TO LIVE...TO WORK... TO LEARN

Victoria and Francisco

2010-02-17T22:56:00.001-06:00

Last week, from February 3 to 10, I had a visit from some very special people: my parents, Francis and Vickie (Francisco and Victoria, as they were known during their time here)! It was one of the most special weeks of my life because my family of origin shared the lives of my Salvadoran “family,” that is, the communities, families, and friends who have shared life with me for the past year and a half. I had several hopes for my parents’ time here in El Salvador: share quality time with them, provide them a realistic perspective of life in El Salvador, share about the work and life of the ecclesial base communities through visits and interactions with the communities, meet the people, families, and communities special to my life here, and have an enjoyable time.

We spent the first day of their one-week stay in San Salvador. I introduced them to all my co-workers (and friends) here at FUNDAHMER who have made my work into an enjoyable life experience. Over breakfast, the director of FUNDAHMER Anita shared with my parents about the history and work of the organization. I remember she said: “throughout its history, FUNDAHMER has worked to support communities that assume a manner of living more committed to the Gospel. This implies favoring the rights of the poor, demanding justice, and working for transformation.”

We also visited various sites in the city that are important to the theologically-inspired effort to improve life for the poor and oppressed, including the crypt of Monsignor Oscar Romero, the “people’s pastor” who was assassinated in 1980 for his work on behalf of the poor and oppressed people. We visited the downtown area of San Salvador, always a bit crazy with vendors, buses, and people at every angle. I also tried to show them perspectives of varying realities of different parts of the city. They had arrived to San Salvador after dark, and I remember that my dad told me that first night that he knew that there was more to see that laid under the cover of the darkness. And that there was a part of him that didn’t want to face what laid under the covers. In the same 24-hours we both ate gourmet pizza at Pizza Hut and traveled via train through marginalized communities that literally have the front-doors of their aluminum-, cardboard-, and plastic-built homes a foot from the tracks. The train trip was a “reality shock” as my parents said—raising such questions for them as: What conditions brought these families to live here in marginalization near the tracts?, What options and opportunities exist for these people?, How can the families themselves and the government improve this situation? What structural problems have caused this crisis and this desperation? I know that after living in El Salvador, where the contrasts between the haves and the have-nots are so stark, makes me re-evaluate with a critical eye the demographic, social, and economic landscape of cities and states in the United States where I have lived or visited. In the States as well, there is an appalling range of living conditions that reveal over-abundance for some and near-death (or at least undignified life) conditions for others.

It was very important to take my parents where I andar (live and work) usually, so we spent three days and two nights visiting with the rural communities in Morazán. We visited the community of Yancolo, where I live the majority of the time. My parents met the family with whom I live: Juan, Reina, Viviana, Rita, and Adrian, with whom I have been talking about the visit of my parents for months. The community at-large received us with a get-together comprised of presentations of music, folkloric dance, and community’s history and organization. The teachers from the school in Yancolo stayed over late in the evening to coordinate the event and meet my parents, a big deal considering the walk into and out of the community is about an hour. The idea in all of the get-togethers with the communities was to share. The community leader, Crecencio, from one of 2 founding families of Yancolo who also endured the war in Yancolo, took particular delight in sharing how the community has changed over the years and answering my parents’ questions. I was amazed and honored by the turn-out of the community to share with my parents; there were over a hundred people. Late in the evening, as my parents settled into the 2 beds in the house (maybe the only 2 in the community) and the rest of us into our hammocks, Reina and Viviana (the grand-mother) shared how their family had been one of the brave ones to return first from the refugee camps in Honduras to make a statement that the killing and destruction of the war should stop.

We visited the youth group in Junquillo, who engaged my parents in an exchange about the lives and collective work of youth in the communities. In these and other communities where we visited, the communities were honored to receive my parents and curious to get to know the parents of this muchacha (young woman) who has been a part of their lives for the past year. My parents as well were interested and happy to be sharing the lives of the communities and to be given the chance to hear about the histories and challenges of communities. They listened to the young adults talk about their hopes and dreams: to continue with their collective work and see the day when there are more opportunities and jobs. My two god-sons, named Nelson and Angel, live in Junquillo as well, so we visited with them and their family. It was hard to even drive out of the community that day because various community members kept walking up to our pick-up wanting to greet the senores (my parents) and see the photos that my mom had brought of my brother and I when we were young.

We capped off our time in Morazán with a visit to the Museum of the Civil War, which presents the history of the 1980’s deadly civil war from the perspective of the people living in the mountains of Morazán, an otherwise unavailable perspective, especially in English sources. The four salons of the museum explain in pictures, words, and some objects recuperated from the time of the war four different aspects of the civil war: the causes of the war, the solidarity of other countries with the revolutionary force, life for the people during the war, and the Peace Accords. Every time I visit, the room that shows the causes for the war always impacts me the most. Before the civil war, in the 1970s, students, labor unions and other organized workers, religious organizations, and rural farmers and landless people had organized to bring about changes in the country to benefit the workers, the poor, and the landless. A civil war occurred in El Salvador because of the on-going poverty, the great unjust division between the poor and the rich/powerful, and because the movement for change was suppressed by assassinations of its leaders. Assassinations of those speaking out and working for change was commonplace. In the world at the time, the US was worried about the spread of communism, and interpreted the revolutionary force as a threat to their interests, and thus financed the side of the Salvadoran army. The Commission of the Peace determined that 90% of the 100,000 murders during the war were attributed to this army force. At the museum my parents and I saw arms used by both sides during the war (a majority “Made in the USA”), scraps of planes and helicopters, bomb craters, and an example guerilla camp. A final building of the museum houses the no out-of-use radio station of the revolutionary force. During the 12 years of the war, the radio broadcasted from literally underground in trenches, its antennae painted green and hidden in the trees, and its generator buried deep in the ground to suppress the sound. The radio station broadcasted updates and commentaries on the war as well as programs inspiring the people in their struggle and reminding them of their goals of justice and peace. The radio had to be mobile so that when they suspected that the army was about to invade the area where it was buried, the operators could carry it to safety and set it up to broadcast again.

Both the museum and radio are important for me because I realize that a majority of time, all throughout history, the rich and powerful have been the “voices” that have told history and controlled the means of communication like radio and television. For so long, the perspectives and histories of people like the poor farmers in Morazán have not been told, but both the museum and the radio that existed during the war are examples of ways that the poor are having their voices heard, albeit in a small way. This same idea is one of the reason that I find liberation theologies so empowering to the people long left out of the telling of history and theology: for the first time in the last few decades, these people have begun to read the Bible and texts for themselves, reflect on them in the light of their own realities, and thus form a faith with a theologically grounded commitment to work in their realities as Jesus would have done had he lived in this day. The “empowering voices” motif in my experience here could be further extended to the work of the youth in Morazán to acquire a program on the radio that broadcasts in the area. The radio is the main means of communication in Morazán where there is no electricity (and thus no TV). The youth call their weekly program the “Youth Space” and they talk about different topics of relevance to the young people and about the commitment and work of the Youth Movement of Morazán.

Upon returning from Morazán, we spent an afternoon and evening in Jardines de Colón, a semi-urban ecclesial base community on the outreaches of San Salvador. Upon our arrival, the youth and pastoral leaders of this community shared with my parents about different pastoral initiatives, the scholarship program for students in elementary, middle, and high schools, and in university, and the violence that affects the community. The community was re-populated after the war by people coming from various parts of El Salvador, some with prior pastoral and organizational experience in other ecclesial base communities. Thus, from its beginning, the community organized itself with a strong faith commitment to follow the example of Christ to bring about the Kingdom of God here on earth. They have “built” the community two times already, once initially in 1992 and again in 2001 when part of it was destroyed by earthquake. As my dad said, whether it be ditches, the chapel, or school scholarships, the people “did it themselves” organized and inspired to work together. We visited the recently-constructed community center, right now with recently-installed windows and doors but still lacking floor, lights, bathroom. Avelino from the community, who oversaw the construction of the building by the people themselves, explained to us how they construct a project like the Center with limited resources. They have a plan (complete with the absolute needs and the dreams for later down the road) and step by step realize the work. With the Center, they first bought the land, then cleared the land, then found the construction materials, then started digging and building, and little by little the doors, roof, windows, and desks have come into place. But all resources (time, space, work, money) are those pooled together by the community members themselves.

In one of the most special evenings of my parents’ time in El Salvador, Jardines de Colón welcomed my parents to their community with a Celebration of the Word service. I have talked frequently about the ecclesial base communities’ Celebration of the Word services, which are their main moment of community worship and celebration for the work God is doing in their communities. In this service, my parents experienced a little of the spiritual life of the ecclesial base communities that inspires every part of their day-to-day work and struggle for a better life. My parents experienced the format of the services: songs from the book “The people sing”, three Bible readings corresponding to the day’s lectionary readings, reflection led by a lay leader of the community, and sharing of the peace. The service was extra-special because it was an “Act of Thanks” for those who leave what is familiar and comfortable to them to accompany processes of working for life and for bringing about the Kingdom of God in foreign places. The offering of the day was my parents’ sharing with the community. Up in front of the community’s chapel, with me translating, they shared about their experience of sending their daughter to be a missionary in El Salvador, about their experiences visiting in El Salvador, and their own faith experiences.

One of my favorite moments of the week occurred when, as the service was closing, the community sang a song “Vos sos el Dios de los Pobres” (“You are the God of the Poor”), a song extremely special to Salvadorans who receive hope from a God who they know to be like them and have a special care for them. Standing between my two parents, I was signing from a song book in my hands. At one point I recognized the voice of my mother, who had begun singing in a language unknown to her a song that expresses how I have come to experience God, the God that I see here in El Salvador and that has changed my life, my priorities, and what I care about, and guides me in the work I do as a missioner. I have translated the chorus for you here:
You are the God of the poor,
a humane and simple God,
a God that sweats in the street,
a God with a worn-out face.
For this is why I talk to you
as I talk to my people,
because you are a working-class God,
Christ with the workers.
This song speaks to me about 2 things: one, that the poor communities that sing this song realize that God is with them and cares especially for them and their lives as the poor, the simple and humane, and the tired and worn-out workers. That is how God is. Second, God is revealed here with us in the very people that work on the street, that you meet in the communities, and that live out their daily lives. They (or rather, we, that is, all of us working) are who and what God is.

My parents’ visit was meaningful for them, for the communities, and for me. I pray that as they have returned to North Carolina, their experience of life in another part of the world and of communities of faith committed, despite great difficulties, to work for more dignified lives, will continue to influence their own lives, decisions, and commitments and through sharing it, their experiences will influence the lives of others as well.

Ida y Vuelta (To Go and Return)

2009-09-07T21:16:00.000-06:00

Just today, I said goodbye to a close friend Laura (another volunteer with FUNDAHMER) who is visiting her family and friends in the United States for a couple weeks. Her “despida” (good-bye) brought back a little nostalgia about my recent trip to visit many of you guys (my family and friends) in the States back in August. Then I realized that I hadn’t posted on my blog since I returned back here to El Salvador to update you about my great trip to the United States and my return here. For almost 4 weeks, I was able to spend a lot of time with those closest to me, see a lot of people, and do a lot of fun things. The time at home started out with an amazing week at the beach where my family has been going for 20+ years (a lot of sun and seafood and play on the beach with my little cousins). My mom had taken off work to “surprise” me at the airport at the beach and my dad and brother (and the newest member of the family, my brother’s dog Zoie) came to join us after a couple days. For the rest of my time at home, I spent significant time chilling out at my parents’ house catching up with them and doing some special things like cook-outs, fishing, biking, eating some good food (and ice cream), going around town with mom and dad, and trying to “squeeze” time with my brother out of him with his extra-tough work schedule. It was also great to be able to “branch out” and visit some others of you—Sarah and Joseph during a really fun camping trip (14 miles!), Chandler and Liz in Winston Salem, my “folks” at Wake Forest, Kaileigh and Lauren for a little art, and Steph at home. I spoke several times at Fletcher church, but I always felt like I wanted to say more to all there who have supported me throughout my year here in El Salvador. My time at home wrapped up with a super enjoyable weekend trip with my mom, dad, brother, aunt Bet, Uncle Dave, and cousins Carolyn, Keary, and Natalie to Dollywood in Tennessee. Seeing my parents on the water rides was a favorite moment. But even apart from what we did and where we went, it was just really nice to see everyone with whom my communication is usually limited to a phone call or email. My parents and others were really appreciative of me coming for a visit, but I am equally appreciative of all they did to make my time at home enjoyable, relaxing, and meaningful. Love you guys!!

