Musings About People With Disabilities, El Salvador, and Ceramics

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

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

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

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.