Hello, I've had a chance to write an update. With the slower internet here, it's much more difficult to upload photos and videos, so I'll put links instead. I did arrive in Chontal the day after Ash Wednesday, so here we go…
Language & Culture
After reviewing where some of the local people are at with respect to English, I'm aiming to put together a long-held plan for a language group, called Language in Communion. It's not a class, but rather a group where people can experience mutual support and work out the knots in their language journey. It's the natural environment for language, which is meant to form community. It's the mortar in the building of a society.
I made an introductory video for Spanish speakers that I'm about to start distributing to some folks. The goal is to start small and get something operational and alive, before thinking of next steps. The good thing about the pandemic is that most people have access to doing things online, although the internet quality here can be limiting. Getting that all sorted out is part of the first phase.
Anyway, here's the 3-minute video, in Spanish:
Food in the Desert and Preaching
There hasn't been much reception here for the Scripture and preaching, but I'm continuing to work on publishing written reflections, as well as video presentation guides for finding inspiration in the Gospels. The goal is to have them universally available online.
I'm planning on updating the Food in the Desert series with a look at the relation between the Christmas story and the Last Supper in Luke's Gospel. That's where we find ourselves during Lent, and there's a really cool message that the inspired author has put there by linking those two stories. It will certainly challenge what you thought about the Christmas story! In the meantime, here is the playlist of all the YouTube videos so far, starting with the introduction:
María and Her Cancer Treatment
I was able to visit with María for a while after waiting about a week after I arrived in Chontal (to be on the safe side of things). She has lost a lot of weight, weighint about 100 lbs while her typical weight is 115-120. At one point she weighed 70 lbs, went back up then down again, and is now on the way back up. But other than the weight, she feels excellent, without pain. She still has intubations for her kidneys, and as of last measurement, one was only functioning at 15%. But the doctors were satisfied that the other was functioning very well and that overall the situation was good enough. She seems in excellent spirits, much better than she was when I left in July. Right after I left, she had been taken by ambulance to the hospital.
So she completed her cancer treatment, plus 5 more radiotherapy treatments because she had to stop the chemo portion of treatment. Having returned to Chontal in early Feburary, she has just recently returned to Quito for a follow-up to see how the tumor is now, and what the next steps will be. I'll be in touch for updates.
I just reflected on how the effort for her healing has been a whole community effort. It's a body of people that can heal, and each person plays a role. In that action of the body, we can see the Body of Christ and the work of God incarnate. Those who donated to the fundraiser that supported her have shared in the body in an important way - we're all grateful.
Internet & Technology
I've had some preliminary meetings to help a few people without internet access find a way to gather some neighbors and investigate whether a collective approach might work out. People often sell internet from their router to their neighbors, but some folks live even out of reach of that, and the service doesn't reach them. The idea is to work with another neighbor that has good location to set up a router that 2 neighboring households could use.
But, like everything else, I can only support and advise, and I can't take a lead in the activity. The motivation and action has to come from the neighbors. I can't do for someone else what they can do for themselves. I can accompany and help them to find their way, but they can do it if they have the will to.
Another aspect of this activity is to promote other community member to work to volunteer and help others. This is not a common thing here, although (and maybe because) almost everyone is in some way related to one another. There is not a robust ability to solve problems.
In that vein, I helped a young woman whose computer had broken down to find a way to fix it. It wasn't to do it myself, but to give her some of the basic understanding and help her make a decision as to where to find help and solve her problem. There's a guy in the pueblo who owns a computer space and does technical work. I helped her to see that bringing the computer to him and paying $15 was the best decision. A part of that was weighing how much her time was worth, and what other costs it would be to try and fix the problem herself. These are not concepts taught in the culture here, because people will almost always go the less expensive route, and are therefore stuck with exorbitant time spent and low quality. Latin American culture has these plagues to go along with some advantages…
A tangent about culture here
Part of this is certainly related to poverty, but not just poverty itself, but a developed ingrained mindset resulting from it. That mindset prevents most people from thinking through other options. It also carries a despair associated with loss of the appreciation of the dignity of the human person, of the value of gifts, of life itself. And it is passed down through parents. It's worth talking a bit about the despair and abuse that runs through the culture.
