Everyone was in good spirits. It was hot and humid. I got a little dehydrated since I didn’t really feel like drinking water.

Tom Lewis tried to take a break in the lounge at the Hilton, and was approached by security. So Scott and Ken went down there. They buttered up the concierge, explained about our vigil, and relaxed in the lounge while a Hilton employee went upstairs to fill their shopping bag with ice.

A group was demonstrating down the street for human rights in Burma.

At 1pm, Jim Fussell brought back the giant banner and tied it to two trees in front of private houses next to the Embassy.

The residents of one house got home today, and about an hour later somebody drove too close to their parked car and there was a shattering of glass. The guy just drove on. We took down the license number and alerted the owners, but it turns out it was the other fellow’s side mirror that shattered. The parked car’s side mirror was unharmed.

A man came out from the Embassy and gave us a booklet published by the Embassy on the Darfur conflict. It is poorly produced–rife with typos, badly-pixelated photos, and doesn’t use curly quotes. Even the photo of the President of Sudan looks like it was downloaded from the web.

The content isn’t much better. One article attempting to debunk Darfur casualty figures says, “These wildly swinging numbers claimed by the various interests [sic] groups united only in their deep animosity toward Sudan can have only one explanation–pure politics.” The article does not have a single example of a group changing its numbers. No “swinging numbers” are documented. The article does include the differing numbers put forth by different groups over a 13-month period, and somehow expects us to confuse this disagreement with a lack of credibility. What kind of crappy propaganda is this? Of course, the article does not attempt to refute the methodology or statistics of, say, Eric Reeves, or anyone else who is offering Darfur casualty numbers.

A motorist told us she got a flier at yesterday’s demo, and when she got home donated $100 to Catholic Relief Services for Darfur aid.

A woman who lives next door to the Embassy came out and offered us water. (Did I mention it was a hot, humid week in our nation’s capital?)

A motorist said she’d be making copies of our flier to distribute at work.

Another neighbor of the Embassy said he was “perturbed” at the sign hanging in front of his house, since the house was for sale and he wanted people to notice it. Ken offered to take down the sign. Since it was the last day of our vigil, the man said it was OK to leave the sign up.

Jim Fussell and Gabe Huck.

Art Laffin drove up and whisked us away. We broke our fast in the van with bread and tortilla chips, then had a fine dinner at the Dorothy Day Catholic Worker House. The 4-day vigil was co-sponsored by Dorothy Day Catholic Worker in DC, Hartford Catholic Worker in CT, and Saints Francis & Therese Catholic Worker in Worcester, MA. Thanks to everyone who drove by and said, “Thanks for what you’re doing!” It really meant a lot to me.

Overnight, an Embassy staffer had tried to add a couple of timbers to the sharply-sloping front lawn to deal with erosion, but they didn’t go in well, and the sidewalk was littered with one timber and a lot of dirt. With the Embassy staffer and the Italian gardener leading the project, the demonstrators helped smash concrete, cut back vines, dig, level the ground, move timbers, pound rebar through them, and sweep up afterwards.

Demonstrator Scott Schaeffer-Duffy and Embassy staffer Mr. Bashara move a timber.

Scott smashes concrete with an axe as the Italian gardener looks on.

Demonstrator Brian Kavanagh helps Mr. Bashara and Scott move a timber.

Brian hammers rebar into the timbers.

Tom Lewis demonstrates in front of the repaired lawn.

Several folks vigiled with the core group–two from Prevent Genocide International and two from NYC who happened to be in the neighborhood. I’ve heard that people in Philadelphia and Texas are fasting in their own cities, parallel with the public fasts in South Bend and DC.

Robert Hollander, consulting attorney on the “Darfur trial,” stopped by in his car.

Prevent Genocide brought a huge, heavy banner and tied it to a couple of street signs. An hour later the Secret Service gathered, seemed to discuss the matter, and left without asking them to take it down.

We kept track of the dignitaries visiting the Embassy today. They represented New Zealand, Vietnam, Italy, Eritrea, Malta, India, Syria, Sri Lanka, Finland, Laos, Malaysia, Mozambique, France, Morocco, Slovenia, Yemen, Belgium, Sierra Leone, Norway, Algeria, and South Africa. There were also an Episcopal clergyman and a man from the Arab League. For the second time we chatted with a man who said he was Muhammed Ahmed el-Rayah el-Faki, a former Sudanese general who lost his job in the last coup and was imprisoned and tortured for five years. “I come here all the time to curse them,” he said. “They are killers!”

We met a lot of interesting people. Visitors ranged from dignitaries in suits arriving in cars with diplomatic plates, to guys in street clothes arriving on foot.

The first visitor of the day was an older woman who showed up early and waited for the Embassy to open. She had been a college classmate of Garang (who went to Grinnell and Iowa State).

