Maména

And a woman shall lead them...

Without Maména, we would not be developing the earth sack project in La Vibora. It´s that simple. In fact, among all the Haitian Dominican women in the countryside, she stands out for her striking abilities as a leader.

A new image of women:

As the men lift the heavy sacks, Maména is right there, doing a job that women usually hide from. She has seven children and can lift a 100 pound sack of dirt. When her husband goes off to work on a small farm in Maniél, she and her boys go to work on her plot of land that she weeds, digs up and plants with yautía. Maména speaks the best Spanish on the mountain and effortlessly translates into Creole. During a Sunday homily she will quickly capture the main idea and present it in Creole.

Her biggest gift:

But Maména´s principal gift is spirit. She radiates with a bright, can-do attitude that encourages other members of her community. People naturally tend to follow her example... especially the Haitian men -- who treat her with hard won respect.

The year of Saint Paul:

Soon the Church will celebrate a year devoted to Saint Paul. We will remember his extraordinary contribution to Christianity and marvel at the stamina he showed in pursuing the goal of establishing Christian communities throughout the Mediterranean basin. When I contemplate Maména animating her community and throwing herself into the hard work... she reminds me of Saint Paul and the quality of leadership that he offered each town and city along his path. May the Lord of new beginnings continue to bless the world with people who inspire others to serve!

Wall building in La Vibora

Before the sacks:

The chapel-school walls consisted of empty space and a few pieces of zinc roofing. The wooden support beams formed a fragile system unable to withstand winds above 20 mph. So on the day we started to move the sacks, the men first removed the zinc siding and then began to place the sacks.

Planned messiness:

One of our fundamental goals is to introduce a practice that the people can repeat on their own. But since it is a new practice, there is bound to be messiness in the way the men lay the sacks. In order to offset this drawback we use large sacks of between 100 and 125 pounds. Do we increase the messy factor by using larger sacks? Perhaps. We need more knowledge in order to do the calculations. At any rate, in the above pictures you can see people moving 342 heavy sacks in just one day. The major incentive for the demanding work was payment of 20 pesos for each sack filled and tied off. That comes out to $.60 cents for each sack.

Ease of operation:

Because we will continue to use the zinc roof, the community of La Vibora had no trouble catching on to the art of sack placement. They seem confident enough to continue filling more sacks and moving the project foreword. Our major limitation is a lack of sensitivity and familiarity with the inner workings of the Haitian culture. Are the people really fascinated by this construction method? Do they really believe it has value for their life situation? To what degree is the reception of this technique dependent upon factors we are not aware of? These are but a few of the questions that lead us to walk softly into this project.

La Vibora

The problem:

As oil prices rise, the Dominican Republic will devote less resources to the peripheral communities. That means deteriorating roads and agricultural production in the mountains above Paraíso. The Haitian Dominican residents already live with few resources. The future will offer them even less.

A partial solution:

In the above pictures you can observe the results of hard work, incentive and determination. The people in La Vibora filled 342 100 pound sacks with dirt in one day. These bags will be closed with cord and then carried to the community chapel/school and placed around the structure in order to form walls. A little piece of land now belongs to the Church and if the process moves foreword, the families will have the option of building homes with earth sacks and barbed wire (stretched between rows of sacks).

Why is this a good path for the people?

By using earth sacks in place of cement blocks, the community learns how to build within their means and in response to their environment. The heavy sacks can withstand the pressure of high winds much better than previous locally made shelters that utilize termite prone wooden poles and thatch materials. If the process catches on, the intelligent workers will adapt and perfect the method. Where there's a will ... there's a way! And the earth sacks depend upon the will of the local leaders. No matter what alternatives we offer, the deciding factor will be people -- humble people who advocate for change in the mountain villages. At this point we have offered them an example or a tool ... and time will tell if they accept it as valid for their life setting. May the Lord of all life-enhancing innovation be the source of new paths.

Amapolas de sombra and Easter

When Easter arrives early:

In the higher elevations we have a special treat: the amapola de sombra trees are still blooming. There is something magical about this tree. During most of the year it is covered in green foliage without a hint of what it can bring forth at the start of spring. But after the coffee harvest the big trees start to let go of their leaves. Then the flowering begins...

The vastness of His Life beyond death:

The "god" of those who put Jesus to torture and death manifested himself as confined to narrow boundaries. This was no magnificent ruler of vast inter-galactic spaces. Small gods give birth to diminished people, with interests confined to strict rules of conduct that sanctioned prejudice in favor of one culture. The tomb with Jesus within it became a symbol (for a short while) of triumph for this fierce tribal god: "Beware all of you who cross my path. Look upon him who rejected me and see his fate: he is gone forever; wiped off the face of this Earth where I alone rule!" But then came the immensity of the Easter...

Easter immensity:

The apostles were unprepared for the God and Father of Our Lord Jesus Christ to be real. It was too easy for them to unfavorably compare the solidity of the Temple to the fragility of one human life, handed over without a battle for self-preservation. But no matter, the super nova of Easter shattered their presumptions and opened up a new world where communion with the ever living One became their daily bread.

