casa de la solidaridad

with high hopes and great anticipation to have my worldview painfully annihilated and completely reformed, i am departing for SAN SALVADOR!

the program on which i am going is called casa de la solidaridad. i want to fill you all in on what it’s all about. this program is through santa clara university in california, and will consist of about 25 students from across the U.S., most of whom are from jesuit universities. the program self-describes as valuing the following:

OUR DAILY LIFE INCORPORATES:

Living in Community:

We choose to live in community in order to share with and learn from others.

Living Simply:

We choose a simple lifestyle, uncluttered by materialism, in solidarity with the marginalized of our world.

Focus on Learning with an Emphasis on Justice:

We choose to integrate rigorous academic study with the experience of the marginalized of El Salvador in the hopes of committing ourselves in the world to justice.

Cultural Sensitivity:

We choose to live in the context of another culture and context, honoring and learning from Salvadorans whom we are visiting.

Integrating Faith:

We choose to invite our spiritual journey into our daily experiences as we seek to understand the world with which we live. Students are constantly invited to reflect on these components as the experience evolves. Weekly community and spirituality nights are an essential part of the program which provide space to reflect in an intentional and ongoing manner.

these beautiful values are why i fell in love with this program. logistically, i will be taking a full class load at the UCA (universidad de centroamérica), and then have two days a week to spend out at my praxis site, partnering with ongoing community development projects. i just received my praxis placement (based on expressed preference) last night, and am so excited! here is the description they sent:

Centro de Capacitacion San Vincente de Paul y Comedor la Casa del Cipote (Located in Canton el Cedro, Panchimalco)

Canton el Cedro is located 25 kilometers from San Salvador.  It is a very rural area, surrounded by fincas (coffee farms).  6 year ago, work in the fincas was the main source of work and income for the community.  Now, however, with the fall of coffee prices, few people are working in this industry as many fincas have been sold or are no longer producing coffee.

The people of Canton el Cedro are very poor and face many challenges, especially now because there is little work to offer in the area.  Now many people travel to San Salvador, costing them money in transportation and time to travel.  The farmers of the area find it difficult to encounter work in the city because many do not know how to read or write.  The families in Canton el Cedro are organized with a community council.  Houses are located far from one another, which makes it challenging for people to organize and work collaboratively.

The objective of Centro de Capacitacoin San Vincente de Paul y Comedor la Casa del Cipote is to welcome, accompany, and educate children, youth and adults.  There are many projects offered at the Center.  First, there is a comedor (soup kitchen) for 120 children between the ages of 1 and 12.  They receive a glass of milk in the morning and lunch Monday through Friday.  In addition, there is a pre-school for children between the ages of 4 and 6.  Pre-school is offered Monday through Friday from 8-11:30.  Third is a sewing workshop with 30 students.  There is a computer workshop for youth that is offered in the afternoons.  On Wednesday afternoons, there is an adult women’s literacy class.  Most recently, a physical and occupational therapist comes twice a week to teach sign language and other life skills to disabled children in the community.  In addition, there is a garden project that provides vegetables to the comedor and for sale.  Many women earn small income by making artisan crafts (mostly jewelry) sold through a developing group in the community.  In the near future, the center is looking to construct a high school and health clinic.  Through these projects offered, those involved hope to improve their economic, social, and educational situation.

Role of Casa Student: Students are involved in the daily activities of the comedor, pre-school, community garden, and teaching English classes and computer classes to the children.  Students may also have the opportunity to help with the construction of the new high school (depending on the timeline of the construction).  Students get to know mostly women and children who participate in the center’s activities.  Students are also encouraged to express if they would be interested in getting involved in any of the other activities mentioned above as there is freedom and flexibility to do so. Also, students have the opportunity to visit homes of the people involved in the Center and the surrounding communities.

i am particularly excited for the organizing aspect of this site, as i have spent the summer working in a very systematized organizing context in the U.S., and am hungry to learn about what collaboration and people power looks like in a place where structure is much less defined. of course the sewing and gardening projects and the women’s literacy group don’t hurt either!

this week is heavy with a spirit of preparation, anticipation, and solemnity as i think upon all of the beautiful people and places i will miss so dearly while i am away.

looking forward to sharing more!

kate

if you’re interested in learning more: http://www.scu.edu/studyabroad/casa/program/index.cfm

 

Viva la Revolucion Vegetal!

