Lately I've wondered a lot about what my role is here. I continue to learn, learn, learn every day, but so much of this experience seems about how I am growing, and not what I am offering. This is not that surprising, given that in such a short trip it's difficult to imagine a significant impact on anyone's life besides my own.
One thing is clear - in order to best be a servant and disciple of Jesus among the poor, my attitude must always be one of humility and dying to myself in order that others may live. I feel helpless to offer any suggestions or programs or ideas that can help in the barrios, much less even do something. So often my idea of Christian service revolves around help in a material way, such as helping to provide food or assisting someone with a physical ailment, or working to improve housing situations.
However, while all of those are needs here, they are actually often met by the government. As I've mentioned before, Venezuela as a country actually has quite a lot of money, and because it's socialist, there are many programs to provide for people's physical and material needs. Each neighborhood has a government-sponsored casa comunal and a consejo comunal, basically a house and council that exist to serve the community. They even offer things like aerobics classes! Food is easily obtained if you are poor, and many of the homes where are neighbors live sprung up when the president told people "Here is some land. If you don't have a place to live, you can make one here."
What emerges to me now as something us gringos who follow Jesus can offer is to be ministers of reconciliation. Basically all of the violence here springs from acts of revenge. In the neighborhood where we are doing the kids club, there is a long history of violence. Shamefully for us, it started when Air Jordans arrived in Caracas and someone was killed for his shoes. That began a run of violence that has literally died down - it is restlessly quieter because most of the people involved in the violence have died. In the kids club we have an opportunity to model and teach the power of love and forgiveness. This is a foreign concept to many of the people we meet. Just yesterday someone on the team was talking with a man on the street. Our teammate asked him about what might happen if someone were to ask forgiveness for something, and the man said, "no, no. They might say sorry, but never ask for forgiveness. No." Our teammate kept pressing, but the man could not imagine such a thing ever happening. Yet, if a spirit of forgiveness were to invade the hearts of the neighbors, it's mind boggling to think of how things could change. This generation would have hope, instead of fear.
Discerning the way to transmit this message of hope and forgiveness is our challenge.
Monday, June 29, 2009
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Daily Life
I thought you might be interested to hear some of the details about daily living here in the Caracas barrios, so here's kind of a rundown:
Food
I was a little worried in coming here that I might have to eat eggs (which I HATE), because eggs are a staple food of the world. However, I have thankfully managed to avoid that distressing possibility! Since I've had diarrhea for three fourths of the time I've been here, if I eat breakfast I usually have just some bread. We get bread from the bakery a couple of times a week. Arepas are the most common food here. If you're not familiar, try to imagine the masa from a tamale, but about five inches across and maybe half an inch thick. You either fry it or pan cook it, and then split it and put cheese or ham or something inside. They are pretty tasty, and a big staple. The team leader family here has them for dinner every night. Also here you can get empanadas, which are made from a similar kind of masa, but will have meat or cheese already cooked inside, and those are fried and also very good. We eat plenty of platanos (like a banana), fried or toasted and those are really good. You can get plenty of fruit like mangos, bananas, pineapples, etc., and most of it's pretty good. I've also had chicha once, (which is not the chicha from the jungle, if you know what I mean), and it's sort of like horchata but with condensed milk, and it was delicious! A favorite beverage here is malta, which is fairly similar to rootbeer.
Transportation
To get down the hill from the barrio, we catch a jeep. The jeeps go up and down the hill all day long, and they have two long bench seats in the back where ten people will cram in. Then we might get on the metro, which is actually really nice, and that could take us downtown. It's very inexpensive to take public transportation here. There are also buses and taxis, of course. Most things are at a fixed price. The buses are not as crowded as I experienced in Ecuador where people are just hanging out the side, and they are also cleaner.
