the dar papaya project continues, with joy!

Hello friends of the dar papaya project!
Welcome back to our blog. We haven't written for awhile, but now we are back in technology-land to keep you updated about the dar papaya project!
As planned, co-producers Kore Oliver and Sarah Weintraub traveled to Colombia in the late spring. We were there for a total of six weeks, including two weeks with the FOR Youth Arts and Action Delegation. We filmed over fifty hours of footage of the meeting between youth activists from the US and Colombia. The ACOOC in Bogota and the Red Juvenil in Medellin welcomed the US delegates into their homes, offices, and lives. We loved getting to know all of the delegates and the Colombian youth and getting to watch them get to know each other, and share and change each others lives. We are honored to work with such incredible young people.

Just a few highlights from our time in Colombia...
- doing one-on-one interviews with the delegates, Colombian activists, and delegation leaders. We were so moved by their stories - thank you all!
- playing cooperative games and doing art - learning about the Red Juvenil's strategy of alegria (joy)
- hearing the delegates from San Francisco's Mission neighborhood talk about their reality - the violence they have grown up with right here in our own city - and watching the Colombian youth hear those stories and seeing how much their understanding of the US was deepened
- interviewing some ACOOC youth about how they are using their entire lives to try to make Conscientious Objector a legally recognized category in Colombia
- making food for each other, singing karaoke, celebrating birthdays, and all the other ways we shared our real lives

We were deeply inspired by our time in Colombia, thrilled with the footage we captured, and are full of energy to continue work on the dar papaya project!

This summer found Kore starting the editing and storytelling process, while Sarah spent the summer in the mountains at the Tassajara Zen Mountain Center, writing and reflecting on her time in Colombia. She loved cooking vegetarian food for Zen Center's visitors, and being a part of the residential Zen community there, but was far away from any technology.

After brainstorming, creating, and working apart for the summer we are very excited to be collaborating together again! Work in all the different realms of making the film is going ahead as planned, and with mucha alegria. And it also brings us joy to update our blog and be able to share with all our friends and supporters what we have been up to. We will be updating more frequently now that we are both near computers again, and we look forward to being in touch with you!


peace and papayas,
Sarah and Kore

PS: Muchas gracias to delegate Tanya Susoev for sharing her beautiful photos! You can look forward to more of them on our future blogs.