While the Dali Lama is speaking in Ann Arbor, Dr. Shirin Ebadi of Iran, Nobel Peace Laureate 2003, is speaking to the participants of PeaceJam in Kalamazoo. PeaceJam is an international youth organization that focuses on the Global Call To Action set forth by several Peace Prize winners. Youth's collaborate on projects to better their community, school, state, country, and the world. They meet twice a year, once in the fall to kick off the project, and once in the spring, a two day conference where they do a large group service project and meet the featured Laureate.

Today was our first day - 9am - 9 pm (but for me 8am-9:30pm)! I am a mentor to a group of 12 and we have Family Time where we discuss important issues, both personal and global, attend workshops that focus on inner peace and awareness of injustices, and participate in the service learning project. We went into local communities and collected supplies for women and children's shelters and distributed fliers inviting people to attend Sharin Ebadi's speech that is being given tomorrow night. The students were able to share somethings that they have been learning with folks in the neighborhood. It was really wonderful to see how well they interacted with people in a variety of situations.

We ended the day with a fantastic (and probably very expensive) dinner of traditional Persian fare and Persian dancing.

I can't wait for tomorrow!