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Dressember reflections

  • 9 January 2018
After Movember came Dressember, and suddenly it’s January 2018 and I’m in a pair of shorts. I won’t…
wwork
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Re-entering the darkness

  • 18 January 2017
I wasn’t procrastinating – I actually wasn’t planning on ever reading the book. It was going to be one for the mantelpiece, to adorn the bookshelf. After all, I spent a year working for the organisation founded by the author, so I didn’t just know the content – I was living right amongst it. It was a surprise, then, how much the opening chapters of The Locust Effect moved me. Two months back on board with International Justice Mission (IJM), now in Australia, and we’ve talked on a number of occasions about vicarious trauma. I’ve shared with my colleagues some of what I went through that year in Bolivia. They’ve shared about how advocating against cybersex trafficking has had a toxic personal effect on them.
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Mission made possible

  • 31 August 2015
In honour of IJM Bolivia’s incredible month of July (4 convictions, a long-awaited arrest, 60 therapies completed, churches…
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An attempt at solitude

  • 4 August 2015
How do you like the idea of spending an entire workday alone to chill, pray, meditate, read, and…
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Coincidence vs Providence

  • 26 May 2015
I have a friend who used to say that there's no such thing as luck, only statistics. It's all just a matter of chance and probability. What we're really saying when we say something that happened was bad luck is that the improbable (but not impossible) negative outcome happened. What we're really saying when we wish someone good luck is that we hope probabilities work in their favour. Then there are those moments when you really see how the stars have aligned. Yes, it's still probability at play - but I don't believe statistics preclude God's involvement; indeed I believe God can work with probabilities and against them. B, one of our clients, was diagnosed with cancer and given a 60-70% of responding to treatment and a 40% chance overall of recovering. Hospital A doesn't generally provide chemotherapy. They were going to send B home to free up a bed, and put her on the three-month waiting list at another hospital. It's Monday.
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IJM Interns/Fellows: Top Ten Moments From 2014

  • 31 December 2014
Reproduced from the IJM Newsroom/Blog: http://news.ijm.org/ijm-internsfellows-top-ten-moments-from-2014 WASHINGTON, DC, December 31, 2014 IJM teams around the world are celebrating the end of…
cculture
Black and white photo of a young Asian woman hugging her legs and looking at the camera.
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About my body

  • 4 December 2014
One of the differences I’ve noticed between Bolivia and Ecuador is that people don’t stare at me here.…
wwork

Today I went to jail

  • 22 November 2014
The concrete walls soar straight up towards the sunny sky. It’s just like a fortress should be – a…
wwork

“Effectivisation”: A post about the law (and reforming it)

  • 13 November 2014
Bolivia is currently reforming its justice system. On October 31, the Bolivian Parliament passed a new piece of legislation, called the Law for the Decongestion and Effectivisation of the Criminal Procedure System. In case you were wondering, it's Ley de Decongestionamiento y Efectivización del Sistema Procesal Penal in Spanish - and "efectivización" isn't a real word in Spanish either, hence the weird translation. Process is at the heart of justice - as important as a just result is a just procedure to arrive at that result. I'll confess I've forgotten a lot of what they taught me at law school, but this particular principal of justice has stuck with me. Working at IJM Bolivia, I am struck anew by how much of a paradox this often is.
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Dry and cold in La Paz

  • 2 November 2014
Seca y fría. Dry and cold. No, I’m not describing La Paz (though I could be). I’m describing…