Community Visits are Making All the Difference

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.