I’ve been back here in El Salvador for about 2 weeks now—its always super hard to leave all those I love at home, but I am ready to get back to all that is going on here. I am at the mid-point of my 2 years here in El Salvador, and in these past weeks, my return to work has also turned out to be somewhat of a turning point in my work with youth here. The day after my return, all of us involved in youth work here had an important meeting that was inspired by an evaluation I wrote about the formation workshops and lessons that I have been designing and taking to the youth in the communities during this past year. A difficulty that I observed over the past year is that I was responsible for the formation of youth in too may communities—21 to be exact—for me to be able to plan and lead workshops and lessons sufficiently responsive to the needs and interests of the individual communities and youth. Just not enough hours in the day, nor days in the month. My “team” of youth workers listened to my, understood, and agreed that we should “reorganize” a bit. As a result, I will now concentrate on the youth in 8 communities, allowing me to spend more time in each one and more time working to plan an appropriate process for the youth in each one. My other 2 co-coordinators will be working in the remaining communities, allowing them also to have the opportunities to design and bring to the communities a specialized formation process. All involved will benefit; the 3 of us coordinators will have more time for getting to know the reality, needs, and interests of the youth in the communities we are responsible for to better able us to make our lessons relevant and of better quality. The youth will also benefit from being able to share more time with one of us and to have their specialized needs and interests met.

I am, over and over again, whether it be during a fun outing or in an important meeting like we had last week to make these coordinating changes, so grateful to work with the people I do in FUNDAHMER. There is a spirit of collaboration and a priority on what is best for the communities. I’ve done it all since I’ve been back, spent some time with Juan, Reina, and the family in Yancolo, attended a youth coordinators meeting and helped lead a workshop for these coordinators (a happy time seeing these kids for the first time in over a month), and spent some time in the office working on developing a formation process for each of my 8 communities. I have 2 new opportunities to do some learning myself. Last week, I began a school about Popular Education, which is the liberating method of facilitating I use in the work I do here. For an entire weekend once a month for the rest of the year, I and others who work in communities and other types of non-profit organizations and social ministries will learn techniques, processes, and educative material to improve the work we do. On Friday, I began auditing a theology class at the UCA (University of Central America). Wait until you hear its title: “Vivir en marginalidad: Lectura socio-historica de la obra lucana” (“Living in marginalization: socio-historical reading of Luke”)…..so incredibly related to my interests and call to ministry to work with marginalized people in the spirit of the example set by Christ. Not only will I be learning from the direct instruction available in both of these opportunities, but also I will share these classes with people who have years of experience in diverse communities, organizations, and ministries attempting to put into action the values of love, justice, and dignity. I expect to learn from my small group and more informal interactions with my fellow “students”. Moreover, importantly, both opportunities provide a context in which to reflect about what I am seeing, experiencing, and learning from my work in the Ecclesial base communities.

June brought 2 good changes

2009-07-03T17:29:00.006-06:00

I am really happy to get to tell you all about 2 changes that happened in June. Both involve my work and life in Morazan, which, little by little has become all of the following: the place where I recognize the greatest need, the place where I spend the most time, and the place where I feel is “my community” (actually 13 communities). We have contracted for the rest of this year 2009 with a youth named Juan (pictured with me below) from the community of Yancolo in Morazan to be a "Promoter" of the youth work in Morazan. For the rest of the year, we will work together to coordinate, support, and strengthen the formation and work of the youth in the communities (where-as I was working for the first half of the year alone in coordination of Morazan). I am really excited about this--some of our goals are visiting each of the communities each month to support them, working to create and strengthen the vision and feeling of a Youth Association in Morazan, strengthening the process of formation (about themes of importance to youth and Biblical), giving extra support to the newly-organized communities, and generating new and fresh ideas and activities.

The other thing that happened in June was that we officially asked permission of one of the families in Morazan if I can live with them a little more and have their home as my "home base". Coincidentally, this is the home of Juan, the new Promotor, from Yancolo. Yancolo is located in more or less the center of all the 13 communities with whom I work. As I think I have expressed before, all of the communities are pretty removed as far as distance from the town and road, but this one is not too bad as far as that goes. Juan and his wife Reina have a house located at the center of Yancolo (by the soccer field, the chapel, the road) and live with their 2 children (Rita, age 5, and Adrian, age 2---pictured above), the mom of Reina (Vivianna), and the neice of Reina (Roxanna). And Now, Me! Throughout my initial 5 months of my work in Morazan (February through June) this was definitely one of the families with which I built a close relationship of confidence, sharing, and friendship. Thoughout the last 3 or 4 months, I had had a change of attitude about locating a place in Morazan. Instead of looking for the best location (as far as quality, availability, access--though these are really important too), I began to be conscious of where I had a really good connection, feeling, or "call" to live. In sharing life with people, that is the most important factor. That was a really good change of course, I think, because it has produced an arrangement that is and will be beautiful. we eat together "as a family" as opposed to them fixing my meal first and apart. There is a lot of "life" in the house with the 2 little kids, Rita and Adrian, whom I love having around. Also, Juan and Reina are relatively young (24 and 26, I think) so there are moments when I feel like I am living with 2 adults in charge of a household, but there are other moments when the 3 of us can hang out as friends.

Regarding about how frequently I will stay in the house of Juan and Reina in Yancolo: It is close enough to 2 other communities that when I am visiting them, I can walk back to the house. But still there are 9 other communities that are sufficiently far away that it is too far to walk and no buses pass after a certain hour. Thus, for example, when I have a meeting/workshop in one of those 9, I will continue to the pattern I have maintained until now of staying the night with a family in that community. Someone suggested that it might be "by design" that I hadn't found a very permanent place. I enjoy the experience of passing the nights in the communities with the families. I have returned 4 or 5 times to some of them (once a month), so I am building relationships, confidence, and friendships with them--so every month is even better and better. So, I will be staying with Juan and Reina a limited number of nights each month--when I am in Yancolo or the 2 closest communities, and also when I have a day or afternoon off. I have a box and a table the house where I can leave some of my stuff that I don't need to take with me when I travel to other communities or that I want to leave in Morazan when I come back to San Salvador. This is helpful because a lot of times I walk a lot and my backpack can get heavy between materials for the meetings and personal stuff like clothes and soap. Also, I have washed my clothes and let them dry at the house so that I don't have to bring 16 shirts when I am there for 16 days.

First 100 days.... of Mauricio Funes

2009-07-01T10:46:00.004-06:00

For those of you wanting a little more info about Funes and the new FMLN government inaugurated on June 1, here is an article written by Danny Burridge. Danny is one of my friends here (a fellow VMMer), is the Field Coordinator for the Volunteer Missionary Movement (VMM), and has been living and working with organizations and parishes in El Salvador for 3 years. Enjoy! https://nacla.org/node/5892

(A view from the standing-room-only crowd at Funes' Inauguration on June 1. I had the opportunity to attend and be a part of the historic and important occasion.)

J-E-R-E-M-Y

2009-05-28T23:09:00.003-06:00

I wanted to fill you guys in on an exciting thing that happened in my life in the last weeks. From Monday May 18 until Monday May 25, my brother, Jeremy visited me here in El Salvador. He took time out of his summer to endure a language barrier, the heat and humidity, inundation with unfamiliar things, and rigorous physical demands to share a little piece of himself with me (and also my friends and communities) here and to take a little bit of El Salvador home with him. For both of us, I think, the rewards were worth the extra effort. I’m proud to say that my brother likes pupusas (the food unique to El Salvador), liquados (fruit drinks that are a staple to my diet here), hammocks (both an important income-generating product and the “bed” of families in Morazan), and that his Spanish ability tripled, quadruped, maybe even more in his time here. Ever intelligent, intuitive, and inquisitive, he asked important questions that set us both on a path of greater consciousness and wanting to know more about the factors that influence the lives of our neighbors in other countries. We took some time to take trips to see parts of El Salvador that even I had never visited, including a beach for snorkeling, a museum about the ways that faithfulness to the cause of the poor, hope, and love triumphed despite the atrocities of the civil war in El Salvador, waterfalls, and an outdoor food festival. My brother is such a good person with whom to spend time relaxing, see and try new things, and have adventures, that it was a pleasure to spend some leisure time with him.

Apart from the adventures we had that were a good break from my normal schedule here in El Salvador, I also thought it highly important for him to join me in a couple days in what I do normally day to day here. For me, this was one of the most meaningful parts of his stay—the chance to “introduce him” to my life here, to the communities where I work, and to the young people with whom I work. Mid-week, we visited 2 communities in different parts of Morazan named Yancolo and Naranjera. He was patient during the long busrides you must take to get there, and walking alongside of me as we chatted with the youth, he endured the fairly long walks to the communities. We talked explicitly about, and he had the chance to see first-hand, how its one thing to talk in “big psychology or theology terms” like auto-esteem and liberation when your in the sanctity of a classroom at Furman or with people who think like you do and have relatively comfortable lives. It is a different animal to find creative means to help the young people in the communities realize that they have value as loved creations, the very essence of the good psychology and theology can offer to the world.

An image remains with me, one that typifies how my brother, despite all the difficulties, emerged from every experience with a great attitude and also typifies how I believe that this experience of sharing life with the people in the ecclesial base communities of El Salvador has the power of changing your way of being, thinking, and doing. In the heat of Friday afternoon, we had just arrived at the house of a family in Naranjera, after a substantial and steep walk from the main road to the community in the mountains. I had a couple of minutes to prepare for a workshop that began at 3 that afternoon, and he took the opportunity to rest for a few moments in one of the families hammocks. I had not adequately advised him about the difficulty of the walk we had just completed, and the combination of the heat, walking, the unknown, and not being able to communicated like he is accustomed to had been a lot to handle. I had stepped out of the house to wash my face and perhaps a mango for a snack. As I came back to enter the house, I noticed my somewhat frustrated and tired brother surrounded by 3 little kids—Judith, the daughter of the woman we were staying with, her brother, and a friend. I was caught between wanting to distract them to give my bro some space to relax and wanting to give him the opportunity to experience the beauty of sharing life in the communities. But the decision was not left to me because, already, Jeremy was summoning all his Spanish abilities to talk with them. I paused outside the door for a moment watching as he and the little Judith shared words in a book, and as he taught her to read and pronounce some English words from the book. They worked together, he lying in the hammock with his book and she looking inquisitively over his should for several minutes, even until it was time to leave for the workshop. This beautiful scene I had the privilege of sharing with Jeremy, with whom not even an hour before, with all the difficulties of the day, I had questioned my motives of doing what I do and bringing him with me.

As I reflect on the special little moments like this of my brother’s experience here in El Salvador, I am grateful for Jeremy’s willingness to share his life this week with all my friends, young people, and communities here, his patience, and his openness to adventures, asking important questions, and learning new things. I miss him already!

What makes me smile...