Revolutionary news: I have officially appeared in the nation’s #1 Birding and Gardening magazine!

I know, it sounds too good to be true…. but here’s the link to prove it:

http://www.birdsandblooms.com/Veggie-Revolution/detail.aspx

Shout out to BEANS & BARLEY and chef extraordinaire Mike Jandre for letting me try his beet risotto last year. Delicious.

A print copy is on its way to my mailbox as we speak, and if any of you all happen to pick up the latest Birds & Blooms at your local bookstore, I would be happy to autograph. You’re welcome.

Let the VEGGIE REVOLUTION begin!!!

 

Consumerism

for a couple years now, i have been giving much thought to the driving force of our society: CONSUMERISM.

my interest began with the idea of ‘buying local.’ it’s one of those things where if you start to get informed, you know too much to buy into the myth that the ultimate goal of shopping is to seek the lowest price. you begin to realize that when you pay for something, you are trading your time and skill (work hours) for other people’s time, skill, and resources. you are spending your work days supporting whatever you spend your money on. so if i am paying low prices at pick n’ save, i am saving money, but i might be trading my life for chemicals, or preservatives, or pesticides, or underpaid or exploited workers, or fat salaries for CEOs. also, my money might be flying out of my neighborhood to a big corporate headquarters in the sky, with the taxes leaving the services my neighbors and i need. if i run down to the neighborhood co-op and sacrifice by paying more for my groceries, i know that i am trading my life for healthy food that loves our environment and workers and volunteers that are treated fairly and contribute to MY community. this direct relationship with the stuff i am consuming has really changed the way i view money. rather than always wanting to stretch my dollar as far as it will go to get me the most stuff, i get to think of my dollar more like a vote or a say in things: if i want natural healthy food, or community-owned businesses, or art in my neighborhood… i use my dollar to communicate that.

i would like input here from people raising families who have seriously considered this topic. as a single person, i feel i have more a luxury in being able to be intentional with these things… i don’t have little mouths to feed. however, what i have found to be completely true is that paying more for fair trade, sustainable, local items doesn’t leave me unable to afford what i need at all – it simply leaves me unable to afford to accumulate more than i need. it forces me to be resourceful, to garden, to repair my clothes when they get a tear in them, to conserve energy, to reuse. all of these practices have increased my quality of life.

for a great plain-language explanation of our nation’s obsession with stuff, watch the 20 minute video below.

http://www.storyofstuff.com/   (thanks, alicia, for the link!)

wouldn’t we rather choose to reject consumerism and change our lifestyle now, than eventually exploit our resources to the degree that we have no choice?

there are also aspects of being a Consumer as our primary identity that sabotage our spirituality. i think many churches observe that people show up to services wanting “get something out of them.” now, there is nothing wrong with desiring growth and looking for an environment that fosters it. that’s good. but i think the hang-up occurs when that becomes the sole focus: ME and what I am gaining from a relationship with a church body. this really is strangely unrelated to Jesus’ teachings and His instructions for the church.

something dramatic that josiah has taught me without realizing it over the past year is that even my concept of relationships was dominated by a Consumer attitude. i feel like messages bombard me a million times a day through the dominant attitude of people around me and TV shows and movies: “is your relationship working for you?” “is he what you are looking for?” “is this what YOU want?” essentially, if you don’t feel it like you used to, dump it and find something else that excites you. the only problem is… eventually, you realize you can’t continue on that cycle forever. being intentional about your relationships is a good thing. but i think Christ teaches something different: to move away from what WE are getting out of another person, or what they do for US, and to move into choosing to love in a committed and subordinate way. i am just starting to wrap my head around this concept, but what i DO know is, i refuse to be a Consumer of people. i do not want to change my friends, or my boyfriend, or my community when it is not giving me that feeling or that experience that i am looking for. i want to be faithful and submitted in my love, and to never never think about children of God in the same way i think about stuff.

so how do we consume less? that video above has good ideas for reducing our literal consumption. i think a lot has to do with replacing the world’s values and goals with a mindset that values things that are lasting. this means stuff, values, relationships… you name it.

for now i still shop at the gap once in a while, and have many areas in which there is room for improvement… but i hope that over time i will be able to transform my mindset from consumerism to simple living and committed loving.

