Written on January 8, 2015
Since arriving in Mindanao we have been busy recovering long flights and adjusting to the new time zone. Davao City is sprawling, busy, and congested, yet somehow still beautiful. We have been here for two days have had a lot of meetings with various civil society organizationso, government organizations, and NGO’s, which will shed some light on the conflict that we have been studying for so many weeks. Judging from the discussions with people in this area, it seems that they are somewhat removed from conflict and are coming from a more administrative point of view. Davao City is not part of the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) so altough most people have an opinion one way or the other, it seems that the city has not been directly impacted.
One of the meetings we attended was with Christian religious leaders who work through the Bishops Ulama Conference to create interfaith dialogues between the Muslim and Christian populations in Mindanao. The religious leaders were enthused about the approaching visit from Pope Francis, as is every Catholic in The Philippines, later this month. They claimed that during Pope John Paul’s five-day visit in 1995, no crime was committed in the country. I have to admit that this is a lovely thought.
They spoke about the “Peace Camp” they put on every year which bring Muslims, Christians, and Indigenous People (IP) youth together for a week to engage in team building activities to promote respect and understanding of each others perspective religion. I love this idea and know first hand how much of an impact these types of activities can change a young person. I was reminded of my time in the Peace Corps and putting on Camp GLOW and how much planning a camp can require if the attendees are religious. I say this lovingly, there is just a lot to think about such as Ramadan, prayer times, holy books, dietary restrictions, and even differing weekdays. If youth are able to observe another religion’s practices and customs, and explain their own, they are offered a way to humanize the people who, for a long time, were the enemy. Humanizing and creating a dialogue with the “other” is an effective method in Peacebuilding, if only for the week that they are at camp.