2009-05-06T18:32:00.004-06:00

“Jeni, we met again as a group, and the young people are excited, and they want to form a group that meets, and we want you to come to support us, and when can we plan a day?!?!” I had reached my limit of in-the-office work today (I’ve been back in the city for a week after a long time in the communities where I work with the young people), so I made some phone calls to some coordinators in the communities to plan the meetings and workshops for this month. Before I could even tell this young woman who I was, she was already bursting at the seams to tell me about how the group of youth has been meeting and has had some good discussions and is ready to be more organized and have more activities…and so on and so on. I was recharged right away—a much-needed burst of energy to keep working on the material for the workshops we have planned, collaborating with some of the coordinators to form agendas for meetings, and finding some funds for some special events we want to do this month—all in order to get back to the communities next week.

I have to tell you a little more about the community and group of young people in the community of the girl with whom I talked. The community’s name is Copante and is the closest of 5 of our communities in the very rural area of Morazan to a bus stop. That means that every time I want to go to the other 4 communities, I walk first past this community. When I have time to stop, I do and chat with the ladies who run the little store located a stone’s throw from the school in the community or with the families working in the fields closest to the road. When I don’t have time to stop, nevertheless I know I walk by with a smile on my face remembering the special moments that I have already shared with that community, with the teeming interest of the youth in activities, discussions, and readings that will benefit them, how the women’s cooperative are working so hard to turn their 200+ chicken project into a success, and even how I ate 8 mangos in just one morning because I couldn’t say no to any of the kids who kept wrestling the mangos down from the trees to give to me.

I arrived in Copante for the first time in late February and I got the tour of the central houses and of the community’s prize project—the construction of the first church and meeting center that has ever been built in the community. When I first saw it in February, it was a heap of newly-dried adobe bricks and I remember thinking that it would be months before the project was completed, especially with the impending rains. When I returned to the community the Monday after Easter, the group of young people directed me to the new sight of the day’s activity—the new church that had been finished and inaugurated the previous day for the community’s first Easter celebration service. I could grasp a little bit of what the newly complete project meant for the community because I remembered how many times the young men had arrived at meetings with clay caked to their feet and pants up to their knees as they had spent the day making adobe bricks. I had visited house-to-house with the youth inviting new youth to the activities and answering parents’ questions and emphasizing that ALL were invited (its not important if your family is Catholic or Evangelical, FMLN or ARENA), and been able to say that our first meeting of the month would be in the newly-constructed place where ALL the community is invited.

Copante is a community of 80 homes, with between 2 and 3 families living each home. If you are standing on a nearby peak, you can seen that the expanse of the land that is Copante covers 2 and a half mountain peaks. I got to stand on that peak, because one morning last month we visited house to house half of the homes in the community and have planned to visit the other half the 15th of this month. Few of the youth there study, but the youth coordinator, a young lady named Idalia is one of the few who has continued in her studies. Each Saturday, she walks to the bus stop at 4:30am to attend school in the pueblo Caocaopera all day and returns in the night. She will finish high school in about 2 more years of this distance- Saturday-classes. Its very important that the youth meet with some consistency on there on, and have asked for some material to help them with themes for their meetings. Idalia will begin leading them through a text called “Accompanying the youth with values like Monsenor Romero” which has guides for leading reflections about themes like liberty, service, happiness, and perseverance. I just flipped to the contents page of the book sitting beside my computer here, and the first theme is “life”…a good starting point for any process of youth formation.

I want to end this reflection with an image, another one of those that makes me smile, both when I enter the community to stay a while and when I am passing by en route to another. An image that ties together my own childhood with the lives of the kids here. Its “Padre Abraham”—ring any bells? The young people of all ages LOVE the song “Padre Abraham” (“Father Abraham”) which I used to sing when I was a kid, and they think its hilarious when they sing in Spanish at the same time that I sing the song in English. Pumping our arms in the air, bobbing our heads, spinning around…all the motions “…right arm, left arm, right foot, left foot…” included.

Special Election Edition

2009-03-18T22:23:00.003-06:00

My day began at 2:30 am on Sunday, March 15, 2009, when my alarm went off and to get myself up on my 2 feet, I had to remind myself how much I love the people of El Salvador and how much I want to witness a great change in the conditions of the country. The other observers in my group and I were dropped off in front of the polling center, a school building, where we were assigned, right into the midst of 2 waves of excited and energetic people (though it was still 4:00 in the morning)—one wave of red (the FMLN) and the other of red, white, and blue (ARENA). These 2 waves were composed of all the people who would work at the polling tables that day but were already chanting, an indication of the energy and the importance of the day. I didn’t talk to anyone who slept well the night before (including myself) with all the excitement, expectation, and hope. When the building opened up at 4:30, I entered the building firsts with the rest of the observers, and my first observation task was to watch as those same people who had been standing outside entered the building, one by one, to take their places to work at their polling tables. At my polling center, there were 30 polling tables, and at each of these tables worked 8 people: A President, Secretary, 2 Vocales 1, and 4 Vigilantes. Half of the people working at each table were from each political party. Between 5:00 and 7:00, the workers at each table set up their table—everything from constructing the cardboard ballot box to counting the ballots to verifying and collecting the ID documents of everyone working at the table. The polls opened on time at 7:00am, and for the subsequent 10 hours (OK, so I took some breaks—like breakfast, a doughnut and coffee, lunch, a fruit snack, and a walk to see the atmosphere outside) I would walk in between the 4 tables to which I was assigned to watch for irregularities that were preventing the fair execution of the voting process. There were several disputes about procedures, individual voters or ballots, though fewer than I remember occurring when I was an observer for the legislature and municipality elections in January. I believe I witnessed someone voting using fake identification documents, a friend supposedly took a picture of a bus full of Nicaraguans being brought to the center to vote, and I was always suspicious of those pesty (but ever so helpful to a potential voter search for his/her name in the voting center) ARENAeros directing the people to their correct table. I invite you to take a look at the new album of pictures I took on Sunday during the elections. There are more details about the El Salvador process in the captions. A summary of the activity and energy of the day is that I know that I have a certain dread of election days in the US—because I know it means waiting silently in a long line for hours to arrive at a machine to press some buttons. In the polling centers in El Salvador, the spread is much different. The colors are vibrant, the activity continuous, the variety of people in different roles astounding (table workers, observers, supervisors, votors, children, people bring refreshments to the table workers, police, etc).

The polls closed sharply at 5:00, at which time, the table workers began the process of verifying the votes and the work of the day, and eventually counting the votes. A tedious process because the number of unused ballots had to sum with the number of ballots in the box (and also the number of corners torn off the used ballots) to equal 450 at each table. The president unfolded each ballot, called out the party with its flag marked, showed it to the group, and handed it to the vigilante of the named party. More counting and double-checking. Then, one by one, shouts of the winning parties arose from the tables. Until the very end, I did not know which party won the voting center, because it seemed to me that one party would win a table and cheer, shortly to be followed by the cheers of the other party who had won at another table. Out of the 30 tables in my center, the FMLN candidate Mauricio Funes won 16 and ARENA 14. At some point, at the end of the process of counting and reporting the votes, neutrality went down the drain and when it was announced that the FMLN had won the voting center, had someone taken a picture, you would have seen a great big smile on this observer’s face. 20 years is enough of abandoning the poor majority of El Salvador! The celebrations began among the table workers of the FMLN in the center, but always with suspense about if things would turn out so well in the rest of the centers in the country.

Throughout the rest of the evening, whether it was cheering from the back of our pick-up, watching the election results come in on the TV where we ate pupusas together as the group of election observers, or poking each other to stay away back in the office to watch the succession and acceptance speeches of the 2 candidates, I knew with increasing certainty that a life-changing victory had been won by the FMLN and Mauricio Funes. And indeed, when the final results came out on Monday, the FMLN secured the presidency with 51.27% of the Salvadoran vote.

Sunday represented the first election of a left-wing party candidate to the presidency in El Salvador in the 20 years of post-war time. For the past 20 years of ARENA in power, the conditions of the poor majority (and by that I mean that the majority of people in El Salvador live below the poverty index line with limited opportunities for education, for improving their lives, adequate food and housing, much less health or comfort) have, if anything, worsened. Meanwhile, to sqeeze wealth out the country for the rich, the government has done such atrocities as neglect to tax sweat-shop industries, thereby encouraging their continued abuse of workers, make international agreements that exploit and deny opportunities to the everyday Juan of El Salvador, neglect improving schools and education in favor of encouragning the construction of huge shopping malls. Get the picture?

To help you understand a little more of why this was such an important day in El Salvador, I want to refer to some of the words shared by my co-workers on Monday morning when we had a celebration of the victory of Funes and the FMLN. First, FUNDAHMER (an acronym) is named for a man (Mercedes Ruiz) who during the 1980s worked in the communities destroyed by the 10-year civil war, accompanying the people and working in whatever way possible to improve their conditions, inspire hope for a better El Salvador, and provide relief for those in the most humble positions. I have written in this blog about the martyrs close to the hearts of the people of faith in El Salvador—in fact this Tuesday, March 24, we celebrate the 29th anniversary of the assassination of Monsignor Romero. Thus, Sunday was important because we have hope that it is a step along in the process towards liberation, justice, dignity, and opportunity for all people (including, and most especially, the most poor) that these martyrs would have loved to have seen in their day, but called for the rest of us to continue the struggle toward this better world. By taking to the ballot box, despite threats about their jobs, their families, etc, to vote for a needed change in El Salvador, the people of El Salvador have taken yet another step toward creating their own reality that is more just. Then there are people, like the founders of FUNDAHMER—Armando, Anita, and the generation of older adults in our communities who have worked and waited, enduring terrible conditions that I can’t even imagine over the past 20, 30, 40, 50 years: for them, Sunday is a step in the right direction toward a national environment where their hard, hard, hard work can finally earn them something with which to put an end to the vicious cycle of poverty, hopelessness, and lack of opportunity. I work with and for the youth of the Christian base communities, and so I wasn’t surprised by the amount of youth active in the political process this year—what a great experience for the youth to seen this first exchange of power from a government that has largely abandoned their interests to one that recognizes the crises among the youth and promises to work to resolve and improve them. I share all this hopefulness at the risk of sounding overly optimistic, knowing that only time will tell—-if there is to be improvement, it will come slow. The men and women who will take office with this new government are after all just men and women, but my hope is that they are men and women inspired by the same values that I know inspire my communities: special care for the most vulnerable, equality, opportunity, and dignity.

Again, please check out my photos of the Election day to "observe" for yourself the Salvadoran Election process.

March 15, 2009...the long awaited day

2009-03-14T20:24:00.006-06:00

A quick update about tomorrow, Sunday March 15, one of the most important days there has been in El Salvador in several years: The presidential election. For the past 20 years (including all of the post-war years), the same right-wing party (ARENA) has been in power, and there is a great chance that the other party (the FMLN) could win tomorrow. A lot of people think that in the 20 years of ARENA’s time in power, conditions have at least failed to improve, if not worsen, for the large majority of the population of El Salvador—in areas such as poverty, violence, education, health, etc. Over the past few months, the campaigns of both major political parties have been intense—all over the medias of communication, in the streets, among the youth, etc. I have the same jittery excitement I had before the US elections, knowing that one way or the other, tomorrow is a huge day in the history (and future) of this country. All last week, I was in Morazan, in areas where, with no electricity or lights, at 7:00 pm, people are gathered around their radios listening, especially in this time of excitement. I know how much tomorrow matters to the people here.

I am back in the capital San Salvador this weekend to be an international election observer tomorrow. I also had this capacity in the municipal and legislature elections that happened in January. Tomorrow, however, I will be one of 2,000 international observers who have come to El Salvador (many just for these elections) to do their part to see that the democratic process is preserved tomorrow. My capacity tomorrow will be to keep in mind what I have learned about the “shoulds” of the election process and note discrepancies with this process, especially cases of fraud. As an observer, I can’t intervene, but I can point out discrepancies/fraud to officials. Moreover, I will be taking notes and will combine my reports with others to publish observation reports and evaluations. OK, just wanted to keep you in the loop, but I gotta go because the day begins tomorrow at 2:00am to travel to the polls to begin observing the set up of the polling stations. Here's to a fair and safe election tomorrow!!

