Another week at SEEDS OF PEACE...

Friday July 25Th

Today is my day off, I started my day by going to the gym (because I promised a friend I will be going with him) it was a small quite space attached to a private residence, I did ride on an aerobic machine whiles watching TV. It was raining so much that we went straight to breakfast without the regular morning line up. I spent the rest of the morning making phone calls and paying bills on phone. After lunch I went to the main hall for the Muslim Friday service, the prayer was led by a delegation leader from Palestine, whose sermon was perfect for an occasion like this, He challenged the campers to be tolerance of other faith traditions whiles they are learning much about theirs and the rest of the campers were quite in their bunks in respect of the Muslim prayer, same was done for the Jewish and will be done on Sunday for the christian service.
I went out to Freeport , Maine, an out let shopping center, with my fellow facilitators (its our day off) we shop( window shop) and had dinner and just walk around. On our way back we drove through Portland and finally got to camp a little before 10 pm. I stayed awake catching up with my emails and phone calls and went to bed a little after 12 midnight. Thinking of what the next day will be like...


Saturday July 26Th

At six in the morning (Saturday) I took a shower and was saying my morning prayers when the first bell rang , after prayers I waited for the third bell at 7 :25 am before I walk down the road to join the whole camp at line up. Seeds of Peace campers are creative and they show it off at line up after all the ritual line up announcements the counselors are asked if they have any 'special' announcement , this is an opportunity for members of a bunk to challenge campers from another bunk to any thing from songs, pull ups, sit ups and many other things and you can actually mentioned a particular bunk by name and say okay 'last night bunk XZY did 3000 sit ups and we are challenging bunk ABC to beat that record) I think that is my favorite part of the 'special' morning announcements.
Dialogue was intense for some of the Maine Seeds and some of the other campers ,we are getting to the end of the first week and they are transitioning from getting to know each other and creating trust to talking about some of the issues that are affect them as innocent young people in a troubled world. After the evening dialogue I was to chose between going to a local fair, 'Casco-days' which celebrates the founding of the Town of Casco, Maine or go out with a group of friends. I went out with the friends to hung out at a local spot, it was nice to see people socializing in a non-working setting, it felt like a big' human theater' in which I was both an actor and an audience Watching and being watched by others.

Sunday July 26Th

My alarm went off at 5:30 am, I opened my eyes and struggled to get off my bed took a shower said my morning prayers and get ready for line up. When you are here time and day comes to a freeze and you lose track of what day of the week it is. Our dialogue sessions were normal . We introduced a reading ritual where each Maine Seeds will share a quote from , poetry, song or anything that means something to them or that they think have relations or meaning to what We will be talking about each day. I will be sharing those Quotes with you, any time I update the blog at the end I will add a quote that have been read by a Maine Seed. below is one, please enjoy it.


"It is better to light candles
than to curse the darkness.
It is better to plant seeds
than to accuse the earth.
The world needs all of our power
and love and energy,
and each of us has something that we can give.
The trick is to find it and use it,
to find it and give it away.
So there will always be more.
We can be lights for each other,
and through each other's illumination
we will see the way.
Each of us is a seed,
a silent promise,
and it is always spring."
~Merle Shain ~

Monday July 27th

Today is NBA day and there is excitement all over the place, We were already aware that the NBA players are coming to day so the excitement started building up from last night and at line up you can imagine the roar from the campers and staff alike when Wil Smith announced that the players are here.Music was blurring out from stereo in front of the line up and every one was dancing in anticipation of the stars.The local media was there as usual with their big cameras and we are enjoying every bit of it. Then will started introducing them in a creative, way as members of the 2009 Seeds of Peace's all star basket ball team..... and the whole camp roar in welcoming the team..
Because of all that is going around we decided to do the dialogue differently and the seeds did their best to be in the hut with us. Dinner was cook out at the pines. ( the camp's dinning hall is divided into two parts one for the counselors and campers the other for the facilitators and Delegation leaders ).. the cook out is at the Facilitator side of the dinning hall and its call the pines.After dinner I hitched hike with an old friend who was a seed and came to visit the camp . When I got to Portland everything looked different and I wonder if I was away for only a week



below is our second quote please enjoy reading and sharing it.

“You have your way.
I have my way.
As for the right way,
the correct way, and the only way,
it does not exist.” ~ Friedrich Nietzsche~