During our years with Alfalit in Latin America from 1984-87, Trudy and I hosted “Latin American Awakenings.” LAA's consist of immersion groups, that experience marginalized communities and learning from them about their reality. Immersion teams consist of about ten Americans who spend ten days with the people.
This team came from the University of Missouri. I met them at the airport in San Pedro Sula. Mennonite pastor Rev. Rolando Carcamo was our host.
Our daily routine consisted of getting up; having individual devotions, breakfast, and before we entered the community, Rolando indormed us the activities of the day. We visited their barrios, where members of the community told their stories and about their lives
The curriculum included the experience of the ten days in the community. This included the history of their community and their country; their systemic poverty, and why they were stuck with it through no fault of their own. They shared with us their faith, as we participated in their Bible studies and worship.
We learned about the corruption and violence suffered by them by their government, and the intervention of the United States in the internal affairs of their country abusing of their human and civil rights.
In the afternoon we would return to the residence to rest and then supper.
After super we would participate in the most important activity of the day. This was the time for feedback by the students and their reactions to the experiences. Because the group was thrust into another culture, and into situations of poverty many were disoriented. They had never seen poverty at this scale before.
The students saw children begging in the streets with dirty faces and with tattered and dirty clothes. From their perspective of privilege, they were schoked at what they saw.
They wanted to solve their needs on a superficial level by giving them money or collect clothes and toys to give to the children. They felt guilty realizing the gulf between the haves and have not. They wanted to meet their needs in the moment, not realizing that it was more important to address the causes of systemic poverty.
They learned that it is the community that addresses those causes. We can't do it for them. We don't have the answers. Rather, the community finds the answers for their well being.
After supper we gathered to talk about the day's experiences. The students responded to what they saw. They saw that the people lack clean water to wash clothes, to take baths, and drink clean water. There is no sanitation for bathing and and to relieve themselves.
Electricity was rarely available, so they used kerosene lamps instead.
Marginalized communities lacked good land to grow crops, forced to tive on rocky soil producing meager crops. They had to fetch water at the ppolluted river, a mile away at. Children and women spent the better part of the day going up and down the hill with any container they can find, hauling the putrid water. Childrenn missed school because it was more important for the community to have water, than for the children to have and education. All were infested with parasites, and many infants would die from diarrhea, a very preventable disease. Those were some of the reasons poor people are caught in an endless cycle poverty.
Transformation into a broader worldview is the beginning of the student’s education. Students were encouraged to journal and reflect on their daily experiences. This resource would become their textbook when they returned home.
The day before we left Honduras, we had just finished the evening meal, when Rolando told us to climb into the trucks. We had no clue where we going. The sun was setting as we left the city. Soon I smelled garbage. We stopped on the side of the highway. Rolando told us to get out. We crossed the road and entered a garbage dump. In the twilight, we saw the shadows of people of all ages moving through the piles of garbage that the trucks had dumped during the day. Tractors turned over the garbage, people followed for behind picking up food scraps or finding something they could sell to make a little bit of money for their susatenance.
Rolando stopped as we gathered around him. He greeted a young man standing in front of his shack. While conversing with him, we could hear clinking sounds behind a the sheet that covered the door.
The man’s wife come out with four cracked coffee cups filled with coffee. She greeted us with the traditional, hospitality in Latin America. Four cups of coffee and 12 North Americans. I said to the students, "We must accept the coffee, in spite of its dubious sanitation. We prayed over the cups as the Spirit made them cleaned them.
The Holy Spirit took over as we began to celebrate the Eucharist. We passed the cups around the circle, with the couple among us, our bodies transformed into the Body of Christ. The Christ was becam present. The bread and wine was transfigured into the body and blood of Christ.
“Do this in Remembrance of Me. This moment became an Epiphany- a liminal space. The present was kairos, a significant moment in time. The students were not the only ones who were transformed that evening. So was I - Metanoia!
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