International Women's Day 2008 in London

Well I am back from my trip. The experiences I had were varied, intense, wonderful, scary, edifying, annoying, familiar, new, frustrating, moving and beautiful. It was a grand trip. I of course did not have time to do everything that was planned, but in the four days I was in the capital much was accomplished.

For now I will give you a brief overview of what was done and seen, and in the coming days I will go into detail. Here goes:

· Saw some friends
·Attended Capitalwoman 08
·I saw Angela Davis in person
·Checked out a Trade Fair
·Shared a meal with an Algerian/American family and their Palestinian friend in a Middle Eastern restaurant on Edgware Road in Marble Arch. I met this wonderful group of people at the Trade Fair I attended, and they invited me to share a meal and some conversation with them. It was such an edifying way to end a Saturday evening in London.
·Gave a workshop at 9th Feminist March Gathering
·Visited the improvised community of Hackney for the first time after 21 years of travel to London
·Made connections with feminists from a myriad of perspectives, i.e. lesbian, ecological, Asian, Black, European, Jewish and Transgendered.
· Met some human rights activists from Zimbabwe – well in fact I met some human rights activists from many, many parts of the world
· Made it to a lecture on women in Palestine
· After several years of membership at the British Museum actually attended one of its members’ nights.
· Met an American fashion designer who has lived in the UK for many, many years
· Attended Solemn Mass at Westminster Cathedral
· Made it to ICC. I missed Salat ul Zuhr (noon prayer), but I browsed the bookstore and had a brilliant conversation with a Muslim woman dressed in a black niqab and abaya. We had in some respects different ideologies, but we were able to converse simply on the fact that we were both women of the Book.
· Purchased some wonderful books at a resale shop across the street from the British Museum
· Had a myriad of conversations with all manner of Londoners
· And even had a man come to my rescue while I shopped for groceries in Waitrose – I was not a damsel in distress, but this English gentleman did come to my aid.
· Hey one more thing. The senior pilot on the flight to London was a woman. It was just so fitting given I was crossing the pond for International Women’s Day.
As promised in the opening sentences more later.......................................