The amapola de sombra: sacramental of new life:

In the same week: a mighty US credit bank goes under while the light from a dying star half way across the Universe reaches our eyes after a journey of six billion years: a tiny "Temple" implodes, compared with the unfathomable vastness of Creation! How easy it was for us to be impressed by the work of our own hands: by yet another little temple dedicated to a lesser god... regardless of the messages of immensity which the Creator sends our way. Through it all, the amapola de sombra speaks of the Easter mystery: losing life (leaves) in order to flourish. Perhaps we are just slow learners, too entranced with what is close to hand... even as our spirit longs for the unfathomable breath of Easter joy.

Holy Week

Pascua Infantil:

On the first three mornings of Holy Week, the catechists in four communities celebrated "Pascua Infantil" ... remembering the major events in the final days of Our Lord Jesus Christ: his last supper, crucifixion and Resurrection. Pictured above are some of the children from Los Blancos, as they dramatized the memory of the torture inflicted upon Our Savior.

Slow agony:

With the breakdown of trade barriers and the swift movement of capital throughout the world, as with any economic or political system change, there are "winners" and "losers". It is next to impossible that the boys from Los Blancos will suffer the torture of being nailed to a cross. However they move towards adulthood in a blighted area, suffering from an increasing scarcity of adequate jobs.

The new nails:

The Dominican Republic abides people who nail their youth to the cross of unemployment. "Am I my brother´s keeper?" The crafty goats benefit from the corrupted system of justice and betray their own countrymen by weakening local agricultural production through excessive importations. How will these children deal with unemployment?

Thirty pieces of silver:

Dominican family members in New York send money back to the island and make decisions about how to spend some of that money: more often than not they chose the easy path... investment in a bar. Thus the young men grow up in an environment where the pain of unemployment is numbed by Presidente beer and Brugal rum. Others invest in lottery schemes to catch precious income from the low paying agricultural jobs.

Simon who helps to carry the cross:

Beside the chapel in Los Blancos there is a small industry: a furniture shop. The owner together with relatives in the states set up a business that makes beds, tables and chairs. Every week you can see a truck carrying the finished products towards the large market in Santo Domingo. Within the shop you can find young men learning a craft. Also you can observe Haitian women who instead of selling boot leg rum (cleren), prefer to bake home-made bread and sell it to the youth coming off the mountain farms.

It depends where you choose to look:

Just as that first Good Friday, it depends on where one looks... both those who nail and those who help carry the cross are present. May the children grow into people who know how to help others carry their crosses!

Catechist workshop

Aparecida:

Recently we celebrated the Eucharist on the beach in front of the chapel in Los Patos, with all the catechists of our parish. We met from 2 PM until 6 PM studying Aparecida, the document from the bishops of Latin America and the Caribbean. We looked at how the bishops see the modern world and how they diagnose the problems confronting many cultures.

Andres:

The man in the background is Andres. He is the President of the Parish Council and a Confirmation catechist. Beside him is Carlos who is both a student for Confirmation and a teacher in one of our campos. Andres lives in Paraíso and is a public school teacher. His assignment requires him to travel back and forth across the River Riocito in order to reach the rural school. When the New Testament has Jesus speaking about Andrew as being a "true Israelite" and "not having any guile", the description aptly fits our "Andrew" (Andres).

Four teams of catechists:

In this group picture, the catechists from four communities come together. From South to North, the communities are: Los Blancos, Los Patos, Ojeda and Paraíso. Sister Yolanda has the gift of knowing how to share responsibility and challenge the catechist coordinator (one for each village) to animate and direct the members of her team. With people like this, the mission of caring for the parish moves along gracefully. How blessed is this environment, where the catechists encourage one another!

The outdoor Mass in Riocito

When the poor person believes in the poor person...

One of the songs we repeat in different liturgies has the theme of belief. But it centers upon the ability of poor people to believe in others who are also of modest means. This might seem to be unimportant, but for lack of this capacity, poor people too often throw their votes to the wind by trusting in wealthy candidates who have nothing in common with them. Local elections are only a few months away and people focus their attention on the presidential candidate, ignoring other levels of government such as the mayor and the deputy mayors in the countryside.

Riocito:

After months of living with a blocked road, the community of Riocito finally had the chance to ride into town. We came out to celebrate the newly opened road together with the dancing children of Ojeda. José is pictured speaking to the families. He commutes every day to the Riocito school, which is one of the rural Catholic schools. When he speaks the people tend to listen a little better than they do to one another. He made the effort to caution the parents to keep their children away from known centers of corruption.

The dance:

When the children from Ojeda danced in the outdoor Mass, they caught the attention of the local children, with the effect of planting new ideas and interest in participating in the liturgy. The moment they moved to the music, poor people believed in others who share the same limited resources. We all experienced the grace of that event, as the visitors together with the locals forgot for a moment the political propaganda and focused upon children who enjoy dancing for the Lord.