Shopping
Shopping is a very tiresome experience here because you have to go to so many different places to get just a few things. You almost never bargain here, which came as a surprise. To get general groceries we take a jeep down the hill and there is a market where we go to different stalls to get produce, coffee, bread, etc. The team knows the people they usually buy from, but I've only gone with them a couple of times so I'm still figuring it out. Last night I took a bus with one of the team members to a drug store, and it was very similar to an American drugstore. It was kind of a relief to be in a clean place with familiar looking items and a familiar way of buying them. They do have malls here, but I haven't been to any yet. We also have little bodegas in the neighborhood, which are like mini-marts attached to someone's home. You can buy basics at the bodega, like eggs, pop, chips, candy, etc. We buy our water at a hardware store in a big jug, and that seems to last us about a week.
Life in the House
To get to the house, you have to go down a couple of dozen stairs, all of which are different and steep. It makes me feel like we're entering a hobbit hole or something. We're under someone else's house, but we can go up to the balcony, which is great. At night with all of the lights it's an amazing view. The water in the shower is very cold, so showers are quick. You can't put any toilet paper down the toilet, so that all goes in the trash. In the kitchen you have to turn on the gas and light the stove with a lighter, but it's pretty efficient. There are lots of little ants in certain places of the house, but as they're so small and not everywhere, it's not too bothersome. We did trap a mouse the other night, after we kept hearing it. I also had seen it one night in the bathroom, and then once it ran down from the sink and across my foot. We set the trap and caught it, which was kind of sad for the mouse, but we sleep better now. We keep all of our dry goods in a big plastic tub so that creatures cannot get to it, and everything else goes in the refrigerator. I'm sleeping on the bottom bunk of a bunk bed and have a little dresser to keep my clothes in. We don't have a washing machine, so we pay a neighbor to wash it in hers, and then she hangs it to dry and we pick it up.
I'll post more soon!
Food
I was a little worried in coming here that I might have to eat eggs (which I HATE), because eggs are a staple food of the world. However, I have thankfully managed to avoid that distressing possibility! Since I've had diarrhea for three fourths of the time I've been here, if I eat breakfast I usually have just some bread. We get bread from the bakery a couple of times a week. Arepas are the most common food here. If you're not familiar, try to imagine the masa from a tamale, but about five inches across and maybe half an inch thick. You either fry it or pan cook it, and then split it and put cheese or ham or something inside. They are pretty tasty, and a big staple. The team leader family here has them for dinner every night. Also here you can get empanadas, which are made from a similar kind of masa, but will have meat or cheese already cooked inside, and those are fried and also very good. We eat plenty of platanos (like a banana), fried or toasted and those are really good. You can get plenty of fruit like mangos, bananas, pineapples, etc., and most of it's pretty good. I've also had chicha once, (which is not the chicha from the jungle, if you know what I mean), and it's sort of like horchata but with condensed milk, and it was delicious! A favorite beverage here is malta, which is fairly similar to rootbeer.
Transportation
To get down the hill from the barrio, we catch a jeep. The jeeps go up and down the hill all day long, and they have two long bench seats in the back where ten people will cram in. Then we might get on the metro, which is actually really nice, and that could take us downtown. It's very inexpensive to take public transportation here. There are also buses and taxis, of course. Most things are at a fixed price. The buses are not as crowded as I experienced in Ecuador where people are just hanging out the side, and they are also cleaner.
Shopping
Shopping is a very tiresome experience here because you have to go to so many different places to get just a few things. You almost never bargain here, which came as a surprise. To get general groceries we take a jeep down the hill and there is a market where we go to different stalls to get produce, coffee, bread, etc. The team knows the people they usually buy from, but I've only gone with them a couple of times so I'm still figuring it out. Last night I took a bus with one of the team members to a drug store, and it was very similar to an American drugstore. It was kind of a relief to be in a clean place with familiar looking items and a familiar way of buying them. They do have malls here, but I haven't been to any yet. We also have little bodegas in the neighborhood, which are like mini-marts attached to someone's home. You can buy basics at the bodega, like eggs, pop, chips, candy, etc. We buy our water at a hardware store in a big jug, and that seems to last us about a week.
