thursday, september 7, 1995 11:55pm
greetings from beijing!
last night i slept with the window closed & no mosquito coil burning--this, plus staying in bed longer seems to have helped my fever, by i am sneezing like crazy.
because i got up later, i had a chance to visit with two of my suite mates. most folks in our building are apc, but these two young women are freelance journalist from vancouver--they are everywhere gathering info, hitting the computer in the afternoon, and then out at night to get more info. today we sat & talked a bit about our spiritual journeys--they were very curious why i entered into the convent & why i left & why i still practice catholicism (because it's there? ;-) . but actually it was amazing to hear their stories about how our exporations of the divine feminine compells us to to action on behalf of women & all creation.
then we handwashed our laundry.
as i walked down the alley that leads to theconference, i found someone'ssecurity badge & directly turned it into a chinese police officer, i pointed to the ground & handed it to him--he was astonished, thanked me several times & immediately called it in on his walkie-talkie. outside of the main security gate, women islamic fundamentalists in full hijab were demonstrating (according to a major portion of the posters, leaflets, & brochures around the conference, one would think that it was THE major issue of the conference). just beyond the security gate in front of the global village tent a very eclectic group of arab, african, pakistani, asian, & european women were holding banners "muslim fundamentalism kills". one women was selling a very pointed t-shirt about the patriarchy in iran depicting a woman being stoned to death. in such a situation in america, squads of police in full riot gear would have been called out. yes, i saw more officers in uniform today. either i'm extremely dense, or in america we have a more formal/public protocol of dealing with potentially explosive situations.
i meet a BEIJING95-Ler, mary-lynne from portland for lunch, talked lots about our parallel spiritaul journeys: born catholics in Pope Cody's chicago, our professions as ministry, the cultivation of a feminist spiritual practice in a non-supportive culture, the attraction/repulsion of catholcism, internet activism, and her trip to egypt where she really connected with a egyptian cab driver (kinda nice cuz at that moment a man was leading a group of fully veiled women on a march) and internet actvism. then afterwards we walked back to the peace tent so i could see her contributions to the altar: a hearth protectress, a gaia seed, a mary seed, & a beautiful batik clothe. she picked up a velvet bag & asked me to pick an angel: i pulled out an earthen disk with the impression of the "angel of service"--great. she described at length about the sophia center in portland (catholic/feminist/ecletcic spirituality center) which makes these images & then introduced me to the keeper of the altar of the sacred feminine & her mom. both felt incrdibly blessed by the experience of the altar & are planning to take it on tour. she also promised to post to BEIJING95-L her experiences in huairou.
finally i went to work & hung out in the press room with our russian, chatted about bookstores, and aided users. i was able to slip onto a computer to processed email until our tech from uraguay asked me to help three french women (who spoke no english which is ok since i speak absolutely no french) find an email address for the french press agency to whom they could send a open letter to boutrous-boutrous gali. no problem, except that netscape's home page was busy. finally it freed up, we found radio france, sent it off, and sent the english version to BEIJING95-L.
by this time it was 6:30. apc had a brief meeting. since tomorrow is the last day of the ngo conference, we are pulling the plug on the computer system at 6pm--SOB!!! WAIL!!! NO EMAIL FOR 48HRS!!!--so we can move it to the UN conference site in beijing & continue the email service there (the sun server will be up in a matter of hrs, but all the terminals have to be connected). the apple techs will have to work all night long matching serial numbers & repacking the macs in their original boxes so that they can be donated to different chinese universities. i'm not exactly sure what will happen to the hp 486s, but their all chinese staff are returning to their various institutions with a ton of new experience to share. the apc will have to pack out office.
then we broke the meeting & ran off to see SWEET HONEY IN THE ROCK!!! they were originally schedulled to perform in the big outdoor theater, but with threatening skies, they moved their concert indoors, & did two back to back performances--awesome! judy small of australia opened, and played some quite witty songs (golden arches across the world & pid), but the one i absolutely choked up on was the song she had composed for the victims of the dec 6th massacre victims of montreal--i wonder if the mother with whom i had spoken with yesterday was in the audience. after a 30 min set, judy left the stage to go & play at the outdoor stage where other goups were giving a pick-up concert. SHITR came immediately onstage with the stage & statrted off with "we who believe in freedom cannot rest". after sorting out the harmony with the audience, we got down to business. this was followed by "wade in the water" & more. every song was introduced by bernice reagon johnon, who talked invoked harriet tubman several times & quoted her saying "i would have saved more people if they had realized they were slaves." she reminded us that no matter how comfortable we are, women are an opressed class everywhere. she also talked about talked about how america could/should contribute it's experince of slavery to the discussions about economic development--sure it jump starts an economy, but it exacts a terrible price (could she have been referring to the chinese prison labor system? the mequilldores?). SHITR brought us with one of their sound poems into a rain forest and into the life of a woman performing the rituals to have a child & then bringing the child to fruition. finally the concert enced with WOMEN SHOULD BE A PRIORITY!!! (with new verses).
when i came out, i was still vibrating. glad i waited until now to go to church. for most ngo participants, this is their closing ceremony.
went to have a quick dinner at a chinese restraunt with three other techs: talked mostly about our jobs back home (when we get back home, will talk about nothing but our work here). the question was asked: how to maintain the apc women tech experience & extend it to others post beijing? similar questions are on everyone's minds. i think it is just begin to dawn on us that this is a kairous moment.
hopefully i will post a bit tomorrow, but we will npt be able to access a computer for 48 hrs. saturday: the great wall of china tour, a ngo staff party, & the move to beijing. sunday, shopping in beijing? (i hope) more asap.
jennifer jennifer@wcw.apc.org
