Open Heart and Open Mind

I I have never been surrounded by so many people passionate about the same things that I am!……Rewind: Experienced nightlife in Manila for the first time last night with some of the girls from the group.  Terry a speaker we had was kind enough to show us around.  He just graduated from Law School and is very politically active in the Philippines so it was interesting to learn about the Philippines government through him.  We left Manila today for Mindanao.  After being delayed for 2 hours, we arrived safely on the beautiful island of Mindanao.  We took another jeepney (those jeep buses) to the Mindanao Peacebuilding Institute which is where we will be participating in a peacebuilding program.  What an honor this is to be working, training, and learning with practitioners, peacebuliders, and various significant officials from all over the world (The Philippines military Colonel is also participating in this program).  I have already met people from Indonesia, Philippines, Laos, East Timor, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Switzerland, Germany, Cambodia, Burma, Sierra Leone, India, and Fiji!  We are all here for the same reason: TO BUILD PEACE!  I am remembering to keep an open heart and an open mind for we are dealing and working with people from different cultures and religions.  I met three interesting men tonight who are also a part of the program.  Two of them are from Pakistan and one is from Afghanistan.  When they told me were they were from I couldn’t help but automatically feel tension fill my body.  As we all know, the United States’ relationship with Pakistan and Afghanistan is rocky, especially with what has been going on lately with the whole “Osama” thing.  After they left, I realized that I am one of the few Americans to interact and engage with the Pakistanis and Afghanis since the death of Osama.  I am going to take this opportunity to learn about their views and opinion and most importantly, to build a relationship with these people.  I am going to learn so much from everyone, I feel so excited but nervous at the same time because we are going to be discussing such delicate topics.  There are so many different views and it is extremely important for us to absorb all of the information and things that we learn here.  Tomorrow we start our first training.  I will be exploring conflicts in multi-religious societies and how to mediate them.  As I said, I’m remembering to keep an OPEN HEART and an OPEN MIND.  Ready to learn!!!!! On another note, had a nice swim at the pool today and played with the kids there…”Ate Christine, Ate Christine” is what they call me.  It means big sister in Tagalog.  I have been practicing my Tagalog but now I am in a region where they speak Cebuano so it is a completely new dialect, the kids at the pool were teaching me.  They’re so cute!  I have had non-stop Filipino food.  Every meal that I have consumed since I’ve been here has been Filipino food. YUMMM!  All the locals get excited when they find out I am half Filipino and I try to talk to them in Tagalog/Cebuano.  I love it here, really learning a lot!  P.S. Just met another person, he is from Nigeria! Good night!