Het Vredeskleed
After an absence of way too much time, I'm back!

In the coming days, I'm planning to treat you all to a series of photos from my vacation in Rome this past summer. But first, take a look at this beautiful embroidered tapestry, created last spring by a multicultural, interreligious group of women, all of whom live in Almere. Participants call the following lands their home: Afghanistan, America, Brazil, Burundi, Congo, Denmark, England, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Iran, Israel, Marocco, The Netherlands, Sri Lanka, Surinam and Russia.

A number of congregations and public spaces (like libraries) throughout the city of Almere hosted the embroidery of the tapestry, including the drop-in center where I work.

The tapestry's theme is peace, and each block contains a symbol related to the theme. Together with my friend Maaike, I embroidered an elephant, which symbolizes peace in India.

This tapestry is headed toward Israel-Palestine, where it is being offered to a group of women peace activitists as a gift of encouragement and solidarity. After a while, the tapestry will continue its journey to another country and another group. Its final destination is not yet known.

This project was sponsored by AVANTI, a center for "encounter, culture and emancipation" in Almere.