If you are interested in more about the election, please visit the following blog link below. (Tim, I trust you won’t mind. I’ve been in the base communities so I haven’t had time to post much, but as you know this is really important tomorrow). This has more than a couple good links about the election: http://luterano.blogspot.com/

"To wonder and to venture, To create and to construct"

2009-02-11T22:36:00.006-06:00

... work cooperatively in groups ... organize ourselves as youth ...
… prevent break-ups of families ... a void risks like drugs …
… express ourselves like with art ...
... evaluate the important facets that affect our lives:
faith, crisis in our country,politics, etc ...
… prevent violence among youth, within families,
among gangs, and against women …

----Strait from the minds of the youth in Los Naranjos come these ideas about themes that they hope to discuss during our year together in the process of youth formation. Today was the first realization of what we have been planning during the last few weeks, and of what I have been looking forward to for several months: the initial meeting in the communities with the youth to begin the process of formation. Some would say FINALLY!, but I can recognize that this culmination is coming at just the right time: my use of the language has progressed, I know at least a bit about the reality of El Salvador and the base communities, my colleague Miguel and I are clicking together as a “team”, and I’ve learned some about popular education as a method of engaging youth in a participatory and dialogical process of developing what they know, expressing it, and acting upon it.

When we arrived in the community, Los Naranjos, it just so happened that another organization was using the “community building”, so we “just had” to meet with the youth under the shade of a giant tree. It was a great setting for the meeting, a little relaxing, a nice breeze, and we had already planned on using “natural” materials for an activity. Los Naranjos is a very rural community of 20 families, with no electricity and a long walk to the river, where most people are subsistence farmers. If the youths want to progress to high school, the nearest one is in the larger community an hour away (if you can find a vehicle, 2-3 hours on foot). I had been to the community several times because this is where, Angel, one of my best friends here lives and serves the community with her sustainable agriculture skills. The youth—12 were present at the meeting today—are younger on average that the youth that we work with in other communities. One young one was 11, and most were 13 to 16, with the leader being 20.

The goals of the meeting today involved getting to know the youth and introducing ourselves as people who will accompany the youth during this year, introducing the workshops about formation and receive the input of the youth about themes, and listen to the youth’s ideas about FUNDAHMER’s relations with the youth in the community in the past and in the upcoming year. I had spent some time in the past week scouring some books I have for suggestions of fun “dynamicas” (or games that can have a didactic purpose) to get the youth active and participating to begin and then to have a chance to present themselves to the group. I have a couple cute pictures from the day, but someone neglected to take one of me in the position of a head-but with the tee-tiny 11-year old as we were “frozen” in this position while we shared a fact about ourselves that the other didn’t know :-). The “meat” of the program today for me began as I guided a process in which the youth did a quick analysis of their reality as youth in the community of Los Naranjos in El Salvador. Then, based on their ideas about the challenges and risks of their reality, the youth thought about and shared themes that they would like, and deem important, to talk about during our monthly workshops. In small groups, the youth first brainstormed about theme ideas, and then to practice exploring a theme more in depth as well as to engage their creativity, they designed a “symbol” for their most interesting or favorite theme. A group collected the containers of different products, like juice cans and bags emptied of their rice, laying around their community as trash to present to the group the dilemma of the increasing cost of basic foods and other goods. Another group designed stick figures, literally “stick figures” made out of sticks from our shade tree, to talk about how they wanted to not only learn how to be better individuals (values, self-esteem, etc) but also operate better in groups (organization of themselves as youth, teamwork, conflict management, etc.)

“…to realize that they too ‘know things’ they have learned in their relations with the world and with other people” (Paulo Freire, "Pedagogy of the Oppressed"). Today, as we began the formation workshops, I wanted to design the time we spent together to begin a pattern of creativity, active participation, critical thinking, and dialogue, all along the route to liberation. I mean liberation in the sense of having the life-giving ability (and awareness of that ability, critical among the oppressed like youth in poor communities in El Salvador) to unveil their reality through reflection and dialogue and (re-)create their reality through committed involvement. (Along these lines, I liked the title of this blog today, which is from another quote from Paulo Freire.) What this means in practical terms, like what I think about when I design the workshops, is that I will not act as just an “expert” on a particular theme who “fills” the minds of the youth. Rather, I know that the youth already have within them the ability to work to change their conditions. I will work to create a space where the youth feel safe and empowered to think critically, express their thoughts, dialogue with their peers (the other youth alongside them in their struggle), and hopefully eventually act upon their new-found consciousness. Though sometimes it would be far easier to just to say something I “know,” I will work to create conditions during the workshops that encourage the youth themselves to think critically, dialogue among each other, and generate for themselves how their reflections and knowledge could actually lead to action and change.

A Little Explaining to Do...

2009-01-28T16:46:00.010-06:00

In the 3 weeks that I have been back here in El Salvador, we have made many exciting and clarifying plans about our work in faith formation and leadership training with youth this year and about my role in this work. Some have already heard this information in my letters to the church, but I want to make sure all of you know about these plans so that you can share the hope I have for the upcoming year. We have 4 major goals for the year 2009. The first is to finish with the construction of the Youth Center in Sacacoyo, which is in the department of La Libertad in Sacacoyo. The construction of this center began in 2007 and continued that year as far as to complete a rectangular building with chairs and a small stage, but construction was not fully finished last year. The Youth Center is used by all 500-800 youth in all the base communities in all the departments of La Libertad, San Salvador, and Morazan. For example, throughout the past year, each Sunday afternoon, a group of youth from all three departments used the Youth Center for FUNDAHMER’s Art for Social Change program. (See the picture for an "inside view" of the Youth Center during the graduation ceremony of this Art program). Because of the proximity of the Youth Center to the youth of La Libertad, it is used with great frequency by these youth who live closer to it for workshops, celebrations, and other activities. It is especially important for youth from communities who do not have a church or a space adequate for meetings and activities. The Youth Center will be one of the locations where I will lead monthly formation workshops for the youth of La Libertad. This year, if there are sufficient funds, we aim to complete the construction of the Youth Center by making 2 additions to the existing structure: a library room and a basketball court to provide opportunities for education and recreation for the youth of all the Christian base communities.

The second goal for 2009 is to complete the process of becoming a legally-sanctioned Youth Association. The Youth organization will become a separate legal organization from FUNDAHMER, capable of having all the same functions a FUNDAHMER, such as self-direction, development, and other capabilities of a not-for-profit organization. Already, this process toward legality has begun. Youths from the Christian base communities in each of the three departments of El Salvador, La Libertad, San Salvador, y Morazan, have elected five representatives, for a total of 15 youth leaders. These 15 have been recognized by FUNDAHMER and by all the communities’ youths as those who will lead the process of attaining legal recognition and of developing themselves (with help from us at FUNDAHMER) as leaders of the association and of their communities. These 15 youth leaders will learn about and obtain the required official documents to become a legally-recognized organization. In monthly meetings, they will work together to complete the appropriate processes such as developing the mission, vision, and internal regulations of the Youth Association.

The third goal for 2009 is also related to the initiation and development of the Youth Association. During 2009, we will work to prepare and equip youth leaders (specifically the 15 that have been elected by their communities) to lead, develop, and self-sustain their own Association. The skills that the youth need to learn range from as technical as how to budget the funds for their Association to as universal as leadership skills. We will invite some of FUNDAHMER’s very own founders and leaders to give workshops incorporating their knowledge of how to begin and sustain an association. Based on the personnel we have in mind, topics will likely include executive functions, finance and accounting, development, and the challenges of the first years of an association. We will also look for outside resources such as leaders of other non-profit organization and legal representatives to lead workshops for our youth. We hope to realize eight of these themed workshops this year, one during each month from March to October. The program will award diplomas at the end of the year to the youths who regularly attend and participate to incentivize strong commitments by these 15 youth to their self-development as leaders and as an association.

Another exciting component of the year’s 3rd goal is a leadership exchange with a youth-support organization in Sweden. In April, 5 of the youth leaders from the Christian base communities will travel to Sweden to learn about youth-organization formation and leadership from experienced leaders of youth there in Sweden. In turn, a delegation from Sweden will visit our base communities in November so that all of the 500-800 youth in all the base communities can directly benefit from what the experienced leaders of the youth-support organization will share with us.

For a moment, I want to explain my responsibilities within all these goals for the year 2009, because I share the responsibility of realizing these goals with Miguel (the youth program coordinator, pictured with me to the left). Although we will support each other in all areas of this year’s work, we saw it best to divide the work a little more specifically based on the strengths and interests of each of us. Miguel will be primarily responsible for the fist and second goals, that is, to lead the completion of the construction of the Youth Center in Sacacoyo and to lead the process of attaining legal recognition of the Youth Association. Miguel and I will share the responsibilities of the third goal to equip and prepare the 15 youth leaders to auto-sustain the Youth Association. I will assume responsibility for the fourth goal discussed below.

The fourth goal of 2009 is to realize a process of formation for all the 500 to 800 youths who will participate in the Christian base communities. The majority of them range in age from 13 to 25. This differs from the 3rd goal of equipping and preparing the leaders of the base communities, because in the 3rd goal, the 15 leaders will be coming together in San Salvador to have workshops and meetings with the goal that they will be equipped and prepared take what they are learning and doing back to their own youth communities. In contrast, to realize the fourth goal, we will directly offer formation workshops to all the youths in the communities in locations more accessible to all the youths. The themes of these formation workshops will include: the national and international reality, youth violence prevention, sexuality and reproduction, faith and values formation, youth identity, and identity of the Christian base communities. Sub-topics might include risk and conflict management, a study of a book like Luke, self-esteem, theological reflection, social and community involvement, and the conditions of limited resources such as water and the environment. I will be designing the curriculum for these workshops and will solicit assistance from specialists in the different themes and from literature. I will call on my training in psychology, as well as a background and interest in theology and history and current events in El Salvador and in the world, to prepare the material for all of these formation training themes. I will also use my experience with youth, specifically my experience in didactic techniques for youth interactions (like teaching, leading reflections, and leading fun but meaningful activities), to plan and carry out the workshops in ways that will help the youth retain what they hear, see, and do during the times they are with each other and with me.

To realize the logistics of making formation accessible to all youths in the 3 departments of FUNDAHMER’s Christian base communities (La Libertad, San Salvador, and Morazan), we have divided the communities into 6 regions that are more geographically compact. (See the map for dots indicating the 6 locations where I will lead formation trainings in order to make formation accessible to youth from 18 communities from 3 different departments of El Salvador.)
Each month, from March to November, I will lead a themed formation workshop in each of the 6 regions. August and November will be exceptions to the format of conducting the formation workshops in the 6 different regions. In both of these months, we will have weekend activities like camping trips with formation and reflection time built into the itinerary of these events. For at least one of these weekends, we hope to have all the youth from all 3 departments together in one location, which is a huge deal because of the isolation and great distance between many of the communities. Each weekend will have a theme such as self-esteem/self-awareness and incorporate reflection about values, faith, and identity. Moreover, throughout the year there will also be opportunities to organize activities for the youths to put into action what they are learning in the formation trainings. Ideas for these are preliminary but might include celebration and reflection services on events important in the history and current struggle here in El Salvador, participation in events calling for the extension of access to sufficient clean water or the end of violence against women, and service projects.

As I plan the themes, design the curriculum, and realize the workshops in the coming months, I will also be creating a manual of the themes, information, reflections, and materials of the workshops. Copies of this manual will be presented to the communities’ youth to use to share with others in the communities and will be presented to FUNDAHMER to use in this process of formation in the future.