The young woman with the computer problem is in college living at home here in Chontal. She is the current "queen" of Chontal: the young woman elected each year during the principal pueblo fiestas to a figurative ambassador role. Kind of like a beauty queen in the US, but having a more prominent civic dimension than in the US. As she was trying to figure out some college decisions, she accepted an offer to do the Tree of Life workshop that I do, which helps people to remember and honor the experiences they have already had so that they can have vision for where life is pointing going forward. Anyway, she has a glass eye, and during this time explained how that came to be. I'm not going to share all of the details here, but enough to convey some clarity as to why I struggle with the church, especially here in this zone.
Almost 10 years ago, she fell one story to the ground from the stairway at the parish house. At that time, the stairway and landing up to the second floor on the outside edge of the house - the principal stairway for children going to catechism - had no handrail. (I changed that when, one day about 6 years ago, the priest was talking to the people about getting a new expensive gold chalice, and I offered to cover half the cost of a handrail instead - he couldn't say no!) From the landing, she fell onto the earth below. She lost vision for a while in both eyes, and by the next day, one of the eyes had gotten better. But, the other wasn't getting better after several days. So, she finally told her mother. Why in the world had she waited? She was afraid of getting hit by her mother. Parents here will beat their children for having an accident like that, something she explained to me with an awareness of thinking differently. (And I have had several occasions where children will come to me when they are hurt instead of their parents.) She explained how in her household, none of the kids really have a relationship with their parents, and how in fact that is the case in the whole pueblo: kids don't have good relationships with their parents, who are almost universally abusive. Youth want out. She described it all of her own initiative, freely and matter of factly, often with a casual smile, without any air of resentment or revenge or intent to slander, and I was impressed with her ability to characterize it and be clear and honest. Now … her mother is the president of the church here!
Other recent discussions with a few young adults here, a young man and a young woman (separately), went like this: Why do you think so many young girls get pregnant here? Both answers were pretty quick and straightforward and can be summed up like this: because it was an escape from a loveless household. And it is precisely the parents that fret about the condition of the youth, who complain or are over-protective, who are the most distant from their kids. And, quite frankly, it gets support from the clergy, but that’s for another time …
So, this is why when I preach or teach the Gospel message that I personally live, when for example I spend time with children, it seems to land on deaf ears of adults and the clergy. Because I think it's a really challenging message to people who are socially on top.
I share that tangent to hopefully give more context to the tension you may notice at times in my posts.
Music Lessons
I'm teaching the ukelele to one of the teens here that I've known since she was a little girl. She got inspired to learn a particular song, and her parents got her a ukelele. But she needs help getting that extra motivation to learn it! If my efforts can get her over the hump to some steps of success so she can experience that satisfaction, then hopefully that feeling can raise her motivation to keep going. We'll see.
Kids
In my first day here in Chontal, I was invited to a 1-year-old birthday party. The very young father lives here in Chontal. Back in 2015, a group of children committed suicide in the local school here. This young man was a classmate of the first young woman to pass away, and a part of the butterfly memorial that I led in the school. There were only about 7 students in that 8th-grade class, so it really impacted them. I was moved that he had invited me to his son's birthday party. Also invited were practically every other kid in the pueblo! :) I had never seen all the kids in the pueblo - every single one - assembled like that before, so it was a very generous and welcoming gesture by him and his companion. The kids definitely all had fun.
Click here: Birthday Party Kids
Another young woman from that class had recently had a baby, and I had a chance to catch up with her. She was a best friend of the first girl to pass away, and at one point she too attempted suicide. It was after that that a teacher sought me out to help, and let me in to start doing butterfly memorials with the students. I still remember that in doing the memorial in her class, it was very tense. All of the other kids in the class had finished theirs, and she had found ways to distract and stall until all the kids had left. Then, she poured her heart out in writing in making her memorial to hang on the wall. It was very moving, and ever since, she has kept an image of a butterfly on her Facebook background image.
The weather here is fantastic, and I get to get out and play some sports on the open field with kids every now and then. I also brought down a game that was a big hit. You may be familiar with the jellybean game, where each jellybean color could be a great flavor like a fruit smoothly, or a gross flavor like vomit. Well, that game was a big hit with the kids, and since I knew it would be, I had brought down two canisters of the jellybeans. In the last batch, I got the kids together from the religious ed program, and we went through about 3 rounds of the beans, each time myself taking my own turn as well. We had dead fish, rotten egg, spoiled milk, boogers, and other rotten flavors mixed in with coconut, tuttifruiti, popcorn and other favorites. At the end, I made a point that they all got: sometimes life gives us sweet experiences, sometimes awful ones, but it's not your fault. You can support each other, and Jesus is living those experiences with you just like I'm playing the game with you… Even if I didn’t say anything, these hands-on activities that make concrete the simplicity of the Gospel teach speak more deeply into people than any classroom teachings or reading of books.
