Ida y Vuelta (To Go and Return)

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

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

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

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...

“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

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

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"

... 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...

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

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.