 

Don’t make me your white confidante.

This pseudo-poem comes out of some recent experiences of frustration, beginning with recognizing my own desire for what I am calling a “white confidante” in moments of great tension in a diverse class examining race relations in education this past semester. After that, a wacked out guy screaming, exasperated, at Jerica on 8th & Burleigh: “I’M WHITE!” as if their comraderie through skin color would provoke her to give him change for the bus and treat him preferentially. Finally, while riding my bike through FloridaBrookfield today, I arrived at an elementary school and asked directions back to my Grandad’s road (I rode pretty far, and got pretty dang lost). This stranger inserted several comments into his directions about how he didn’t want me to go through certain neighborhoods because “you know, there’s a lot of…. (dramatic pause)… in there,” etc. I know what he was referring to because I had just ridden through those neighborhoods in the plain-as-day noon sunlight: they were smaller houses, and lots of Mexican and Black families… SURPRISE!… minding their own business. For some reason this arrogant guy assumed I would know what he meant by “THAT kind of neighborhood.” My anger fumed the whole ride home. I am sick of this phenomenon of white people seeking safe places with one another, not based on culture or music or language or something beautiful, but solely based on an us vs. them mentality… the fear of the non-whites. As if white people really need more safe places. It’s really gross and I am sick of being considered part of this clan.

Someday when I am older and wiser, I will probably look back on entries like this and be embarrassed by my fiery and blind retorts to these situations. But for now, the wisdom I have is all I got, and I’m pissed. My response: muttering angry retorts in Spanish the whole bike ride home, a bad poem on some wussy blog, and perhaps growing the wisdom and love to next time somehow respond and defend in a relevant way. Oy.

——————————-

Don’t make me your white confidante.
The color of my skin should not incriminate me.
My ancestry alone does not make me an accomplice to your domination.

My pale complexion divides me from you if you think I know what you mean by “those people” -
If you think I agree with you that that is a “bad neighborhood” -
If you think that I feel threatened by immigrants, or music, or differentness.

My heritage does not fill in the blanks for me when you trail off in sentences -
“That neighborhood has a lot of… you know,”
“I don’t want to send you through there because of the…”
I do not get the idea.
And I am not accepting of your racism just because you implied rather than slurred. 

Don’t assume I know what you are hinting at.
Don’t assume I feel a kinship with you and your stale perceptions.
We’ve all heard it all before.
Imperialism is not my only hereditary option for a world view
and I refuse to be driven by fear. 

I am bound to my people by freedom
Culture, richness, poverty and simplicity
Food and language

An undiscerning God, taking on the humblest of children - 
my brothers, my sisters, and me -
one in the faith, one in the struggle.
Even those who I haven’t met or who don’t know it yet
because through the oppressed shines the pure heart of the Kingdom.

Join me instead in rejecting our scripted role as the oppressors,
in a long line of murderers and evangelists,
a sword in one hand, a Bible in the other -

No estoy de acuerdo contigo
solo porque del color de mi piel.
No me atrape en la herencia de nuestra raza.

I resist becoming a product of the suburbia from which I came,
so don’t make me your white confidante.

 

“Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith” by Anne Lamott

BOOK REVIEW! A sloppy one.

Because when it’s winter break, you get to be presumptuous and review a book no one asked you to. And also, lazy and informal.

This book was recommended to me by Mark Lynn of Brew City Training Community (who apparently now is a Mark OF Something, and rightly so – he’s pretty epic). I believe he claims it to be his favorite book, and Mark: I can definitely see why you like it. Although Lamott’s writing style (revealing lessons about faith through personal anecdotes) is very reminiscent of Don Miller, she has a certain edginess and bluntness to her. Hence, Mark, why I can see you loving it – swearing and all. Also Betsy gave me the book, which is great. Er, lent me the book.

Lamott really tells it like it is and reveals her insecurities and flaws, down to things like getting really annoyed with the people we love and other things we aren’t really supposed to admit. Many a time during reading was I comforted to know that I am not the only one who is completely immature and dysfunctional. Like listening to mewithoutYou, but much lighter and often comical.