Welcome Back and Getting Started

2009-01-12T23:44:00.008-06:00

Sorry, little blog, that I have not posted anything about El Salvador on you for a long time. But it hasn’t been for a lack of activity. In the past month, I have wrapped up the “old” year 2008 with style (in the form of reflection and critical assessment of all that FUNDAHMER did during the past year), spent 2 ½ weeks with my family in North Carolina for Christmas and New Years (my brother, mom, dad, and I in the picture here), and this past week returned to El Salvador to face all of what the new year 2009 will bring. A special thanks to everyone who made my time at home extra special, of course, my family whom I enjoyed so much, special friends who visited me or talked with me, and everyone at church and other places who offered sooo much encouragement and love, listened to me, and reminded me that I am cared for and prayed for. I was excited and thankful to be able to spend time with you and, thankfully, I am excited to be back here in El Salvador. And as everyone here says during these first weeks, “Feliz Ano!” May the coming year bring many blessings for you, our families, our nation(s), and our world.

Today, Monday, was the first day that I was back in full swing here at FUNDAHMER. “Full Swing” as it looks right now is meeting with the others working in my “area” of youth to define the goals for this year and to develop plans of actions for how (with details) to reach these goals. A clear difference that I have experienced between “this year” and “last year” (the difference between 2009 and 2008) is that beginning these weeks, I am fully engaged in the process of planning, envisioning, leading, and doing the work of FUNDAHMER that supports the Christian base communities. This is a change from the time I spent before Christmas accompanying the others in the organizations to the communities to get to know the organization and its ministry and the communities where I will work for the next two years. I am working these days to fill in the details of a lot of the “hows” and “wheres” which I will be excited to report to you in the next weeks, but first, as requested, I want to share a little of what I have learned about the formation, structure, purpose, and work of Christian base communities and FUNDAHMER, so you can better understand my context during the next two years.

First, know that FUNDAHMER is an organization that exists to assist Christian base communities with their goal of connecting their Christian faith and their daily life. Some of the first Christian base communities began forming in the 70’s as part of a movement of the Church to be “with” and “of” the people (as opposed to “above” or “in charge of” the people) especially poor and usually exploited people, just like the people in these communities in El Salvador. The more communities formed during and after the civil war of the 1980s in El Salvador. The people were displaced from their previous communities and homes, and when they had to form new communities, they founded these communities with the connecting their faith to their lives in practical and physical ways. These communities range in size—many are comprised of about 20 families and some are larger. Some are urban or semi-urban, and many are rural and absolutely poor.

I love to think about, read, and “see” theology, so let me give you a little taste of what inspires me about the theology of the Christian base communities. This is important to me (as well as the communities) and influences and encourages us in our desires to work in the that capacities we do. The communities are inspired by the example of Jesus who had a special love for the poor, the left out, and the looked down on. Jesus did as seemingly small of thing as choose to hang out with those that society despised to as big of thing as saying that the poor have the kingdom of God. The communities realize that all of us are children of God and have value, and thus encourage full participation in the community and church by everyone (women, children, laity, etc). Moreover, the communities realize that though the Kingdom of God is only perfectly realized in heaven, the prayer of Jesus was, and a noble goal for followers of Christ is, to work for the realization of God’s will “on earth as in Heaven”. The life, teachings, and resurrection of Jesus and the work of God in history as accounted in the Bible and in the lives of their communities give the communities hope to begin and continue working for abundant life for everyone.

FUNDAHMER exists to assist more than 20 of these communities, especially in the areas of Biblical formation, theology, values, human rights, empowerment, community development, and development of alternatives against poverty and inequality. The work in the communities by FUNDAHMER is divided into 3 categories or “departaments.” The department of “solidarity” works to promote and sustain relations between the Christian base communities and their international “sister communities.” Each of the 20-some communities has a sister community, many of whom are communities, parishes, or families in the US or Europe, that support the Christian base communities in ways as diverse as providing scholarships and sending delegations to prayer and spreading the news of the work of Christian base communities in El Salvador. Solidarity also helps international delegations and individuals who want to come observe or help with the work of Christian base communities. The 2nd department of interest in FUNDAHMER is called “Development”, and is comprised of a wide variety of projects initiated by the communities to help improve their lives. My best friend here works in an organic agriculture project with a community of 20 families. Various communities have completed or are working on projects such as honey-production, rainwater collection, and small-business (such as bread-baking) star-ups.

Our brief journey through the structure of FUNDAHMER finally takes us to the department of Education, in which I work. Education involves Biblical formation, with a special emphasis on the connection between faith and the practical, formal education in schools (FUNDAHMER supports a kindergarten and elementary school in 2 communities), as well as education about values and involvement in their communities, church, and country. My work with youth falls in this category of education, as well as proposed formation with young people who are recipients of scholarships provided by their sister communities for elementary and high school and college.

Merry Christmas

2008-12-23T19:50:00.004-06:00

I have a little surprise for everyone. Ready? OK, so I have been able to come home to North Carolina for Christmas. I arrived this weekend and will be spending time with family and friends here until I leave to return to El Salvador on January 7. A lot of things had to work out to make this Christmas vacation possible: time, resources, etc. So, with all that in mind, its easy to recognize this time as a blessing. Already, I've spent some fun and meaningful time with my extended family in Pigeon Fordge, Tennessee, listened to Christmas carols and read the Christmas cards with my parents, and played Guitar Hero :-) with my brother.

I will post again when I get back to El Salvador in January. In the meantime, if any one of those others of you who are usually away is going to be in Western NC during these 2 weeks, let me know and we can hang out.

Anyways, whereever you are and whatever you are doing on this Christmas Eve-Eve (with the minutes ticking on to Christmas Eve), all the blessings of hope, peace, and love to you. And may we face each day of the Christmas season ever combatting consumerism with compassion (thanks Danny for these words that express this desire so tactfully). My Christmas thougths recently have dwelled on what it means for followers of Christ today that we believe in a God that, a long time ago, decided to come and live with us on earth for a while ("gunky" though the world is sometimes) to do what he did, teach what he did, hang out with who he did, and "end" his life like he did.

And on the note of reflecting on what Christmas means for us today, I want to leave you with the chorus of the Christmas song, "Navidad en Libertad" (Christmas in Liberty" by Carlos Godoy of Nicaragua), that became really meaningful to me as I sang it with others from FUNDAHMER and in the communities last week in El Salvador. Jesus, born to ever give us HOPE to work for dignity and abundant life for everyone.

Feliz Navidad, feliz Navidad,
en justicia y libertad.
Feliz Navidad, un montón mejor
sin miseria ní opresión.

Merry Christmas, merry Christmas,
in justice and liberty.
Merry Christmas, a world so much better
without misery or oppression.

Gifts

2008-12-07T21:16:00.006-06:00

It was hard to get up this morning. It was Sunday and my alarm went off at 6:30--after a couple snoozes, I rolled over, put my feet in my sandals and got up. As I was slowly getting dressed, my friend Angel asked me why I had put a skirt on. Weird, I thought: "Why not?, its comfortable." "We're playing soccer this afternoon," she informed me. Somehow I had missed the memo about the details of the day's activities. All I knew (and needed to know) last night before I went to bed was that there was a "convivio" of the women's groups from 4 different base communities. And it was to be held in Las Mesas, a community that until today I had not visited. The direct translation of "convivio" is "a live with," but since that doesn't make sense, I say that it is a "get-together," an opportunity to pass time (a.k.a. live) together. So, I was mumbling something about playing soccer (which is not my favorite sport, though I DO NOT pass over an opportunity to play any sport here), asking why we were leaving so early, and saying that I had also wanted to go to the "mass of the people" at the Cathedral today, which would not be possible. And Angel, in her ever so astute manner in the mornings (she is used to getting up at 5:30 to 6:00 because she lives sometimes in one of the rural communities where the daily schedules are quite different) said: "But its important for the women to get out of their houses and have some fun and something special." That made me smile, remember why I'm doing this, and get my act in gear.

It’s important to realize that the women that hung out together today almost exclusively have very limited scopes of the range of their activities. I realized part of this when I was working in Texas this summer at Mission Waco (shout-out to Mission Waco-- thank you for providing many experiences that helped inform my work here in El Salvador!), and as a learning exercise about the conditions of the world, we visited a farm and were required to prepare our own meal from scratch. And when I say "from scratch" (I think of biscuits, which they don't have here, and I miss, but alas, more importantly:) I mean from chasing the chicken around the yard to walking an hour to get water to picking the vegetables from the garden. That's how most of the world lives, and who bears the brunt of these responsibilities (at least in Latin America)? Women. (It took 4 hours to prepare our meal in Waco, by the way, and 4 times 3 (meals a day)….you do the math). Women's activities here are also limited by childcare responsibilities and sadly, in more than a few cases, by the male-chauvinist differences in women’s and men’s roles and expectations (called “machismo”). Also, travel to and from many of these communities takes several hours, including a long way on foot, so the women’s activities are limited by the sheer fact that it takes a long time and a lot of planning to go anywhere outside the community. So, when we got on our way this morning in a bus full of happy women, I did indeed realize that it was a special occasion for us all to be together to spend time together and enjoy the day.

“Equipo Mujeres” (“Team Women,” as I began calling us, you will understand why when I explain more) ran into (literally) our first teamwork activity about 45 minutes along into our bus journey down a long, hilly, rutted dirt road to Las Mesas. This road was inaccessible to vehicles until about 2 weeks ago when it sufficiently dried after the rainy season ended. I understand the problem we had with vehicles because my first car was a Mitsubishi Eclipse that rides close to the ground. Yep, you guessed it, when going down in a steep dip and then trying to come back up the other side in our bus (like a school bus in the US), we got stuck. Stuck enough to require an hour, pushing of all 25 women on the bus’s rear, and a Jeep and a chain pulling in front to dislodge it. Moreover, when we dislodged the bus the first time with all our teamwork, sweat, and pushing, the bus got stuck again in a different direction! There is something about difficulties that catalyzes bonding, because by the time we celebrated the “victory” of the dislodging with shouts of “Vive las Mujeres”, we knew it was bound to be a fun day. While I’m on the topic of our awesome bus, I’m going to skip ahead to our return journey, when, you guessed it, we got stuck again in the same place (there really was no way to get a big long bus through this steep and wide dip), requiring more teamwork in the rear of the bus and another tow vehicle. But the more interesting thing was that when the bus got stuck this time, all of us were outside the bus watching it try to make it through the dip. Why, you ask? Because half-way down the long dirt road, the bus developed a strange smell and a steady oil-drip, requiring the assistance of a mechanic (remember we were 45-minutes down the dirt road away from a main highway) and left at least some of us wondering if we were going to get out of this hole by night-fall (we did!).

I share this because its just one of the examples that I have had of how a crazy situation in this country can turn into a highlight of a trip (I’m writing about it on my blog, aren’t I?): an experience of teamwork, a source a lot of laughs and A LOT of time to literally sit beside a road or stand behind a bus making new friends, and even teach me a thing or two about making the best of a situation, not complaining, and looking for little acts of provision. We played A LOT of soccer today in the heat of El Salvadoran summer. For the women, organizing ourselves in teams and playing on the respectable soccer field was empowering. After the games, I was talking to the husband of my team’s goalie and asked if he thought she had a good time playing. He not only said yes, but also said that today was the first time that his wife had played soccer like we did!

