima spoke of how she was separated from her children in the raid. She had to run so fast to get away from the Janjaweed and couldn’t even turn around to find her children… Halima and her husband escaped through Nigeria and spent their time in Ghana until finding their way to the United States.

Khamese and Halima have four children. To this day, they have no idea where they are…

Salah Eldin
Salah escaped Darfur into Egypt when the problems in the region became severe. When he reached Egypt he expected to find a refugee camp. He did not. Instead he found a group of thousands of Darfurians huddled in an area. No real humanitarian aid. They acted as a herd of nomads trying to survive together. The “refugees” had no identification, therefore, did not really exist.

Salah and the others organized a protest outside the U.N. embassy in Egypt in order to receive the care and attention they desperately needed. After 100 days, the U.N. responded.
25,000 Egyptian soldiers surrounded the Darfurians and proceeded to hose them down with hot water hoses. They threw glass bottles into the crowd. Systematically harassed them physically and mentally.

Salah still has a scar from a glass bottle breaking on the top of his head.

After the riot, Salah was arrested and imprisoned for two years being tortured regularly and sometimes blindfolded for 24 hours at a time. Two years.

Salah was eventually released from prison, and with no idea of what was going on around him, he arrived in Columbus, OH 10 days ago.

Brave students…
Only a week ago, a news report came over NPR about some students from a prestigious Sudanese university. The students protested the Khartoum government for allowing the Janjaweed to administer such terror across Sudan. You’ll never guess what the government’s response was….

The students hotel rooms on the fourth floor were set ablaze and the students were tossed from the four story windows falling to the ground. The students were beaten with lead pipes and physically incapacitated.

The government has refused to give these students medical attention.

Katie Brown was one of the girls from the school that i met. I sat next to here through the presentations. I saw here eyes divert several times when something shocking was said. She even buried her head in her hands at one point.

She looked up at me and said, “I had no idea…”

It was so sad hearing her say this only because I knew that there are so many inadvertantly naive people in the world who really just don’t know. But there is a ceratin optimism to be seen in her reaction. She was so affected by the stories that it just reminds me that I believe most people hear about what is happening and know in their hearts that it is just so wrong.

The stories like these we’ve all heard in some form or another. But through word of mouth, it’s hard to imagine it actually happening.

We’ve met the faces behind these stories and let me say…it is eternally heartbreaking to imagine these sweet, dear people having to go through that.

We’re doing this for Khamese, Halima and Salah. We’re doing this for the brave students who spoke up against something that’s morally wrong. We’re doing this for the thousands, for the millions with stories like those we heard tonight. We may never be able to cure the wounds deeply engraved in these wonderful people, but together, we can make sure to help ease the pain and provide a happy ending for these horrific tales.

This entry was posted on Saturday, June 14th, 2008 at 4:58 am by Aaron Gurley and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.