Another activity I've thought of doing is a big scavenger hunt for the teens and kids in the pueblo. School summer vacation is starting now for the kids, so it would be a great time to do it. I don’t know if I'll have the time, but a few young adults - including the queen - are interested in working together to make it happen. It will depend on how I advance on some of the other plans I already have…
My 50th birthday
A few families had something small for my birthday celebration, with a couple cakes. I was grateful and had the chance to have a beer as well. Passing over into 50, I feel the same, but can't ignore the number! I'm sure I've got some AARP literature waiting in my mailbox when I return to Boston!
Click here: A few birthday pictures
Church
The monstrance in the church (the standing piece that holds the host for Eucharistic adoration) has been without a small metal piece that holds a host for about a year now. So, I went over to a guy who has a workshop in the pueblo and he made a simple but effective replacement in about an hour, for free (I paid him something anyway). Every Thursday, there is adoration after the Mass. For over a year, the priest has had to bring a monstrance from outside, or else he does adoration without exposition.
I've also advised a simple solution for a problem the church building has had since it's beginning: overheating. It's stiflingly hot because the 3x3ft window vent that goes out to the bell tower - and produces a chimney effect to suck hot air out of the church - is never opened. That's because it becomes an easy way for birds to come in and roost. But, it would be very easy and inexpensive to replace the glass in the window vent with a mesh screen.
As it's been over the years, its been so hot that people refuse to enter the church until the Mass is actually starting, and they leave as soon as possible when it's over (that might be for other reasons, too). The clergy - liking the heroic suffering aspect of it all - have never considered it a priority. But in my first times here, I went out and bought drinks before the hot Sunday Mass to share afterwards and give people a chance to cool down and stay together for a bit socially. (I had hoped that example might spark an initiative for the people to chip in each week for the soda, but no one did anything, so I stopped.) I had talked about the simple fix for the window vent, but nothing was ever done. This time, we'll see what happens.
Health
I ended up never having Covid symptoms, and no one here in Chontal has picked up symptoms or a diagnosis of Covid. So that's good news. I laid low my first week here as well, to be on the safer side… People here generally don't do masks or social distancing, and there still hasn't been a case yet. It's because people don't often leave the zone here. Sometimes people come in or are passing through from the cities - they have masks and social distance. And we put on masks when meeting people like that who are coming from outside. I shake hands with seniors with a fist bump or a wave, and keep distance - they typically do too, being more sensitive and aware. Yet, again, there still haven't been any diagnosed cases here in Chontal, and no one has died from it. Life in the pueblo is almost back to the way it was before in terms of gatherings and socializing, and things like Mass.
I've been doing light exercising here, sometimes by playing with the kids, sometimes by shooting some baskets at the school playground. I'm trying to keep my hip flexible without overdoing things, but I hope to ramp things up a little more as I'm putting on a little gut!
I did have what appeared to be mosquito bites, like I typically get each time I come. But now, after connecting some dots, I think that are outbreaks of a fungal rash. I had had a fungal rash of a different type break out in the States this past year, so I have some topical prescription treatments that I've brought with me, and those had a positive effect.
When I first moved into my room, I had bat visitors every night. At 11:30, then 1:15, then 2, the bat would come in. In the past, bats had only come in while lights were out: I could open the door and turn the light on, and the bat would find its way out the door, not to return for a few weeks or so. But this bat was coming in every night while the light was on (I started to stay up later and wait for it, to figure out what to do with it.) It also left by the way it came in, which I couldn't find. I wanted to find out how it was getting in and out before doing something like killing it, because another bat could just come in. After trying several ways to seal holes, I discovered a long crack opening high along one of the walls in my bathroom area. The owner of the house hadn't found it (my detective skills, again!), and he plugged it up with mortar. The bat hasn't been around since. But, it was definitely costing me nights of sleep!
Travel
CopaAir has suddenly canceled my return flight, so I have to contact them and reschedule, or maybe just buy another flight from another airline. I have to leave the country by April 22 unless I were to get a 90-day visa extension for about $140. So, I have to work out plans for my return to Boston! The good news is that the roundtrip from CopaAir this time cost me less than $200, so I consider it a good deal even if I lose the return flight!
Pandemic ReBirth
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. Click on the links below for more information, and feel free to share!
I would typically post some nature pictures here, but with the internet situation, I'll try for next time.
Instead, I'll leave you with these words from Pope Paul VI.
“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