Hello, time for another update! I’m still in Boston where spring is blooming.
Health
I’ve recovered from Covid, except for a slight cough and wheeze that comes and goes, though even that seems to be gradually diminishing day by day. I’m out exercising a lot, so that’s good.
I got my first dose of the Moderna vaccine, and that knocked me out with a fever and cough for 2+ days. But I’ve been good after that. I’m not looking forward to the second shot! But grateful to be a part of the collective effort to overcome this virus situation and support each other in doing so.
Vaccination in US and Ecuador
In the States, the recommendation has been to get both shots of whatever vaccine is available, whenever your number comes up, even if you’ve had Covid (but at least 2 weeks after symptoms started). In Ecuador, the recommendation is to wait 4-6 months after having Covid before vaccinating - to give your immune system time to recover - and then to receive only one dose instead of two. There’s a tendency to look for a ‘right’ way, and judge others as a ‘wrong’ way, but, considering context, I can see both of those approaches as having their merits.
There is some current research investigating whether having antibodies after having Covid is almost equivalent to having a first vaccine shot, and so maybe a second shot isn’t necessary. (That explains why a first shot often generates a strong reaction in folks who’ve had Covid.) However, more investigation is needed, because there’s a lot still unknown about immunity after Covid. The latest I’ve seen is about 83% immunity for 5 months, but, natural cases aren’t controlled like a vaccine. For example, after having Covid, people can be left with different levels of antibodies and other immune cells, leaving the possibility of a lower quality “first shot”. Research has indicated that people who’ve had Covid generally have higher antibody levels after each shot than those who haven’t, but according to professionals there is no long-term danger from being “over-charged” with antibodies - just the few days of discomfort after each shot.
So, from that, I can see how both approaches can make sense. In a country that has an abundance of 95%-effective vaccine and is moving it quickly into people, it can make sense for someone who has had Covid to simply get both shots as soon as possible and deal with a few more days of feeling sick and a somewhat overcharged immunity. They would be moving in a month’s time from 83% to 95% effectiveness, thus improving their own safety of getting infected and helping out the public health situation. Natural immunity from having Covid is then not needed or utilized - or valued.
But in a country like Ecuador that doesn’t yet have enough vaccine for everyone; that is slowly bringing it out; and whose primary vaccine has 67% effectiveness (Sinovac, which by the way is reported to have 100% effectiveness in preventing hospitalization), the natural immunity from Covid can play a much bigger role. Putting off a 67% vaccination for someone who already has 83% immunity until that runs out makes a lot of sense, as does substituting the natural immunity for one of the shots. It also means less stress on the immune system, and this is the positive point emphasized by the public health and medical community. However, there is a lower overall immunity effectiveness both in the person and in society as a whole (just going by the numbers).
There are other factors, too, that I’ll leave to professionals to dig into, and more and more is being discovered over time to refine approaches, as has continually happened during this pandemic. But I only include those thoughts because it sheds another light on the different current approaches that arise in countries that have more resources and those who have less. It’s one clear example of one relying more on artificial means, and the other more on natural means. The two solutions might converge from the two extremes positions of artificial and natural into something more balanced if there were more equitable vaccine availability and distribution, and that, of course, depends on the quality of relationships between countries and peoples that are already in place. Like in school, you’re preparation time is over when the test begins, and you find out where you really stand. The inequality of vaccine distribution is really, like a school test, a chance to put some light on where we really stand in our relationships, to help us take new steps as we move forward. Hopefully, Barriers to Bridges is one seed in facilitating fraternal (sororal??) relationships across cultures and places. It’s then that God shows up more.
Reflection on this trip to Ecuador
I’ve had an opportunity to reflect a bit on this last time in Ecuador, and am glad to share some fruits from that.
One afternoon a few days after arriving in Quito in January, I got out the charango to play with some of the Spanish school teachers. I’ve taken several classes over the years, and Fernando is not only a Spanish teacher, but a very talented musician. We played some simple Ecuadorian classics to get one of the students some exposure and participation.
There were other short trips in and around Quito, with Rosa and Remo, who I was staying with in Quito - including some more beautiful pics of Quito that I hadn’t posted before:
Part of our travels took us to this cool tree cabin overlooking the valley east of Quito.
The retreat time in Mindo was really valuable, to continue with back here in Boston and the next time I return to Ecuador. I didn’t spend my time in a monastery. At least not as you’d typically understand one. My whole time in Mindo was like time in an invisible monastery. :) That’s very typical of my own spirituality! But it’s also “Franciscan”, and also very much the way of Jesus …
After returning from the retreat in Mindo, things became complicated because of Covid. The core of Christian mission is accompaniment, a “living with”. In the process of going to live with the people, I didn’t want to bring any virus, especially since the people are more vulnerable in rural areas. With this in mind, I voluntarily took it upon myself to get a PCR covid test before going to Chontal. And it came back positive. Even though a following test turned out negative, I stayed the 10 days in quarantine in Quito, without any symptoms of any kind.