Life in the House
To get to the house, you have to go down a couple of dozen stairs, all of which are different and steep. It makes me feel like we're entering a hobbit hole or something. We're under someone else's house, but we can go up to the balcony, which is great. At night with all of the lights it's an amazing view. The water in the shower is very cold, so showers are quick. You can't put any toilet paper down the toilet, so that all goes in the trash. In the kitchen you have to turn on the gas and light the stove with a lighter, but it's pretty efficient. There are lots of little ants in certain places of the house, but as they're so small and not everywhere, it's not too bothersome. We did trap a mouse the other night, after we kept hearing it. I also had seen it one night in the bathroom, and then once it ran down from the sink and across my foot. We set the trap and caught it, which was kind of sad for the mouse, but we sleep better now. We keep all of our dry goods in a big plastic tub so that creatures cannot get to it, and everything else goes in the refrigerator. I'm sleeping on the bottom bunk of a bunk bed and have a little dresser to keep my clothes in. We don't have a washing machine, so we pay a neighbor to wash it in hers, and then she hangs it to dry and we pick it up.
I'll post more soon!
Friday, June 19, 2009
A Week In
It's Friday, and I've now completed one week and one day in Caracas. Each day continues to be full and challenging, but I am starting to develop a sense of familiarity about things.
I've now been to the city center area twice. Caracas has a great metro system. I think I expected Caracas to be very similar to Quito, but it's actually quite different. It's much cleaner, it has this great metro system, and the buses are much more user-friendly. You also don't see nearly as many guards around with machine guns, which was the norm in Quito. However, you do still sense the underlying unrest and violence, even though things appear to be nicer on the surface. We saw the police harassing a young man in the plaza the other day, for no apparent reason. One of the officers hit him on the head and later kicked him, for no apparent reason. The boy appeared terrified, and with good reason. We've heard about the senseless ways kids like him have been shot by the police. Yet, the police are in a very difficult position themselves, because they walk into incredily dangerous situations and know that if they don't shoot first, they may never have the chance. It's hard to imagine how following Jesus' model of nonviolence and peace could have any effect in such entrenched systems, but we must maintain hope.
We visited the neighborhood the other day where we will be starting a kids club. It has a long history of brutal violence, but in recent years has been calmer. The people who live there have welcomed kids clubs from this group in the past, so we are hopeful that any example of peace we can offer will be welomed again. Our first kids club will be next Tuesday, and we'll have them on Tuesdays and Thursdays until us summer folks leave at the end of July. Mostly we will be singing, playing games, and doing skits to model things like forgiveness and love. Forgiveness is not a familiar concept for people here, as most of the violence stems from people taking revenge for one thing or another. It's something I continue to learn for myself, even as I try to live it out as an example for others.
One of the things that has been surprising but encouraging to me about the way InnerCHANGE and the team work here is the way they are able to balance being present here and maintaining important relationships at home. InnerCHANGE really values sustaining its people for long term, so in addition to having a semi-relaxing schedule on Sundays, every Wednesday is a free Sabbath day for us to do gringo things, like going to a park in the city and just reading, or going to the beach. Venezuelans love to be in crowds, but we love to have space to ourselves, so it's incredibly nourishing to be able to recognize that and make space for our "gringo time". It makes it easier to be fully engaged when coming back to the barrio.
Thanks for all of your comments and thoughts. It's a huge blessing to me that I know I have family and friends who care for me and share their own insight.
I've now been to the city center area twice. Caracas has a great metro system. I think I expected Caracas to be very similar to Quito, but it's actually quite different. It's much cleaner, it has this great metro system, and the buses are much more user-friendly. You also don't see nearly as many guards around with machine guns, which was the norm in Quito. However, you do still sense the underlying unrest and violence, even though things appear to be nicer on the surface. We saw the police harassing a young man in the plaza the other day, for no apparent reason. One of the officers hit him on the head and later kicked him, for no apparent reason. The boy appeared terrified, and with good reason. We've heard about the senseless ways kids like him have been shot by the police. Yet, the police are in a very difficult position themselves, because they walk into incredily dangerous situations and know that if they don't shoot first, they may never have the chance. It's hard to imagine how following Jesus' model of nonviolence and peace could have any effect in such entrenched systems, but we must maintain hope.
