Tell Them - grassroots e-advocacy network

Back From Germany and Ready for Action

We’re BACK! After a wonderfully busy week of travel and excitement, Tell Them is back and ready to get down to business.  

To update you on my whereabouts last week, I took my brother on a trip to Germany. He’s been taking German for years, and was excited to finally see all the places he’s been reading and learning about for so long. We visited Hamburg, Hannover and Berlin, stopped at 2 concentration camps (Bergen-Belsen and Sachsenhausen), and had brief layovers in England and Denmark, where we got to visit two of literature’s most famous characters: Paddington Bear and Hamlet.

Ben in front of the Reichstag in Berlin

Emma with Paddington Bear in London, England

Walking the streets of Hamburg, Germany

Visiting Anne Frank's Headstone at Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp

Emma at Checkpoint Charlie in Berlin

Kronborg Castle in Elsinore, Denmark, home of Hamlet

It was a great week and nice to have a bit of a break from work. However, the fight against AIDS and unintended pregnancies is never far from my mind. There were posters and advertisements everywhere about protecting yourself against HIV and AIDS. It was refreashing to be in a society where this problem was not only accepted, but talked about freely and openly. I’d share some of the posters with you, but since they’re all in German, I can’t translate without my brother’s help! 

My favorite poster we saw, however, was this one hanging from a building as you leave the former “American Zone” near Checkpoint Charlie: 

Ah…. made me think of work and miss Tell Them very much. 

I did bring a little bit of South Carolina with me. My favorite sweet treat, Cupcake, asked that people take pictures of themselves with cupcakes on their vacations. Here’s my attempt:

Emma with her Cupcake frequent visitor card at Brandenburg Gate in Berlin

It was a phenomenal week, and I loved being able to spend time with my brother. However, nothing was quite as nice as coming to work yesterday and starting to go through emails. Sounds crazy, but it was really nice.