I was introduced to the Reimagine Peace by a previous community member called Nyaboth Paska; this came at a time when I was settling with the fact that I may not return to South Sudan as soon as I expected due to my status of being exiled and also worried about the state of my country and my region with continuous news of war, conflict, and non-implementation of peace agreements. I was also at a stage in life where I was at a crossroads of the change I wanted to make in the world at large and my country in particular. I was thus excited to know that there is a community that is interested in thinking of new ways and approaches to impacting the world through peacebuilding. My mission was to create, learn, and make as much impact and difference in the community as I could.

As I joined, I learned and benefitted a lot from the community members and the hosts. As an activist, I realized that many times we would spend more time focusing on implementation of ideas and less time on the process of critically developing the idea. This caused some frustration on my side at some point when I was eager to get to Reimagining peace rather than working to establish the community and the community approach. Later, I learned that the process is equally important as the result, specially from taking a lead role within the community, as a member of the caring for the whole group.

One important process that I had always overlooked in my work, the movement I led in building, and the organization I lead now is the decision-making process (agreements). This simple but important aspect of community making had not been a factor of importance when considering the organizational development, but often has been a dilemma when problems arise and when decisions have to be made. The red, yellow, and green cards approach is an aspect that I have exported to my organization and it has made a huge difference in the way we make agreements with colleagues.