Time in Chontal
When I arrived in Chontal, the whole family I was staying with was in the midst of being sick, unbeknownst to me. Certainly, there’s a sort of breaching of trust. But on the other hand, it is a part of living with the people there. What happened to me is not so uncommon there. To live with people means not finding the comfortable and safe spots in life, but also accepting the negative consequences that are beyond control, to deal with all the undesirable aspects of life that the people cannot escape from.
In that vein, I brought this candy game with me before leaving Boston. Each jar contains a bunch of jelly beans of different colors. But each color has a corresponding sweet and tasty flavor and a disgusting flavor. For example, the white ones could be either coconut or spoiled milk. The sweet versions range from fruit to dessert flavors, while the disgusting flavors include toothpaste, dog food, boogers, stink bugs, and vomit, among others. The game is that you get one at random and have to eat it.
I can’t tell you how much fun I had sharing this game with different people, not just kids but adults. But each time we played, it was the same: I would take one first, and then each person has to take their turn - there’s no passing. It was great for a lot of laughs. It wrapped up finally playing with all the kids in the catechesis program. The point was made:
In each of our lives, we each can receive sometimes good experiences and sometimes bad ones. But Jesus is in life with us, he takes a jelly bean just like we do. We have God and each other to share with when it’s our time for both the good and the bad. That’s what makes life alive for us.
It is very common in the popular religion in Ecuador to believe that if bad things happen to you, it’s because you’ve offended God. Yet Jesus in the Gospel draws us beyond that perspective, as God “makes his sun rise on the bad and the good, and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust.” (Mt 5:45) The little game we played is really a sound and deep catechesis that touches on the foundation of Christianity: God is with us. Jesus has come to us to accompany and support and guide us through all the aspects of our lives. The purpose of life isn’t to look for - or pray for - the comfortable, and avoid the unpleasantness of suffering. But rather to grow in recognizing the limits of our control over life, over others, ourselves, and nature, and to begin to see the face of God in ourselves and others along the way, in the good and bad times, so that the purpose of life shifts from satisfying the more sensible comforts to the deepest purpose that gives happiness: who we are living life with and for.
In Chontal, there are plenty of ups to share in: community, a closeness to nature and the organic, a simplicity of life. There are plenty of downs, too: gossip and division, Covid, bats and other creatures, the effects of poverty. What is important is who you are living with and for.
Spiritual accompaniment and Holy Week
In Holy Week, the time in accompaniment gave rise to a time to speak. My thoughts start at Palm Sunday, when I was just recovering from Covid, my voice and wheeze just coming around, and with a mask on I read the entire Palm Sunday Gospel at the Mass with a full church, as the priest himself was wiped out. I wasn’t a big fan of having large gatherings, and as it turned out, the sickness that had been going around, and was about to spread even more, was Covid.
Next, on Holy Thursday, the priest canceled 15 minutes before the Mass. So, as the church filled again, I led a celebration of the Word with communion, including the washing of feet. I remembered the time in the orphanage some years earlier when I washed the feet of the kids, and recognizing what that says to people. It really was a special time for me in relation to the local people. My reflection was on the Good Shepherd, who lays down his life and takes it up again, and who in this moment in the Gospel, Jesus lays down his garments and then takes them up again - showing them what it is to be a good shepherd. This was a very special moment for me personally, one of the greatest "liturgical" moments of my life, that along with the very first time back in 2013 that I shared a Gospel reflection in Santa Cecilia, a small rural community in Puerto Quito.
On Good Friday, I had put together a brief program so that the catechists could lead the Stations of the Cross and the Seven Last Words. We paused after the 11th Station, where Jesus is nailed to the Cross, to do the 7 last words. The short reflection I shared was about the opportune moment to listen to God. There’s a story of Elijah running away to a mountain, and after a whole variety of commotions, he finds God in the silent sound of settling dust. The passing of a bus through the pueblo is a lot like that. First, you hear the horn in the distance, then the motor, and then the loud noise as the bus passes through. Finally, after the bus is gone in the distance, a cloud of dust settles onto the pueblo. In the same way, there are a variety of commotions until Jesus is mounted up on the cross - and then there’s a strange silence. That’s the context for Jesus’ last words, and on Good Friday at that afternoon hour, it’s set up to be a time to be very close to God and hear something important.
After the Good Friday service, a strong storm passed through and power went out in the pueblo. The water supply dwindled as well, as can happen when rivers flood. At nighttime, I remember sitting in my room with my eyes as wide as possible, with my pupils fully dilated, and I still couldn’t see the faintest glimmer of light.
But the sun rose on Saturday, and I prepared for the Easter Vigil as though the priest wasn’t coming and I’d have to lead it myself. Since there is no cellphone signal, and digital communication depends on WiFi, when power goes out, the whole pueblo is also cut off from communication. So, we had to prepare not knowing if the priest was coming or not, as we never know when power would return. He did finally come, and we had the Easter Vigil by candles (including a baptism). And then we all retired early into the dark night again.