We visited the neighborhood the other day where we will be starting a kids club. It has a long history of brutal violence, but in recent years has been calmer. The people who live there have welcomed kids clubs from this group in the past, so we are hopeful that any example of peace we can offer will be welomed again. Our first kids club will be next Tuesday, and we'll have them on Tuesdays and Thursdays until us summer folks leave at the end of July. Mostly we will be singing, playing games, and doing skits to model things like forgiveness and love. Forgiveness is not a familiar concept for people here, as most of the violence stems from people taking revenge for one thing or another. It's something I continue to learn for myself, even as I try to live it out as an example for others.
One of the things that has been surprising but encouraging to me about the way InnerCHANGE and the team work here is the way they are able to balance being present here and maintaining important relationships at home. InnerCHANGE really values sustaining its people for long term, so in addition to having a semi-relaxing schedule on Sundays, every Wednesday is a free Sabbath day for us to do gringo things, like going to a park in the city and just reading, or going to the beach. Venezuelans love to be in crowds, but we love to have space to ourselves, so it's incredibly nourishing to be able to recognize that and make space for our "gringo time". It makes it easier to be fully engaged when coming back to the barrio.
Thanks for all of your comments and thoughts. It's a huge blessing to me that I know I have family and friends who care for me and share their own insight.
Monday, June 15, 2009
First Thoughts
Well, I have made it through my first four days in Venezuela! Our orientation in San Francisco was really great. There are a total of eight summerxchange interns in four places: Los Angeles, San Francisco, Miami, and Caracas, Venezuela. I am one of two interns here in Caracas for the summer. Gabriel, the other intern, is originally from Peru but has spent a lot of time in Quito, so we've had some fun times talking about the places we both know in Ecuador!
One thing I have begun to enjoy with InnerCHANGE is their sense of Christian ecumenism. Every week all the teams across the world meet on the same day to pray, and they follow a very Catholic style of prayer even as they are not a Catholic organization. I have heard other Protestant or evangelical groups talk about how they appreciate things about the Catholic church, but I haven't witnessed any others that express such a seamless blending of many traditions. It's very encouraging, and I'm looking forward to seeing more of how that works.
Here in Caracas I'm living with two other women about my age who are a part of the InnerCHANGE team here. KT has been here for almost two years, and Beth just arrived a couple of months ago. They have been wonderfully gracious and patient hostesses, and I feel so blessed to have them here to help guide me and walk with me through this experience. We live in a little two bedroom apartment that has a little bathroom and tiny kitchen. They've decorated in a way that feels warm and comfortable. In order to get to the apartment we have to descend a number of treacherous stairs. No two stairs are alike here, so you definitely have to watch where you're going! There are some windows, without glass, so we benefit from the really nice breeze that always seems to be blowing through. All the houses look so precarious from the outside, but once you're inside it actually feels pretty secure. Most people here build their houses a little at a time, as they can afford it, so that contributes to the mish-mash appearance of it all.
Speaking Spanish has been incredibly useful to me, of course, but Venezuelan Spanish does have plenty of unique characteristics. I understand about 75% of what people say, but it's amazing how not understanding one or two words can completely throw you off!
One of the most surprising things I've observed so far is that life in Caracas is actually quite comparable to Orange County in some ways. There is a huge discrepancy of wealth and poverty, but even in the barrio where I'm living I'm not sure that it's all that different than some of the neighborhoods in Santa Ana where I work. Everyone here has running water and electricity (though there's no hot water - my mother would be proud of how much less time I spend in the shower!) and if you don't have food you can get it from the government. What is also interesting is that you don't really see homeless or begging people, which I expected based off of my previous overseas experience. Venezuela, as it turns out, is not really a poor country. It just has people who are poor. It is believed that almost half of the people of Caracas live in the barrior. Because the government provides so much assistance, you don' t really see complete destitution. Certainly we do deal with some of the inconveniences you might expect, such as not being able to flush toilet paper, having to wash fresh fruits or vegetables in vinegar, and not being able to drink the water.