Before I get off track with the point of my story about the women, let me reiterate that we played A LOT of soccer today. Also, you might need to know that one of my greatest “fears” is being thirsty. Thus, on one hand, I am not found without my water bottle (especially in a place like Las Mesas where there is no purified drinking water), but on the other, I understand thirst and am not going to say no to sharing my water with someone who is as thirsty as I am but has no water. So, after sharing my water and not having any more accessible to buy, I was really, really thirsty all throughout the soccer game, not to mention hours later when we were sitting beside the bus or pushing it out of its hole. And everyone else was thirsty too, but the crazy thing was that no one complained or even got down about our condition or the bus situation in general. In fact, I felt self-conscious because I was the one trying with complaining-thoughts running through my head (regardless of the fact that I felt socially persuaded by the ánimo [encouragement] of the group not to say anything). After a couple hours sitting beside the bus, we noticed a pick-up selling fruits and vegetables trying to detour its way around the bus through the woods (because the broken-down bus was taking up the road). I saw watermelon in the truck from a distance, but then we determined that there was no way to cut it easily (drop it on the ground and hope it splits?). Nevertheless, when the truck came closer, we realized that a solution to our water-shortage problem had arrived in the form of “10 mandarin oranges for $1.” I initially saw this as just a tide-us-over thing, but the women I was with were genuinely happy and THANKFUL for the arrival of these oranges to re-hydrate us. I wish I could have taken a picture of this orange-eating fest to show you the contentment (“this was just what we needed”) and the thankfulness (“thanks be to God, this was just what we needed”), but like our good ole bus, my camera was out of power by this point the day.

“True liberation is freeing people from the bonds that have prevented them from giving their gifts to others…the best I can do is probably not to give but to receive. By receiving in a true and open way, those who give to me can become aware of their own gifts. After all, we come to recognize our own gifts in the eyes of those who receive them gratefully. Gratitude thus becomes the central virtue of a missionary.” Henri Nouwen wrote the words in his book “Gracias!” (pg 16), in which he shares with readers his experiences and reflections during his time in South America living and working with the people to discern if he was to become a full-time missionary. I saw Nouwen’s words lived out in my experience today with the women. Sure, because of the situations I mentioned earlier in this post, as well as because of poverty, oppression, and other forms of injustice, the El Salvadoran women are deprived of their dignity to life a full and abundant life. But today was not some excursion provided by FUNDAHMER to entertain the women; rather, the journey proved to be just the opposite: with all its ups and downs (no pun intended, oh, you ruts and dips in the road :-) ), I realized some great gifts the women have to give: their ánimo [encouraging spirits], their hard work, their sharing even when they have little [as was true with the water today], their general happiness despite their tough situations, their thankfulness, and their optimism (in other words, HOPE). These gifts were particularly obvious today when the women were outside of their normal spheres and encountered both some difficult and very happy experiences. Although I doubt if the women consciously noticed the gifts they were sharing with each other and with me, but because I was a recipient of their gifts (both a difficult and very happy experiences for me too), their dignity (liberation) was realized a little more.

Community Visits are Making All the Difference

2008-12-05T16:19:00.000-06:00

In the past 3 weeks, I have experienced so much in “my communities,” that is, the ecclesial base communities of El Salvador with whom I am working. For the past 3 weeks, my responsibilities have included many visits to these communities. I have attended youth meetings, meetings of the women’s group, meetings of the cooperatives, and reunions of all the base communities in one space. I have spent time with the communities at events such as a vigil remembering Jesuit martyrs and at a march to commemorate the International Day of No Violence Against Women, and in extended visits with other FUNDAHMER workers to the communities. With what purpose?, you ask. My goals during these weeks are to get to know the communities (including both the people and the situations in which they live), with a special emphasis on the youth with whom I will work for the next 2 years. All the time, I am listening to the histories and struggles of the youth and their hopes and ideas for the future, and based on this intake, I try to generate some preliminary ideas for my and FUNDAHMER’s relations with these youth in the future. This sounded pretty abstract as I wrote it out like that, so I will share an example of one of these experiences:

Last Sunday, members of 9 different communities met together in one community for a meeting which they call “Escuela de Debate” that occurs once every 1 or 2 months. With my interest in Latin American liberation theology, I was highly interested in seeing this meeting because the purpose is to acknowledge and evaluate the realities of the communities’ situations and to reflect on how Christianity might have something to do with their responses to their realities. ***Here, a couple phrases need some fleshing out; for example, the “communities’ situations” often involve poverty, lack of opportunities, malnutrition, and lack of education. These are only some of the negative parts of the communities’ situations, but their situations also often include good organization (a characteristic of many of the Christian base communities that FUNDAHMER works with), cooperation within the community and with outside entities, willingness to acknowledge reality, and hard work. “Christianity” in the context of Christian base communities involves faith, action, and hope in light of Biblical scriptures, the life and teachings of Jesus, the lives of other important men and women in the history of Christianity who have devoted their lives to seeing more love, justice, and peace realized in the world [the most profound here is Monsignor Oscar Romero, but there are so many more], and other documents and people that have been relevant to the church of the poor in Latin America [Vatican II, Medellín Conference, etc].

In the meeting on Sunday, I was pleased to watch and even participate as a special and interesting process occurred. The community discussed both their current situations and how they should respond to their situations given their self-identification as followers of Christ and as successors in a long history of people who worked in their communities, in this country, and in the world for dignity, equality, justice, peace, and an end to oppressive conditions. The topics were vivid and relevant, including immigration, violence to women, socialism, water shortage and contamination, the upcoming elections, and the rising costs of basic needs like rice, beans, medical care, and transportation. This experience of theology (“faith seeking understanding”) occurring at the grassroots was profound in itself, especially for me, as I am motivated by the search to know more about “What is God?” in light of the past and all it brought with it (which includes everything from the life of Jesus to the personal histories of communities, families, and individuals) and the current situations in which we find ourselves.

Moreover, as I visit the communities, I intentionally observe with great detail the situations of the youth. In this meeting on Sunday, out of the 35 or so people there, 6 or 7 were youth ages 13 to 18. I had met many of the youth previously (in different contexts such as at youth or cooperative meetings in their own communities), and thus I knew that these youth have the capacity and desire to contribute a lot. They actively think and respond to their realities, and I have been blown away many times by the depth of their thoughts and ideas. I expected to hear a lot of input from these youth, but I observed little; instead, they were quiet in the presence of the adults. This was thought-provoking for me because, like I said, these youth have so much to say and discuss that I could practically see it burning in their minds. Thus, perhaps an idea to consider as the youth organization begins in 2009 is a space, like the “Escuela de Debate” is for adults, for youth to feel comfortable and want to discuss their situations and how their Christian faith and hope are relevant to the decisions they make to affect their realities.

To Perquin and Beyond....

2008-11-13T11:41:00.000-06:00

I had a free weekend between my “graduation” from language school and beginning at FUNDAHMER on Tuesday and needed a break from the city. Also, I am particularly interested in learning about the history and reality of El Salvador (and Central America and the world), especially as it relates to the youth with whom I will be working. Thus, a friend and I traveled to the community of Perquin (“Per” as in “1 time per week” and “-quin” is pronounced like “keen” like “sharp”) in the department of Morazon (“Mora-” rhymes with “Dora” like “Dora the Explorer” and “-zon” rhymes with “con” as in con-artist) in El Salvador. “Departments” here in El Salvador are much like states are in relation to the whole United States or like counties are in relation to entire states in the US. There are 14 departments in El Salvador, and Morazon is the department farthest to the northeast. It borders Honduras, and in fact, the land along the border of Morazon and Honduras is often disputed between the 2 countries (currently, the land is officially part of Honduras, but someone told me that the people there vote in the Salvadoran elections—weird!). Perquin (6ish hours in buses from San Salvador) is historically famous because during the war (1980-1992), it was a base and stronghold of the guerrilla forces. The guerrillas organized to oppose the government and military of El Salvador because of conditions of poverty, injustice, and oppression that were reality for the majority of citizens of El Salvador. Perquin, located in the mountains of eastern El Salvador, was a strategic location for the guerrillas because they used their knowledge of the mountains to oppose the military forces trained and equipped by the likes of the United States. The best museum of the revolution is located in Perquin, where we learned about the causes and details of the war, life as a guerrilla, weapons used by both sides (it was sad to see how many were manufactured and provided by our very own USA), and effects of the war. Our guide through the museum was an ex-guerrilla and thus had his own personal anecdotes to share. At the museum are located the remains of Radio Venceremos (“Radio ‘We Shall Overcome’”), the radio station of the guerrillas and their supporters that literally broadcast from under ground (in hiding because of their fear of being found out by the military).

On opposite sides of the small community of Perquin are 2 mountains that were the strongholds of the different sides of the war. The mountain aptly named Perquin was controlled by, and a base for, the guerrillas and the mountain named Giant was a center for the military. Our hikes in these mountains were led by a young man who had spent the early years of his life in a war refugee camp right across the border in Honduras. On the mountains, we saw trenches and holes that the 2 sides used strategically, and bomb craters. Nothing could have better brought the reality of 12 years of civil warfare to life. On Friday night in Perquin, a brigade of ex-guerrillas held a “reunion” in the town center, and in El Salvador, any reunion or any similar occasion is cause for a fiesta (party). Ex-guerrillas spoke to the people, and I was most fascinated by the words of a woman ex-commander who spoke about the long-term effects of women’s participation as guerrillas in the war. The “official” musicians of the guerrillas, who played often on Radio Venceremos, were the entertainment for the night. A lot of happiness and dancing…its great to see the celebration of a community who has suffered so much.

Early one morning, my friend, a guide, and I stuck off across the mountains on a hike to the site of the most famous massacre during the war years—El Mozote. Sixteen kilometers and 4 hours later, we drug ourselves up one last mountain to El Mozote, a small (much smaller than even Perquin) community nestled in the mountains. El Mozote is used to receiving visitors, so after we re-hydrated, we met with a guide who showed us the famous memorial that honors the 1,000 or so people who were murdered by the Atlacatl Battalion of the military in 3 days in 1981. One night in December 1981, the military drug all the citizens of El Mozote to the town center, and then sent the children inside the church and the men and women to separate buildings. Over 3 days, every single member of the community was massacred except for a lone woman—I will spare you the gory details. The lone survivor, Rufina Amaya, heard her children calling to her from within the church as they were being killed. People really are not sure why El Mozote was targeted for this horrendous massacre. Someone explained to me that the military must have wanted to “drain a lake to catch a few fish.” One of the most upsetting parts of this disaster was that the Atlacatl Battalion was trained and equipped by our very own US. In the “links” section to the right, you can find the article “The Truth of El Mozote” by Mark Danner published in The New Yorker in 1993 about the discovery of the remains of the community, the history, and the controversy.

During our visit to Perquin and El Mozote, not an hour passed without something interesting happening. Some highlights of some of the eclectic and interesting things that happened: Whether it be waiting for my bus on Monday morning as a man carrying an opossum (dead) by its tail walked by in the street, or the visit to Perquin by one of the candidates for the 2009 Salvadoran elections, or a surprise visit with a corn farmer who also had tilapia tanks, there was always something new to see, do, or learn. In the church in Perquin, I saw a banner designed by children that associated God’s promise to Abraham of descendents and a great nation to immigration in modern times, and had the opportunity to talk about this with the security guard at our hostel, who also happened to be an ex-guerrilla and a pastor and has the desire to move to the United States. En route to Perquin, our bus stopped functioning in the middle of nowhere, and my friend and I experienced the generosity of the others on the bus being willing to help us out, not to mention, we learned a lot about the middle of nowhere in the department of Morazon. Our guide on one of the days there was a 19-year-old with an interest in botany and organic agriculture (on top of being inspired by his ideas, work, and studies, this expanded my Spanish vocabulary to words such as compost, manure, and the name of the country’s official flower). 8 of the 17 communities where I will be working with FUNDAHMER in the upcoming 2 years are located in the department of Morazon, and thus I know that our trip this past weekend, although enjoyable nonetheless, helped me understand just a little more of the history and reality of the young people who live in this department to the far northeast.

