Our Voices
“Intense” may well be the most accurate term describing a Follow the Women bike ride. Each day is a delirious whirlwind of new sights, sounds, aromas, tastes, passions and exhaustion.
And all the while you’re just dying to share this exhilarating experience with your family, friends, neighbors, colleagues, classmates and just about anyone you will thereafter encounter in the course of your life. That’s the intoxicating effect of Follow the Women.
Our Voices is for FTW veterans. Here is your space to express yourself in words or video links. The FTW experience has enriched you deeply. Now it is time to enrich those around you.
OUR VIDEOS (videos open in new page)
Lively Music & Dance en route Colleen McGuire, New York, 2008, 7:05 minutes
Cycling in Golan Heights Catalan Team, 2008, video 1:33 minutes
Lebanon Drumming Colleen McGuire, New York, 2008, 0:50 minutes
Scenes from the 2009 Ride Janet Fogel, California, 2009, includes Sabra & Shatila, the playgrounds at Aqbat Jabr in Jericho, dabke dancing, 8:39 minutes
Syria Faces (1:30 min) and Syria Crowds (1:50 min) Betsy Schwartz, California, 2009
Palestinian Youth Center, Lebanon (Sabra Shatila Camp) Betsy Schwartz, California, 2009, 1:54 minutes
Israel Border, Allenby Bridge Betsy Schwartz, California, 2009, 1:03 min
FTW Song Betsy Schwartz, California, 2009, 1:49 min
OUR STATEMENTS
2004 Ride The ride was an incredible experience. The ride was joyful, full of dancing and caring. As we rode we talked and began to understand each other as fellow women, not European, Mid Eastern or American but fellow travelers who dream of peace with justice in a tumultuous area. Together we experienced Arab hospitality at its best. These countries that have experienced first hand the pain and upheaval of civil unrest gladly supported our ride because they understood how important Peace is and how difficult it can be to attain. Cheryl Wolfe, MA, after 2004 ride
Golan Heights Today we bicycled through Quneitra, a city about the size of Worcester [MA] that was reduced to rubble in the 1967 Syrian-Israeli war. The concrete ruins are kept untouched as a museum. Roses and poppies grow among the ruins. And most interesting, unlike the last time I
visited, some squatters have settled in. Israel returned this area of the
Golan Heights to Syria and it is now managed by a UN peacekeeping force. Steve and I were interviewed by a Syrian TV crew at the Shouting Hill in Golan, another spot where Syria memorializes the
border. Relatives and politicians speak by megaphone across the valley that is a no man's land littered with land mines.
The area around Q. is one of the most fertile agricultural regions in Syria , growing hay, wheat, rye, apples, potatoes, etc. The fields remind me of rural New England: they're very stony. Where the stones have been cleared, there are stone walls, not unlike our stone
fences. Octavia Taylor, MA, May 7, 2008
Photo Banner, Luisa Trigila, Italy by Colleen McGuire, NY
Photo Gallery Top Left Mary Bennet of Massachusetts in Damascus souk2008 by Colleen McGuire, NY Top Center Laurie Hartman, VT and Marcy Brown, MD, 2008, by Colleen McGuire, NY Top Right Ia from Sweden in Syria 2008 by Colleen McGuire, NY Middle Left Phillipa Ochonski, UK, 2008 by Colleen McGuire Middle Center Jordanians 2009 Middle Right Danish team, 2009 by Martha Sara, Jordan Bottom Left Dane and Saudi Arabian, 2005 Bottom Center, Cyclists in Syria Bottom Right, Dead Sea by Kristina, Lithuania