World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz came up to demonstrator Ken Hannaford-Ricardi and asked, “Is it OK if I go in there?” Ken said, “Of course.” Wolfowitz said, referring to the Darfur issue, “I’m with you on this one.” Ken said, “OK–but who are you?” Leave it to Ken.

Ken Hannaford-Ricardi, an opponent of America’s Iraq policy as part of Voices in the Wilderness, talks with Paul Wolfowitz, an architect of America’s Iraq policy as part of the Department of Defense.

Yesterday, the Embassy’s front lawn was badly eroded from a recent storm. Today, the yard was fixed up with mulch and flowers, though one of the demonstrators, a former landscaper, thought the workmanship wasn’t too good. An Italian who does gardening on Embassy Row came by and said the same thing. “But they never listen to the gardener.” An Embassy staffer came out and admitted that he’d done the landscaping himself, and that more work would be done later. I guess the quick and dirty job was just to make things presentable until people are done signing the condolences book.

If you are planning to demonstrate at the Embassy of Sudan, the most convenient bathroom is in the Hilton down the street. Don’t believe people who say to use the Burger King. It’s too far, and you have to ask them for the key.

Chris Chocola came out to make sure we weren’t protesting his office. I said no, that we were letting people know he was going to support the “Darfur Peace and Accountibility” bill. However, we thought that his corner was a good place to get a lot of attention, and we had already told many people that we would be there, so we stayed.

We stay outside from 12-1 and from 5-6, as we continue to work and take care of our house, but this still enables different people to come out to join us each time. A priest came from 12-1 and a junior high school teacher who had read about us in the paper skipped her lunch in order to come out to be with us. She told us that reading our article had made her decide to go to Africa next summer. Several of our friends who support us also came out to stand with us.

The message we continue to give to people is to get Indiana to divest from companies doing business in Sudan. Many of those we talk to do not even know what is happening in Sudan, so we inform them. It has been a wonderful exercise in personalism, and we think it has been effective.

Embassy staffer lowers flag to half-mast.

The core group of people fasting for an end to genocide in Darfur started off the day by joining a weekly vigil at the Pentagon.

Then we moved to the Embassy of Sudan, beginning today’s 9am-5pm vigil. It was only the first day of the fast, so everyone felt OK.

Note eroded lawn in lower right of picture.

Several journalists came by to talk to us and the embassy staff, probably because Sudanese Vice President and opposition leader John Garang died yesterday. The reporters were an eclectic bunch, and included a man from al-Jazeera who was in the documentary “Control Room.” Well, his hand was in the documentary–he’s holding a microphone that Donald Rumsfeld is speaking into.

Secret Service agents were hanging around all day, at least ten of them at one point. The Secret Service polices the embassies.

They went in to talk to the Ambassador, and returned with news: the Embassy wanted to invite dignitaries and ambassadors to sign a condolences book for Garang, but not if a bunch of guys holding signs about Darfur were there. Would we consider leaving for part of Tuesday?

No, we would not, but, via the Secret Service, we offered lots of other concessions, out of respect for the Ambassador and the mourning of the Sudanese. This wasn’t good enough for the Ambassador, who asked that we leave for a few hours on Tuesday and Wednesday afternoon.

Again, we decided not to leave, but offered to move the vigil across the street at those times. The Secret Service agents were in the Embassy for a long time, finally emerging with word that the book signing was off.

This hat, improvised from plastic bags, made Tom Lewis look like Dennis Hopper in “Apocalypse Now.”

A handful of other folks arrived to join the core group in demonstrating. We handed out lots of fliers, and everyone was supportive. One man visiting the Embassy said he’d been a general in Sudan in the old days, and had been imprisoned and tortured for five years after the government was overthrown. “They are committing genocide!” he shouted. “They’re killers! They’re killers!”

Late in the afternoon, a sign was posted by the door to the Embassy:

The Consular Section of the Embassy of the Republic of the Sudan in Washington, D.C. is closed.

Consular office will resume regular business hours on August 4, 2005.

The vigil and fast will continue. Also check out an article previewing the parallel fast in South Bend, Indiana, “Pair hope fast draws attention to Darfur”.

All are welcome to join the vigil at any time for any length of time regardless of whether or not they are fasting with the core group. The embassy is at 2210 Massachusetts Ave. NW, Washington, D.C.

For more information on the Washington, DC event, please contact Scott Schaeffer-Duffy at 508.753.3588 or pieandcoffee@gmail.com.

For more information on the South Bend, Indiana event, please contact Brenna Cussen at 781.588.4216 or brennacussen@yahoo.com .

Two of the participants, Scott and Brenna, visited Darfur in December of 2004.