We're back...

Oh readers,

I hope we haven't lost you entirely.  It was crazy in the run-up to the 50,000 Bones installation. But we did it, and it was beyond amazing.  I'll post images and a overview of the event in a day or so, but in the meantime, this link will take you to a video and transcript of a discussion about the importance of the upcoming elections in Congo from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Speaker Series.  This info was provided by OMB's wonderful research assistant, Kim Woods.  You'll hear more from her over the next months.

We'll be really focused on Congo over the next month or so.  There's a lot of work going on right now to bring pressure to provide support for free and fair elections and especially to demand and implement a widespread minerals certification program. These are links to our beneficiary, The Enough Project's Raise Hope for Congo Campaign, where you can find really important information about conflict free minerals and what you personally can do.  And that's the important point: there is something that YOU CAN DO.

So, we'll be back on schedule now, with images, more info, and soon to come, updates from Naomi's three month residency in New Orleans.

Keep checking back, or better yet, sign up for our RSS feed.

As always, we love to hear from you in the comments.

Kickstarter 24 hour countdown

That's all we're talking about today. We've got 24 hours to make the last $2,000 and we need YOUR help to do it.

This is a link to our KICKSTARTER page.

Tweet it!  Put it on your Facebook page.  Text it or call somebody up and remind them.  Any amount helps; $1, $5, $25.  It adds up and we're grateful for all of it.

This is a link to our KICKSTARTER page.

Are you seeing where this post is headed?

Help if you can, and thank you.

We'll post some event updates and start talking about the DRC later this week.

Update and a quickie

Friends!  

We have over 50,000 bones packed up and ready to be installed in Downtown Albuquerque as of yesterday afternoon!  That's a lot of bones, and the installation is going to be breathtaking!

Today’s blog is a quickie because there’s SO MUCH 50,000 Bones Preview Installation work to do!

But check this out: This link is to a really interesting organization called Project Education Sudan which just joined with a network called She’s the First. 

It sounds like they do amazing work so check them out and let me know what you think.

See you on Friday for more 50K updates!

Links for Monday

Naomi and I would like to thank Carol Boss and Women's Focus for a great interview on Saturday.  It's an amazing "venue" for our community and we absolutely appreciate being able to share our work through it.

We also spent the afternoon, along with volunteer Meagan Stokes, at the local August 13th Memorial for the 2004 Gatumba Massacre.  http://www.gatumbasurvivors.org/  It was an incredible day filled with music, praise, heart-wrenching stories, and generous spirit.  Thank you to Eric Ndaheba for inviting us, and to everyone there who welcomed us and allowed us to share this important day with them.

There has been a wave of news stories regarding South Sudan and Sudan in the past few days. I’m attaching links to a few here:

From Voice of America: IOM to begin repatriating thousands of stranded South Sudanese

From the Sudan Tribune: Sudan warns US it will reject any new initiative for peace in Darfur

From the Sudan Tribune: South Sudan “feels pain” of fighting in S. Kordofan

And, from allAfrica.com, this story about the amazing hopefulness of youth: Sudan: International Youth Day- Darfur’s youth look to a better future.

We'll have more 50,000 Bones Preview Installation updates on Wednesday, so check back!

How embarrassing...

So friends, Wednesday came and went, and I never did manage to get to blogging.  Things really are wild around here with the preparations for the 50,000 Bones preview installation.

As promised, albeit a little late, I'd like to introduce the AMAZING speakers for our event.  In order,

Martin Heinrich, U.S. Representative for NM 1^st Congressional District

Eric Ndaheba, survivor of the 2004 Gatumba Massacre in Burundi

Kigabo Mbazumutima, President and CEO of Mapendo New Horizons

Carl Wilkens, the only American to remain in Rwanda during the 1994 genocide and founder of World Outside My Shoes

Yves Muya, Falling Whistles

JD Stier, Program Manager, Raise Hope for Congo Campaign 

What an incredible line-up of speakers, right!?!  

It's going to be a remarkable day and I hope all of you in Albuquerque will join us.  If you're not in New Mexico, we're filming the event and the speakers.  The event will be edited into a short video and we'll try to get the speakers videos up on youtube afterward.

If you're around over the weekend, Naomi and I will be speaking with Carol Boss on Women's Focus on KUNM on Saturday at noon MST. You can listen on 89.9 KUNM or STREAM it from the KUNM website.

Have a great weekend and keep your OMB team in your thoughts as we work towards August 27th.