CPtnet
July 19, 2001
BARRANCABERMEJA: CPT Colombia hosts Rigoberta Mench=FA

"Who has seen a snake?" asked Rigoberta Mench=FA, the 1992 Nobel Peace Prize
recipient to a group of 150 children at an abbreviated mass Sunday morning,
June 15, in the CPTers' neighborhood. Most of the children raised their
hands. "And are snakes good?" she asked? "NO!" they responded.

Mench=FA, a Guatemalan of the indigenous Quiche people, then used the
difference between how her people view snakes and how the city-raised
Colombian children view snakes to make an object lesson about dialogue,
differing opinions and the need to resist the temptation to use violence to
change others.

Mench=FA arrived in Barrancabermeja Saturday evening and was greeted by the
city with a tribute ceremony which Horst attended. While preparing to go to
the supper for dignitaries and human rights workers immediately following
the ceremony, Horst received an urgent call from Pierre Shantz.
Shantz, who had been laid up with a systemic infection for a couple days,
decided that he should get to the hospital for intravenous antibiotics
instead of the oral ones he'd been taking. Horst then accompanied Shantz to
the hospital where he was admitted for two days. Shantz felt keenly the
injustice of having to go to the hospital the night before getting to host
a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize.

After mass, Mench=FA delivered a short speech to an open gathering of
community members. In the interlude between two of the speeches a group of
older women performed a traditional dance. While watching, Bob Epp told
Horst, "I'm not sure how well this would go over in my church." The meeting
ended with many of the onlookers joining in a second round of dancing. The
CPTers and twenty other people then escorted Mench=FA the block and a half
to the CPT house in Barranca.

"I've never presented something to so many people in Spanish," said Horst,
"especially such high profile people! There I was, trying to explain CPT to
Rigoberta Mench=FA. Amazing." Things went smoothly as they talked in the
garage-- the most spacious room in the house.

After a lively interchange Mench=FA and her entourage proceeded to their
next appointment. Epp and Horst hurried off to visit Shantz in the hospital.