The book was a really quick read – easy and fun. Took me three days.

Here are some of my highlights:

1. Her thoughts on body image. I loved when she said that she thinks she will never look back and regret going to the beach and swimming in the ocean despite how her butt looks in a swimsuit. She speaks of struggles with eating disorders, and concludes “that no one needs that plastic-body perfection from women of age and substance” (p. 197). That is very beautiful and very true.

2. Her humor. A part that made me laugh out loud is when she is talking about Elijah hiding in a cave in the Bible. She says:
“First the angel told him he shold eat. This is one of my favorite moments in the Bible, God as Jewish mother: Elijah, eat something!” (p. 165)
Hilarious.

3. Her stories of the spirituality and significance of coming alongside friends who are suffering, especially from illness. She has a lot of stories of friends who are sick or who have really sick kids. Their stories are straight-up discouraging: the Lord is there, but there is not comfort to be found in the situation. She really emphasizes the need to be there with friends going through times like these, with nothing to offer and no solutions, but simply to give them a window out to the world beyond their own suffering – to remind them that the entire world hasn’t been reduced to hospitals and worry and waiting and pain. I have a beautiful and strong and resilient friend who has been suffering with sickness for over a year now, heroically and tragically. There is no comfort for her right now. But the way Anne Lamott took the opportunity to share in sorrow with others so seriously as one of our biggest spiritual experiences, it really made me realize how much more important it is for me to be available for this friend than anything else going in my life right now that may seem significant. This ties in very directly with the book I have recently started about Oscar Romero’s life and dedication to the poor in El Salvador: that in seeking God’s face by truly coming alongside the poor and suffering, we experience one of the purest forms of holiness.

This book was very beautiful and I highly recommend it… a great book to read a few stories out of before bed each night… if you can put it down.

MUAHAHAAA

 

Anciana, with a little bit of sarcasm

i have been in naples (florida brookfield) for 24 hours and have adjusted well to my new golf resort neighborhood of white retirees.

in the first day alone, i have already:

1. begun yelling so my friends can hear me
2. been told to marry a man who makes a lot of money
3. eaten at perkin’s
4. stolen a full fistful of sugar packets from a restaurant
5. watched antique road show
6. eaten butter pecan ice cream
7. argued about whether or not the Jews really control the government. 

4 more days and i may assimilate completely.
maybe i’ll come home sporting a tremor.
WISH ME LUCK!

 

thanks

Listen
with the night falling we are saying thank you
we are stopping on the bridge to bow from the railings
we are running out of the glass rooms
with our mouths full of food to look at the sky
and say thank you
we are standing by the water looking out
in different directions

back from a series of hospitals back from a mugging
after funerals we are saying thank you
after the news of the dead
whether or not we knew them we are saying thank you
in a culture up to its chin in shame
living in the stench it has chosen we are saying thank you

over telephones we are saying thank you
in doorways and in the backs of cars and in elevators 
remembering wars and the police at the back door
and the beatings on stairs we are saying thank you 

in the banks that use us we are saying thank you
with the crooks in office with the rich and fashionable
unchanged we go on saying thank you thank you

with the animals dying around us
our lost feelings we are saying thank you
with the forests falling faster than the minutes
of our lives we are saying thank you
with the words going out like cells of a brain
with the cities growing over us like the earth
we are saying thank you faster and faster
with nobody listening we are saying thank you
we are saying thank you and waving
dark though it is

 

- W.S. MERWIN

 

oh, bama…

this ad made me angry!

equating dedication to environmental protection policies in opposing offshore drilling with supporting rising gas prices and increased dependence on foreign oil is ridiculous. this is super manipulative. and people who don’t think critically about this stuff just gobble it up like crazy.

because oil is a nonrenewable resource, why would we continue to find new places to drill and call that an energy solution? in light of what we know, we should be preserving our environmental protection policies and investing in new sources of energy. there would be no use to approving offshore drilling, only to face this problem again in a number of years when that resource is exhausted. opposition to offshore drilling does NOT mean that the candidate supports more dependent on foreign oil. let’s think OUTSIDE the limited thinking of energy = oil! typical short sightedness – temporary solutions and consumer-minded approach to the earth. grr!