Where I've Been and Where I Am

2008-11-10T23:59:00.002-06:00

I have posted a slide show of new pictures. As promised, I posted pictures from the Shicali Ceramic Workshop. I re-visited the place to see the ceramic-making process in progress and to order customized coffee “tazas” (mugs) for the two ladies I have lived with while in Language School. Also, in the “links” section to the right, I have posted a link to an article about rights for people with disabilities in El Salvador because many of you expressed interest in my last post about people with disabilities. Thanks for your interest, and thanks Stephanie Nodine, for sending me this link!

OK, now for an update: I finished language school on Friday, and many here and from home have asked me how it feels to be finished with language school. I feel a lot of things. First, I know that at CIS, I learned an excellent foundation for the Spanish language. I learned grammar, sentence structures, new vocabulary, etc. With this foundation, I will continue to practice, practice, practice. I also know that at times, I get pretty frustrated with not knowing, for example, last Friday when friends were talking really fast about the president and I really wanted to contribute but didn’t have the confidence to interject with my slow and thought-intensive Spanish. On the other hand, I love the feeling when I express myself (even complicated things) really well; for example, on Saturday night when I talked to a guy for about 2 and a half hours about intricacies of his experiences as a 12-year-old guerrilla during the war, about his role as a pastor, and about his desire to move to the US. I also know that I learned a lot about the history, politics, economy, human rights abuses, and other current situations of El Salvador while at CIS. This was not only good for me personally because I love history and current events, but also it informs the work that I am beginning to do now. Another aspect of my time at language school that was important was that I got to know people and the city of San Salvador at least reasonably well. I made friends (both Salvadorans, foreigners who like me are here for a long while, and foreigners who are only traveling through) and others have commented that for only having been in the city for a while, I know it pretty well. This comes in handy, for example, when I want to go to take a group to a concert in such-and-such park, or as is the case now, I need to buy a bed, desk, closet, mattress, etc for my room in the house where I will be moving.

Right now, I am having the opportunity (because I am presently and temporarily living in a bedroom in the back of the FUNDAHMER office) to really appreciate the experience I had living with the family of Elba and Nena during language school. Although I moved to this different location on Monday, yesterday (Tuesday), my host family gave me a despidido (good-bye party) at Little Ceasars. Pizza at Little Ceasars and then ice cream at Burger King. The most important point is that my time in their home was a really warm and welcoming opportunity to “find my feet” in this new place, and for that I was blessed.

Becuase I said I am not at language school anymore, you must be wondering what and where and how I am doing. I traveled outside the city a little this past weekend, (more about that in a later post—and see the photos from “Visit to Perquin and El Mazote”), moved to the office of FUNDAHMER on Monday, and yesterday (Tuesday) was my first day working with the organization. Much like learning Spanish is an exercise of my patience with myself when its not possible to learn it all in a matter of weeks, so has my experience here at the office been an exercise of patience. Patience with the people I work with to have time to meet with me in their very busy schedules as the calendar year wraps up. Patience with myself to not expect to do too much right away. So far, I have met a lot of the people I will be working with, have read about the history, mission, and current work of FUNDAHMER, and had some “free time” to answer emails, work on this blog, and study Spanish. I’m always challenged and inspired when I read or hear about people who against difficult odds (like a civil war, oppressive government, poverty, opposition, etc) have nevertheless retained hope that a better world, a better El Salvador, and a better life is possible and spent their energy working towards that end. FUNDAHMER was formed to, and currently works to, support Christian base communities that recognize social, economic, political, and eclesial realities, and are working to better function as communities (the most basic meaning of church) to respond with transformative hope to their realities.

Musings About People With Disabilities, El Salvador, and Ceramics

2008-10-20T10:23:00.004-06:00

Some of you know that I have a desire, interest, and a calling to work with people with “disabilities”, or more generally, people who might be known as “the least of these” for any reason: disabilities, poverty, minorities, hurting, left out, and generally anybody else that is looked down on in popular society. Before I left home back in September, I knew that something I would love to learn more about is the condition, care, and situations of people in El Salvador with mental and physical disabilities. If there ever was an “at-risk” population, it is people in an impoverished nation that often do not have the capabilities to make contributions that are deemed worthwhile by society and are thus deemed inferior. With minimal pre- and post-natal care often being the norm in El Salvador, I know that many people have moderate to severe disabilities in El Salvador. Where, what, and how are these people in El Salvador? While visiting in San Ramón, I had a brief encounter with a young woman with Downs Syndrome, and daily I talk with a man with disabilities who walks around in the neighborhood of my house and school.

I was pleased, then, to find out that in my afternoon “political and cultural program”, we were to visit a location where people with physical and mental disabilities worked. Many people in El Salvador make and try to sell crafts, and the previous day, I had been thinking about how great it would be if a community or cooperative in El Salvador could produce high quality “artsy-looking” dinnerware that they could export to middle- and upper-classes in other countries. Well, to my surprise, when I walked in this place for people with disabilities not knowing what to expect, I found just what I had thought about the previous day—gorgeous, unique, festive, and “artsy” dinnerware like plates, cups, bowls, and vases. We chatted with the woman who ran the store and who was constrained to a wheelchair because of her physical disabilities. She told us that some of the greatest problems for people with disabilities are transportation (neither the sidewalks nor the buses here are user-friendly, much less accommodating to disabilities), work, and thus a livable income. The ceramics-making shop and store, which is called Shicali Ceramics, was begun in 1982 by people desiring professional and inclusion for people with disabilities. Currently, there are 6 full-time employees with disabilities and 40+ part-time employees with disabilities. Shicali sells to 10,000 Villages in the United States and to other stores, restaurants, and hotels in the US, Canada, and Europe. In a behind-the-scenes tour of the ceramics production process, we saw the firing of the ceramics and the detailing and painting of the ceramics. I want to return at a time when the “dirt” is being made into clay and the ceramics being shaped on a potter’s wheel, and I promise to take pictures.

In addition to my ongoing interest in people with disabilities, in the past few weeks, I have had an additional connection with people with disabilities. For the past few weeks, I have had the “disability” of not being able to communicate with others. (In drawing this comparison, I don’t want to undermine the difficulties incurred by people with real disabilities, but I have learned through this experience.) If you think about it, one of the key problems for people with disabilities is their lack of ability to communicate as the rest of us do. People with autism, Downs Syndrome, cerebral palsy and other mental and developmental disorders have such a hard time communicating effectively with others. Even people with physical disabilities have difficulty communicating if you consider the great importance of first visual impressions in our perceptions of others. I’ve experienced how demeaning it is to be ignored in a conversation with people who can communicate better than I can. For people not even to make eye contact with me in a group conversation because they think (often rightly, especially the first few weeks :-) ) that I don’t understand. A group leader forgot my name even after being around me for 2 weeks, apparently because I couldn’t generate enough input to make myself memorable. There’s been so many times when I wanted to contribute to a conversation but didn’t know the words to do so and ended up standing around awkwardly, with my confidence all the time decreasing.

The Shicali ceramics shop creates dignity who face these difficulties and MANY MANY MORE SERIOUS ONES every day (not just for a couple weeks while I learn the appropriate language :-)). Employees receive training in the ceramics trade and have diversity in the types of tasks that they can do (so it is not unbearably monotonous), and Shicali has generated enough demand for their products that employees receive a dependable and livable wage. Moreover, Shicali has work that is interesting and dignifying for men with disabilities—and if you are asking why that is important, consider that much of the work offered in many other industries for people with disabilities caters toward the interests and abilities of women. Moreover, the ratio of men to women who are diagnosed with autism is 3:1.

Shicali is a great example of something that El Salvador (and the world in general) needs more of: opportunities for people with disabilities to have dignity. The situation is especially desperate for people born into poverty with disabilities. Families cannot provide sufficient resources to their children who are strong and healthy, so we can only imagine the strain children with disabilities put on these families. Currently there is another disabled population in El Salvador that needs attention: the tens of thousands of people injured during the war. The governments of countries like El Salvador do not provide special re sources for people with disabilities such as education and medical care (at least in the US, they usually get some form of education). There is only one other place that offers opportunities like Shicali in San Salvador, and there are none that we know of in the campo and communities of the country. I will be keeping my eyes and ears open as I work and live in the communities for the existing needs and ideas for increasing the dignity of people with disabilities in El Salvador.

My First Christian Base Community

2008-10-16T16:01:00.003-06:00

On Wednesday, I visited my first ecclesial base community. When I begin full-time work, I will be working in ecclesial base communities in several regions of El Salvador, so this visit was an important first of many to come. The community’s name is San Ramón. It was deserted and destroyed during the war, but 36 families repopulated it after the war. During the 1990’s, religious life in San Ramón was led by a series of priests, but after a series of scandals and indications that a priest-led church was not best for the community, the community elected in 2000 to become an ecclesial base community. As told to me by a woman in the community, for San Ramón to be a Christian base community means this: San Ramón does not have a priest or other clergyperson as its religious leader. Instead, everyone who wants to has full leadership and participation in the community and church. The community has a service on Sunday, a “Celebration of the Word”, and 6 groups of community members take turns leading songs, liturgy, reflections on passages from the Bible, and communion. The community believes that emphases on inclusion and shared leadership are important because Jesus emphasized these methods in his ministry and in his teachings to the first leaders of The Church. The faith of Christian base communities rest in a God and Jesus who care especially for people like them (poor, left out, sick, etc) and who desire abundant life for everyone on earth (not just a privileged few). The people in the communities desire a close relationship between this faith and reality, in the sense that they place special effort on discerning how God’s Word relates to and directs us in today’s world. There is a closer relationship between the church and the community, and between faith and decision-making, because of this connection between faith and reality. Monthly, the community meets to hear from all about the concerns and needs in the community and to discern the appropriate and timely actions to take as a community. For example, 2 high-priority needs in the community at this time are a radio network to relay news and community information out to all, even to those who cannot make it to the community center for meetings and Celebrations of the Word and assistance to young people who are in transitions of immigration: leaving to go to another country or returning to the community. I could talk for a while about San Ramón or other Christian base communities, but I will leave you with this, the name or title that San Ramón has given itself: “Pueblo de Dios en camino”. A translation is “community of people of God on the way”. On the way to discovering and becoming more of how Christ meant for us to be the body of Christ and the people of God. On the way to achieving more hope, freedom, justice, and love for all people.

Church, Romero, and Hospital: all in a Saturday morning

2008-10-11T18:14:00.002-06:00

I just had a meaningful experience that I want to tell you about. It’s Saturday, and I spent the morning in a hospital—but wait a minute, before you get worried, let me first let me clarify that I wasn’t sick or hurt!!! (I am SO thankful that I have not been sick yet at all!) This morning I went (actually the pastor picked me up) with a group from the church where I have been going to spend some hours in the hospital where Archbishop Oscar Romero was shot in 1980 (Romero was shot in the chapel of this hospital). First about the church, and then about the hospital. Last week, when I asked for a recommendation for a church that is active in working with the poor and marginalized and for abundant life and peace, a reliable source recommended this particular one. Fortunately, Cristy, one of the full-time workers at CIS goes to this church, so it was easy enough to find the time and place. I arrived on Sunday and was immediately welcomed and I sat during the service with Cristy’s mother, Cristina. Although the details of the message were difficult for me to understand in Spanish, the pastor talked about the verses in Matthew that talks about our good works being our fruits and used the illustration of the milpas (fields) that are so prevalent here in El Salvador. After church, Cristina invited me to her home for lunch, and I had a great time there with her daughters and their families. I felt really welcome, and even helped her granddaughters with a school project. On Wednesday evening, I went with Cristy to a small group that is kind of like what I call a discipleship group. We read a Scripture and discussed its relevance to the situation today in our own lives, in El Salvador, and in the world. We sang, shared the blessings of the last week, and shared prayers.

