April 1, 2009

March 31, 2009 - Leaving Petra, passing by Aqaba and arriving at the Dead Sea

4x4 Jeep trip in Waddi Rum

Dead Sea

Aqaba - At the Red Sea





Team building and problem solving session

During Peace Camp Sessions

Peace Camp Leaders at the Dead Sea

Peace Camp has so far produced so many “best days of my life” that I have decided to just group it all as “the best week of my life”. The week we shared has actually been that great. Where else could I night swim in the Dead Sea with a friend from Münster, Germany? Where else could I ride over sand dunes with my new found Mexican-Armenian-Lithuanian-Ukranian family? How else could I survive a six hour desert bus ride than by conversing with my African friends both black and white. Peace Camp is the only place in the world safe enough, close enough, and Barb Capozzi enough for these kinds of things to happen.

Today was no exception. First off, buses or beds, Peace Camp is too good to waste a moment sleeping and so we are all sort of zombified. Even so, we are all able to jump back to life at the invitation of another Barb Capozzi activity. This time, it was something like “let’s get up and sing on a moving vehicle”. Good times I say!

One by one she dragged us up to the microphone to sing something, anything! There were Disney Channel songs, a creative rendition of row, row, row your boat, ABBA (yes, Mickey has an obsession :)) and on and on.

The culmination of it was when we came to John Lennon’s “Imagine”: a newly declared Peace Camp anthem of sorts. Maddie got it pumping through her speakers while I reintroduced the group to everyone’s favorite assassinated hippie and then we broke into song. We broke into song and then we broke into tears. We broke into tears and then we broke into hugs. Our nations, races, and religions crashed into each other and dissolved among their similarities. As in chemistry, “like dissolves like” and so we melted into one great mass of loving humanity.

Here we are: forty-eight brilliant people gathered together in Jordan from 28 countries. Anything can happen; everything is possible. We have come to the Middle East, a region of Famine, Pestilance, Warfare, and Death, and yet we have found only peace. Not one among us doubts that it will some day light the world.

Brandon Barbello – USA


Bookmark and Share

2 comments:

:Doreen said...

Brandon,
the tears come to my eyes when I read your piece... as with all of the peace campers' writings!
Thank You, All of You, for Being the Beings You Are!!
In OneLove,
Doreen

Ginine C said...

Brandon you made me cry. And even though I'm a Capozzi (Barb's daughter) it's not an easy thing to do! I love it "like disolves like" FABULOUS!

Keep up the great work everyone!