on a personal, non-political note, i believe that as Kingdom-dwellers it is our responsibility to be long-term, or eternally minded in our thinking. it is our joy to be connected to the earth, and rejoice in the place in nature that GOD has given us but to always be reverent in our approach to the resources HE provides for us through nature. this means discarding our consumerist ideas that are strongly part of us as humans and as americans, and adopting a mindset of a humble caretaker of HIS creation.

much, much less seriously, the reason for this post is that i am proud of paris hilton.

check this out…

paris hilton’s response

that’s pretty funny. you gotta hand it to her on that one.

that’s all for now.

kate

 

we must open our eyes BIGGER to see the LORD…

i am home safely, praise the Lord!

while i was gone in mexico, josiah had sent me with a bundle of letters with one marked to open each day. each one contained a verse or more of Scripture, and some encouraging explanations afterward to help me grow spiritually while i was away in my awareness of my worth as found in GOD alone. this is the area that i had confided in him and the rest of our community that i was needing growth in, i was very grateful for these letters as a response to helping me move forward in that.

i want to share my favorite one because i think it is very beautiful and that others could benefit from it as well. so, with permission from josiah, here we go:

 

A Reading from 1 Peter 1:8-9

         “Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.”

(josiah’s commentary) My favorite part about this verse is the words “inexpressible” + “glorious.” I am filled with these feelings, usually when I least expect it. The last time I felt this joy, there was no way to describe it, I just felt that the Lord was present in my life + watching over me. We spend so much time only trusting what we can see with our eyes, but we must open our eyes BIGGER to see the LORD. Continue to listen to Him when He speaks, so you can hear Him more + more. Take some time to be quiet today, and think about your unseen God as you meditate.

 

hope you like it too.

love,

kate

 

and it felt just like home… except no grass, no yard, no pictures hung…

i can’t believe that it is already my last day in oaxaca. these past two weeks have flown by INCREDIBLY quickly. it really doesn’t take long to adjust and feel like where you are is your home… it took me about a week. i feel like i adapted to life here, and i will miss it.

reflection time…

things i will miss dearly from my time in oaxaca, mexico:

quesillo (oaxacan cheese)… the weather (it’s dry and somewhat cool here for summer… i usually wear pants), delicious food waiting for me, magically ready at mealtime… kinder hazelnut chocolate bars… men who can move and dance incredibly well… daily use of spanish… goofing around with the family… salsa dancing… the adventure of exploring a new city… the funny (and mysteriously usually unoccupied) staff members at my internship at COESIDA… the beautiful catholic cathedrals… art being sold in the streets… the sweet feeling of being close to and comforted by JESUS in a quiet, knowing way being alone so far from home…

things i won’t miss toooo much:

trying to remember to throw the toilet paper in the wastebasket… actually, there never being any toilet paper… walking a half hour to get anywhere… cat calling (actually i don’t know, i might prefer it here since a lot of the time i don’t understand it)… bad coffee… smelly feet… carrying an umbrella every single time i leave the house… getting lost every two seconds… the uneasy feeling of watching the bank account dwindle when you’re not working… every time you eat something new, waiting in suspense to see if your body is going to hate you for it…

what i am excited to come home to:

summer in milwaukee!… our thursday night community… my garden (it’s still there, right betsy?)… my ridiculous roommates… my house… my BIKES… my boyfriend and his voluminous head of hair… my family… the lake… beans and barley… wisconsin birthday celebration ) … my beautiful church community at brew city… hitide.lotide preparations… the warehouse… my mac… good espresso… soy milk…

i really am not ready to leave here. i feel like there are many areas and aspects of oaxaca that only over the past few days have i begun to notice and explore. tonight i am going to the opening of a community center in a poor village that was just built by a ministry here… but i only met my friend here with his church a few days ago. two weeks is not enough time to make connections and really get an idea for a city. in any case, my comfort is that there are many things i am very excited to return home to, mainly all of the beautiful aspects of the people and activities of summer in milwaukee. i love it at home.

so, with that i pack my bags (a little more of a tight fit than when i came), and start daydreaming about the next adventure.

¡nos vemos, oaxaca!

con amor,

kate