Today was both a blessing and a challenge. The hospital specializes in care for cancer patients and our group worked in the 2 areas with the most ill patients. The patients ranged from a thirteen year old to a woman who celebrated her 86th birthday on Thursday. During our time this morning, we spent time listening to and accompanying the dying patients. Part of that involved bathing the men and women, changing their bed linens, and involving them and their families in fun little activities. More important and also more difficult, however, was our presence to listen and talk. I’ve done this type of thing before, and today was especially profound for several reasons: First, I was taken aback by the sheer severity of the conditions of the patients and their loved one’s attention to them. One elderly grandmother had wasted away to practically nothing, but her daughter spent at least an hour and a half trying to spoon a couple spoonfuls of soup into her mouth. Secondly, today I leaned over the same beds that Romero did 30 years ago. For someone who aspires to do justice, love, and walk humbly with God and God’s people, Romero and his work are inspirational. Another important part of my experience today was the youth I was with. Our group consisted of nine youth and some other adult leaders. High schoolers spending their Saturday mornings cleaning the waste of sick people and sitting and talking with them—how often does that happen? Finally, I was once again affected by the language barrier. It’s somewhat uncomfortable to do the important work of listening to people who are dying and to their relatives, but its made even more uncomfortable when you have to try to do it in a language you are only just learning. I came home today having experienced an institution doing a great work, some young people doing great service, and some of the most profound family commitment that exists. I was reminded to think about and do what is most important and meaningful.

To School Once Again

2008-10-09T18:54:00.002-06:00

I'm in my second week here at the CIS (Center for InterExchange and Solidarity) language school to learn and practice Spanish in a context that will teach me about the history, culture, and current events of El Salvador. I've had 2 big break-throughs in communication this week. I have a cell phone and just a few minutes ago I connected to the wireless internet at my school so I can communicate with you guys.

And that's only the start of the story of my communication this week. This week, I have been in a Spanish class with one other student and a teacher—yep, that’s right, a class with only 2 students. As you can imagine, the small class size is really great because I have lots of time to speak in class and time to ask questions—I can’t zone in or out, though, because there is a one out of 2 chance that I will be called on to speak. The classes at CIS are taught according to Freirian techniques of popular education. I’m not very well read-up on Freire or popular education, but I will tell you what I have learned about it through experience: instead of having a teacher that lectures throughout the class, the teacher prompts discussions about an interesting subject matter in which we have to use the skill (like a grammer tense or certain vocabulary words) that we are learning. Also, a large emphasis is placed on contextual learning—in this case, the context is Salvadoran history, culture, politics, and economics and worldwide issues such as globalization and the current economic crisis. A typical 4-hour class period goes something like this: discuss the events of yesterday and today (both personal and stuff that has happened in the news), review homework (which might be a discussion about a video we watched yesterday), and read an article or narrative about a Salvadoran or global issue and discuss it. Then my teacher might introduce a grammar topic or new vocabulary and then we would discuss a subject so that we can use what we learned (for example, on the day that we reviewed past tense verb usage, we discussed the previous night’s presidential debates). Afterwards, we sometimes sing a song in Spanish or watch a video in Spanish that helps us review what we are learning, but again, involves some important issue (you might have chuckled when I said we sing songs, but next time you turn on the radio, listen to how fast some singers sing and think about how good it would be to practice understanding their words if you spoke a different language).

You might be asking “Who are the other people at CIS?” There are 6 other students of Spanish, many of whom are also teachers of English in the evening program. Spanish school is from 8 to 12 in the morning and English school is from 5 to 7:30 in the evening. Many of the other Spanish students are also from the U.S., but there are also students from Canada and Germany. There are many English students in the evening classes, many (but not all) of whom are 20-something and attend one of the universities in San Salvador. If you were to be around the CIS building during the days, you might also run into some other non-Salvadorans who recently arrived to begin preparing for “observing” the Salvadoran elections in January and March. Past elections in El Salvador have involved a lot of fraud, so non-governmental organizations like CIS have recruited international volunteers to observe the elections to increase their fairness. Learning about elections and transfers of power in this country make me grateful for the ease with which elected officials take and leave office in the the U.S. The elections in January and March are equally as important in El Salvador as the elections next month in the U.S.

Chicken Rides and Christian Reflection

2008-09-29T23:49:00.006-06:00

I’ve never had 9 hours of bus-riding before. Especially not on what Salvadorans call “Chicken Buses”. Let me explain: In our travels from San Salvador to the highlands of Guatamala, four friends and I traveled on buses that resemble public school activity buses in the US except that they are bright and gaudy colors like red and green and they have racks on top where luggage, agricultural products (yes, you guessed it—chickens), and apparently (though infrequently) people ride. The buses have names like Maria, Josephina, and even Jennifer. Inside, seven or eight people ride in each row (yes, these are like activity bus seats) and near the end of the ride when the bus is overly full, many stand (it was quite a ride standing on the whole entire 3 hour return trip from the Guatemalan mountains to Guatemala City). The drivers are apparently paid by the distance they cover in a given time because we passed so many small cars coming down the mountain that I can’t count them and there were many exciting moments that the bus leaned very, very, very far over onto one side, I thought flipping was possible. So, actually there is not much real semblance to activity buses after all, but I will never look at an activity bus the same again. However, my chicken rides were part of my Salvadoran initiation.

The location of this weekend’s retreat was beautiful. It was in the high mountains overlooking Lake Atitlan in Guatemala at a retreat center called “Mount Carmel” run by a Guatemalan parish. My photos are of our views of lake Atitlan and the retreat center. Beautiful. I have also posted a picture of the group that gathered at the retreat center—we were all the VMM missioners that serve in the Central American countries of El Salvador, Guatemala, and Nicaragua. There were the Morrans, a couple with two girls ages 11 and 8, who are in their last month of a 2-year long water and sanitation project. Both are engineers, and though they have encountered many difficulties, they have realized that relationships and meaningful moments have been more important in the end anyways. Then there are Betsy and Steven. Betsy and Steven are in their latter-70s, and Steven is deaf in one ear and half-deaf in the other, but it was such a blessing to sit beside Steven on his better-ear side to hear his story of living in Central America since the 80’s in many different capacities—as a parish minister, a VMM, a teacher, etc. Wisdom that will help me down the road I am sure.

There were more individuals (including other 20-somethings who will prove to be an excellent “peer” community), but perhaps more important was the sense of community at large. The pastor that led organized the retreat around 3 of the five of Jesus’ “discourses”, a.k.a long teachings, in Matthew: Missions (Mttw 10), Parables about the Kingdom of God (Mttw 13), and Community (Mttw 18). Jesus lived and taught to demonstrate that God’s kingdom is both here and not yet (a mystery in Mttw 13) and that God’s desire is for all of us to realize that kingdom, which must be great as it is compared to a mustard seed, leaven, treasure, pearl, and net, both here and in the future.

I´m Here!

2008-09-24T22:21:00.004-06:00

Safely in San Salvador, El Salvador and already found internet access-what about that? I arrived with my suitcases weighing 49.5 lbs and 49 lbs (the limit was 50 :-) ), and as soon as I walked around in the San Salvador airport, I had that de ja vu feeling of having been there before. I realized that while on study abroad in Latin America in spring 2006, my group and I flew from San Salvador (the airport I arrived in yesterday) to Nicaragua, so I had indeed been in the airport before. I waited outside the airport for a few minutes until I heard someone call "Jennifer"--that someone was a welcome face: my friend from Furman, Angel, who has been working with FUNDAHMER (the organization I will begin working for officially in November after language school) since early August. She and Armando, the director of FUNDAHMER, picked me and my many pounds of luggage up and we drove to the FUNDAHMER office, where I have been since then--including sleeping last night.

In addition to Angel, Betsy and Julia from VMM (who I met during my VMM training in May in Wisconsin) were welcome faces as were other American volunteers and missioners (who will become great friends, but for the time being I am just happy that they speak English or at least speak slower Spanish). Although I don't officially start language training (at a school) until Tuesday of next week, as early as my time sitting waiting to board the plane to El Salvador, I have been learning (and relearning) Spanish. I am fortunate because I have known and used a lot of the language in the past (in high school and college classes and in Latin America), so it will come back to me with practice. I can hold my own in some conversations, but there have been some funny moments like when I asked a 45-year-old whether she has a novia (which means girlfriend) when I actually meant to ask about her husband (I got both the gender and the spouse vs. dating idea wrong).

The FUNDAHMER office is in a good location in that it is in a safe community on the edge of San Salvador and that it is located next to the UCA (Central American University) and so far I have found that it has good restaurants nearby. My first meal was pupusas (which is THE authentic food of El Salvador), which are thick tortillas filled with whatever goodness you request (cheese, beans, chicken, sausage, etc). Late last evening, Armando, Betsy, Julia, and I discussed my work, where I will live, a reasonable budget, the living stipend I will receive, and any other questions I had. I get the general feeling that people are really caring about my well-being (everything from my safety to my having an enjoyable time). Several of the other volunteers have commented that Armando is a caring-Grandfather-like person.

Right now, I am sitting using my laptop in the FUNDAHMER office because they have wireless internet and a "conference room" with tables. In the morning, I will travel with several others to the location of out weekend retreat (a 12 hour trip, 5:30am to 5:30pm). Thanks to everyone who remembered me as I traveled yesterday--all is safe and good.

The Details

2008-09-16T15:59:00.000-06:00

You notice I have named my blog “…To Live…To Work…To Learn…” Since you will be along with me on this journey, in these first 2 posts, I aim to introduce my next two years and explain my blog’s title. First, the details: I leave on September the 24th to begin 2 years as VMM (Volunteer Missionary Movement) missioner in El Salvador. I will fly into San Salvador (the capital of El Salvador) and for two days, I will travel and orient with representatives from VMM and FUNDAHMER (the organization I will be working with—more about that in a second). Then, I will join the 12 other VMM missioners that serve in Central America at a retreat in Guatemala. Here I will meet the other missioners and have a little spiritual “nourishment” to get my two years off on the right foot.

After the weekend retreat, I will travel back to San Salvador to begin 6 weeks of Spanish language school at CIS (Center for Exchange and Solidarity) in San Salvador. The opportunity for language school is a blessing not only because I will learn the language to help facilitate my life and work for the next 2 years, but also because I will learn about Salvadoran history, culture, and current events in afternoon sessions. Moreover, because my language school is located in San Salvador, I will have an adjustment period to begin becoming acclimated to life in El Salvador and for getting to know people from FUNDAHMER and other missioners and volunteers in El Salvador.

My six weeks in language school will end in November. At that time, I will begin working with FUNDAHMER, which is an organization that supports and serves impoverished Christian base communities in El Salvador. FUNDAHMER has projects involving a lot of different types of work in the base communities. (For example, a friend who also graduated from Furman in the spring is presently working with FUNDAHMER in work involving sustainable agriculture). Despite the variety of FUNDAHMER’s projects, all of their work and identity revolves around key principles of their mission: Biblical formation, theology, values-formation, human rights, empowerment, community development, accompaniment, gender equity, alternatives to poverty, and preservation of the environment. What a list! It will be interesting to see how these values play out as themes of my journey of living, working, and learning over the next 2 years.

I will be specifically involved in FUNDAHMER’s Youth to Youth Leadership Project, which will provide faith formation and leadership training to youth in El Salvador. A brutal civil war in the 1980s and the economic, political, and cultural struggles during the war’s aftermath have created pivotal and often dire situations for the young people of El Salvador. Through the Youth to Youth Leadership Project, young Salvadorans will be empowered to actively participate in their communities, the Church, and the world in spite of their social and economic limitations and will be empowered to develop and preserve their dignity and hope.