Now, we all knew that power would at some point come back, and of course the sun would rise the next morning - we’ve been through all that many times before. And yet for the disciples, they had never experienced a resurrection before: it was their first time. And the accompaniment of Jesus through that time struck me: he didn't rise up to heaven straight from death, but spent 40 days with the disciples bringing the church to birth. He’s the good shepherd.
Well of course the sun came up again on Sunday morning, and we gathered in early afternoon for the Easter day Mass. The reflection I shared was about how we are important, loved disciples, and invited into all this that we have in a church so that we can experience the Gospel story, and the death and resurrection of Jesus, each time again in the shoes of the disciples - like it's the first time. We can "get it" like the beloved disciples does in the tomb again and again. And this gives a freshness to our lives, it keeps us growing in purpose and strength and happiness in our daily lives. Well, shortly after the Mass was over, power had returned to the pueblo.
It was time to go, as my visa would expire shortly, and so the next day I headed out to Quito, where the exodus started that I described in a previous post.
Before I left, the thought occurred to me how, over the past 6+ years, I’ve been in every position in the church there for Mass. I’ve been in every single seat in every bench, and in all the standing spaces. I’ve been in the choir singing and playing the charango, I’ve been the cleaner, the decorator, the bell ringer, the refreshment getter, the greeter. I've been the lector, the lector organizer, the catechist, the altar server, the sacristan. I’ve been in the position of the priest and the preacher.
I can say that that dynamic’s been at the center of my whole Christian life since I started this journey almost 20 years ago. The Christian “mission” for every one of us is to enter more fully in the life of others, and invite into one’s own. It’s the action of love, and the love expressed in God. It’s the foundation - the irreplaceable beginning - of the mission of Jesus, as he became one of us in all things. More than any words, or “evangelization”, or helping others, or saving or preaching, or anything in itself, to set aside your life to enter into the life of others in all things, that is the signature of Jesus and the sign of a disciple.
“No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”
So after Easter, it was time to go. The jellybean jars were all empty. We had all taken both the good and the bad that life had given us. And for me, I had placed my life in the hands and footsteps of the people. It was time to “take it up again.”
Online Workshops & Teaching Videos
I am still in continuing to develop the workshops and teaching videos. (I am working on finishing one more video on the finding food in the Gospels.) As the foundation is accompaniment in life, there are a few that might be beneficial to you in this pandemic and if you are experiencing a life transition. I'm continuing to offer the Pandemic ReBirth Workshop, as well as the Tree of Life. Feel free to contact me directly if you're interested. And you can share the link freely as well.
To support these, I’m currently applying to a one-year certificate program at Boston College in Spiritual and Pastoral Care. We’ll see if I’m accepted and if the financial support is enough to enable me to enroll.
Financial
I’m aware that I haven’t posted the accounting in a while. That’s more due to a lack of time than anything else, but I’m aware and hoping to post something soon. In fact, I haven’t put together a semi-annual in a while (they used to be quarterly!). So that is really the next task, and a place to include the financials. To be continued …
I’ll leave you with some music to dance to, and some history and culture. The type of music in this video is called Bomba, and it’s from the large Afro-Ecuadorian community in the mountains of Imbabura, called the Valley of Chota, not so far from Chontal. When I’m in Rosa’s house in Quito, we put this song on and others like it and we all dance, whether it’s with a few drinks or just cleaning up after dinner. You might notice in the video a woman dancing with a bottle on her head.
When I first arrived in Chontal, the priest, Padre Julian Delgado, embraced and welcomed me. Being from Chota, the Bomba was really the first Ecuadorian music I came to know.
In the video above, the dance of the woman with a bottle on her head is the traditional bottle dance for women from Chota. In this picture below from 2011, Pd Julian’s mother, Clarita, is doing the bottle dance. She fed me while whenever I was staying with Julian, and she moved with him to the coastal city of Quevedo when he went there in 2012. A few years later, she passed away, but I will always remember the hospitality she and Julian gave me in my first times in Ecuador.
“Since the world cannot be saved from the outside, we must first of all identify ourselves with those to whom we would bring the Christian message-like the Word of God who Himself became a man. Next we must forego all privilege and the use of unintelligible language, and adopt the way of life of ordinary people in all that is human and honorable. Indeed, we must adopt the way of life of the most humble people, if we wish to be listened to and understood. Then, before speaking, we must take great care to listen not only to what men say, but more especially to what they have it in their hearts to say. Only then will we understand them and respect them, and even, as far as possible, agree with them.
Furthermore, if we want to be men’s pastors, fathers and teachers, we must also behave as their brothers. Dialogue thrives on friendship, and most especially on service. All this we must remember and strive to put into practice on the example and precept of Christ.”
Feel free to reach out at any time. Until next time,
Jerome