Justice in Guatemala, 2006

Ambassadors

I never understood what it meant to witness until I went to Guatemala. As a Unitarian, the word is not one we use, though I am aware that it is often used in other religions.

In Guatemala, we listened to the stories from survivors of massacres that occurred during the 1980’s. Stories hard to hear and difficult to tell. But in the telling, the narrators seemed to release just a bit of the pain, knowing they had been heard, that someone else shared their horrible memories, that someone would carry their story out into the world and that someday, justice would be done.

In the evenings, we came together to support each other, to give each other the courage to continue the journey, to continue bearing witness for people so unjustly wronged and to reflect on our own role in the world.