Another crazy thing about the barrios here is that they are all high on the hills, so you have the most amazing views of the city. In the U.S. that's prime real estate, but here it's what's set aside for the poor. It's also interesting how at home I can look at photos of barrios and feel a sense of sadness for the people who live there, but when looking across at those same images from within a barrio, it just looks normal and I know that people are living there just like I am in this neighborhood.
I've already had my first bout with diarrhea, but the charcoal pills my doctor recommended seem to have helped a little. Getting sick is a fact of life here, which is stragely comforting. I'm certainly not alone in that experience!
I'm definitely still in kind of robot mode, just going along with everything. My mind is always trying to analyze every situation and make sense of it all, but each day brings something new to consider. With all that I've seen in the last four days, I can't imagine what the coming week will bring!
One thing I have begun to enjoy with InnerCHANGE is their sense of Christian ecumenism. Every week all the teams across the world meet on the same day to pray, and they follow a very Catholic style of prayer even as they are not a Catholic organization. I have heard other Protestant or evangelical groups talk about how they appreciate things about the Catholic church, but I haven't witnessed any others that express such a seamless blending of many traditions. It's very encouraging, and I'm looking forward to seeing more of how that works.
Here in Caracas I'm living with two other women about my age who are a part of the InnerCHANGE team here. KT has been here for almost two years, and Beth just arrived a couple of months ago. They have been wonderfully gracious and patient hostesses, and I feel so blessed to have them here to help guide me and walk with me through this experience. We live in a little two bedroom apartment that has a little bathroom and tiny kitchen. They've decorated in a way that feels warm and comfortable. In order to get to the apartment we have to descend a number of treacherous stairs. No two stairs are alike here, so you definitely have to watch where you're going! There are some windows, without glass, so we benefit from the really nice breeze that always seems to be blowing through. All the houses look so precarious from the outside, but once you're inside it actually feels pretty secure. Most people here build their houses a little at a time, as they can afford it, so that contributes to the mish-mash appearance of it all.
Speaking Spanish has been incredibly useful to me, of course, but Venezuelan Spanish does have plenty of unique characteristics. I understand about 75% of what people say, but it's amazing how not understanding one or two words can completely throw you off!
One of the most surprising things I've observed so far is that life in Caracas is actually quite comparable to Orange County in some ways. There is a huge discrepancy of wealth and poverty, but even in the barrio where I'm living I'm not sure that it's all that different than some of the neighborhoods in Santa Ana where I work. Everyone here has running water and electricity (though there's no hot water - my mother would be proud of how much less time I spend in the shower!) and if you don't have food you can get it from the government. What is also interesting is that you don't really see homeless or begging people, which I expected based off of my previous overseas experience. Venezuela, as it turns out, is not really a poor country. It just has people who are poor. It is believed that almost half of the people of Caracas live in the barrior. Because the government provides so much assistance, you don' t really see complete destitution. Certainly we do deal with some of the inconveniences you might expect, such as not being able to flush toilet paper, having to wash fresh fruits or vegetables in vinegar, and not being able to drink the water.
Another crazy thing about the barrios here is that they are all high on the hills, so you have the most amazing views of the city. In the U.S. that's prime real estate, but here it's what's set aside for the poor. It's also interesting how at home I can look at photos of barrios and feel a sense of sadness for the people who live there, but when looking across at those same images from within a barrio, it just looks normal and I know that people are living there just like I am in this neighborhood.
I've already had my first bout with diarrhea, but the charcoal pills my doctor recommended seem to have helped a little. Getting sick is a fact of life here, which is stragely comforting. I'm certainly not alone in that experience!
I'm definitely still in kind of robot mode, just going along with everything. My mind is always trying to analyze every situation and make sense of it all, but each day brings something new to consider. With all that I've seen in the last four days, I can't imagine what the coming week will bring!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)