So I find myself in Washington D.C., not too far from my Northeastern roots. Originally from Great Britain, with a few other pit stops along the way including the small country of Belgium, my family firmly planted their feet in the lush earth of New Jersey almost fourteen years ago.
In May 2009, I graduated from Boston College with a degree in English and Theology. These four years (well okay five) were some of my most spiritually formative. I took a leave of absence after my sophomore year and lived in South Africa for twelve months, working for a government sponsored Children’s home for the HIV infected. Actualizing my faith became a reality. BC, being a Jesuit school, invoked justice into my faith and prompted me to participate in the Jesuit Volunteer Corps post graduation. I served the past year in New York City at a supportive housing unit in lower Manhattan. JVC was a determining year and incited my entry into Sojourners.
I love to read, write and take great pleasure in my food. I confess: I am a foodie. I enjoy running and playing the beautiful game (soccer, football, futbol). My favorite season is Fall, well Spring. A combination: Sprall. My favorite color is purple and I have an affinity for dinosaurs.
I feel blessed to be a part of the community here at Sojourners and look forward to participating further in their mission toward living our faith in action.
Posts By This Author
Basketball Underdogs: The Afghanistan National Team
The Olympics is the greatest representation of national athletic pride. Somehow every couple of years, patriotism is met with a degree of innocence and acceptance that is too often forgotten in conflict and negotiation.
Five years ago, Afghanistan re-entered international basketball when the county's Olympic committee decided to draft a team for the 2006 Asian Games. A year later, the committee hired Mamo Rafiq, who was the first Afghan immigrant to play in the NCAA first for Idaho State and then UC Davis.
Hidden Battles: A Story of Five Former Soldiers
Hidden Battles is a 65-minute documentary which follows a female Sandinista rebel, an Israeli officer, a Palestinian freedom fighter, and two American soldiers as they come to terms with their combat experiences. The film offers unique insight and hope into the internal conflicts that human beings around the world continue to face long after they have left the battlefield.
The documentary listens to the stories of these former soldiers as they reconcile what it means to have killed another human. A Vietnam veteran recalls that when he first killed, he was gripped by the feeling that he "did something -- literally against God." Watch this film and see how these veterans have fought to overcome. Each soldier deals with killing in his or her own unique way. Hidden Battles shows five ways in which this act is integrated into five different lives. Ultimately these stories testify to the resilience of the human spirit and hopefulness for the future.
Buddhas Brought Back to Life in Central Afghanistan
Bamiyan is a central Afghan town, home to two monumental Buddha statues carved out of sandstone cliffs. In a zealous attempt to purge anything considered un-Islamic, the Taliban targeted these historic statues a decade ago when they occupied and controlled Afghanistan. The defamation of non-Islamic monuments and sites caused a global response. The efforts of national leaders failed, and the Taliban destroyed the statues in March, 2001. The world community -- from Russia to Malaysia, from Germany to Sri Lanka -- expressed horror at the Buddha's demolition.
Sitting over the Bamiyan Valley since the early sixth century, one of the Buddha figures stood nearly 180 feet tall and the other 120 feet. Before their destruction, these statues were the largest Buddha carvings in the world. They were once a major tourist attraction, but the decades of conflict drove away tourists years before the Taliban blew up the statues.
Afghan Exchange Students Flee to Canada
[Editors' note: As part of Sojourners' campaign to end the war in Afghanistan, we will run a weekly blog about issues in Afghanistan to educate our readers about the latest news and developments related to the war, the U.S. military's strategy, and the people impacted by our decisions. Read more about our campaign at www.sojo.net/afghanistan.]
The United States government has quietly terminated a popular exchange program for high school students from Afghanistan after numerous participants fled to Canada as refugees rather than return home.
The program, the State Department's Youth and Exchange Study (YES), was established in 2002 to provide scholarships to students from countries with significant Muslim populations, and "allows participants to spend up to one academic year in the U.S. while they live with host families, attend high school and learn about American society and values." In 2007, YES Abroad was established to provide a similar experience for U.S students in selected YES countries.
Afghanistan Weekly Digest: Ahmed Wali Karzai. Veterans. NATO.
[Editors' note: As part of Sojourners' campaign to end the war in Afghanistan, we will run a weekly Afghanistan news digest to educate our readers about the latest news and developments related to the war, the U.S. military's strategy, and the people impacted by our decisions. Read more about our campaign at www.sojo.net/afghanistan.]
- Afghan president's half brother killed by a bodyguard: "President Hamid Karzai's half brother, the most powerful man in southern Afghanistan and a lightning rod for criticism of corruption in the government, was assassinated Tuesday by a close associate."
Afghanistan Weekly Digest: David Cameron. Fighting Shifts. Soldiers.
As part of Sojourners' campaign to end the war in Afghanistan, we will run a weekly Afghanistan news digest to educate our readers about the latest news and developments related to the war, the U.S. military's strategy, and the people impacted by our decisions. Read more about our campaign at www.sojo.net/afghanistan