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My poor car is crying for attention.
On top of the regular insurance payments and the technical inspection costs, it's also requiring additional work, which of course means more € out of my pocket.
All my fellow idealists out there: This blog is for you.
"Whatever you do, keep your feet DRY!"
I've never served in the army but apparently, keeping your feet dry is is the first thing newcomers are warned about from the very beginning.
Our first Like Walking Through Water" blog was about the difference between mental toughness and emotional toughness. At Petra, we believe that the most effective peacebuilders have learned to balance mental toughness with emotional vulnerability, a tricky yet necessary aspect of the very human work we do.
We'd love to know whether you agree or disagree with this interesting assertion:
This is a follow-up post to the previous "Voices of Leadership" post highlighting the International Peace & Security Institute (IPSI).
Because I've been doing some further reflection on that post.
Courageous peacebuilders taking the road less traveled: Those are the kinds of people we here at Petra love to invest in and empower.
Just before Petra was officially born, 3 of Petra's 5 Board of Directors were privileged to meet up in January 2016 in southern California at the Rotary Peace Conference.
A big part of Petra's pre-history has been our link to a small but dynamic organization in Colorado Springs, CO called Resource Exchange International, or REI.
REI gets a shout-out here in the Petra blog not only because of how supportive they've been of the Petra vision and mission, but also for how they have cared for me personally as the main carrier of the vision.
One of the fun surprises about my job is the people who seemingly come out of the woodwork to collaborate. Several colleagues have arisen in the last few months because they believe in the importance of Petra's mission, and their connections have been really critical for us. One of these is a guy from Barcelona named Daniel Fernandez.
While the rest of Spain was taking it easy in Summer 2016, Petra was kicking it into high gear with two Rotary Peace Fellows doing their official Applied Field Internship (AFE) in Malaga, Spain with Petra Executive Director Bianca Neff.
April 2016 saw Petra Peacebuilders in Cairo, Egypt with on-the-ground presence for our first field assignment as a brand-new NGO!
After a long gestation, Petra's arrival into the world happened with almost no complications, thanks to some really great midwives in the form of Petra's Board of Directors.
Would you like to meet them?
A 4-Year Pregnancy?
I'd been pregnant for a long time.
Believe it or not, Petra Peacebuilders was actually conceived back in 2011, just as I was finishing my research and dissertation in the UK (Bradford) as a Rotary Peace Fellow.
So what is this Petra Peacebuilders? What do we do? And more importantly, why do we do it? What's our story?