Even if Nobody is Reading

I don’t have much of an audience.  In ten years of writing about the amazing work I have been lucky to be a part of in Honduras, I have gained a dozen or so followers.  Do these kind folks even take the time to learn what their buddies are up to anymore?  I get few shares, likes, and comments on social media and never a comment on the actual blog.  Is it the message or the medium?  I’m not sure, but there is one thing for certain.  If you are reading, know that the journey Christ has put me on is one of combating discrimination through education.

I stand firmly against the structure under which we live described by bell hooks so succinctly as  “imperialist white supremacist capitalist patriarchy.”  I truly think I spend my life fighting this framework of discrimination which seeks to promote profit over people and planet.  I understand the neo-colonialist nature of international volunteerism and seek to deliberately design our work in Honduras to minimize its effects.  Jesus may tell you to promote justice in other ways, but no definition of justice ensures war, racism, poverty, sexism, and climate collapse.  I threw that last one in there.  bell hooks doesn’t mention the environment in the above quote; I just wanted to see if you were still reading.

If My Southern Neighbors are Reading

Your celebration of a bastard state which barely existed for four years must stop.  It is pure treason and you know it.  Worse, your low-key and obvious reverence for Dixie perpetuates the abhorrently shady racism of U.S. history into our present.  The flags and statues of the enemies who led military charges against the United States (and modern day mascots depicting them as safe for school) ruin my day every time I see them, and I sweat white privilege like President Trump sweats McDonald’s “special sauce.”  Get over yourself.  I am a history teacher.  Celebrate your heritage!  Acknowledge that you have family who chose to renounce their citizenship and become an enemy combatant of the United States.  Sing them “Happy Birthday” each year.  Just don’t pretend they weren’t wrapped up in the worst form of racism….or that ignoring that part of your heritage isn’t the seed ticks satiating Stone Mountain fever from sea to shining sea.  You don’t just get to pretend that your heritage stopped being racist after the passing of the 13^th, 14^th, and 15^th Amendments and Civil Rights Acts.  As long as you can breathe easily with a single star or bar within a hundred feet of your house, our racist heritage lives into today.

I have been told by countless individuals who say they love and respect our work in Honduras but think I should keep my politics separate.  The Dude has even abided by this advice on as many occasions.  There have been times where I wrote out an aside meant for the bard to counter a Facebook friend’s bigoted post.  When I typed out my last thought quoting Fannie Lou Hamer, I realized I was talking to a past, current, or future supporter of health education in Honduras.  I struggle with this one.  I truly sit between angel and devil trying to make the most ethical decision on behalf of the most people to benefit empowerment education in the 2^nd most-impoverished nation in the Western Hemisphere.  Let this blog serve notice to me and the world around me.  A threat to justice in Honduras is a threat to justice in Haiti is a threat to justice in Helsinki, is a threat to justice in Harlem, is a threat to justice in Hattiesburg.  Censoring one’s stance on justice at home to engage in physical activism abroad seems to define additional layers of privilege. 

To even have the gall to leave one’s own national borders once to “help” less fortunate families abroad sets aside domestic issues in order of importance.  Everything must be okay back home.  To engage in this type of behavior regularly is to mentally become a citizen of another country while enjoying the privilege of safety and security back home in the U.S.  This rear-view mirror reflects a reality where the issues most-affecting family and neighbors back home take a backseat to a “calling.”

For Those Reading Who Don't Understand White Privilege Abroad

I wrote my master’s thesis on how to bring in more ecofeminist mindsets into Christian mission work, and the message about which I wrote can be generalized to secular nonprofits.  I wrote it because I grew up seeing the way race, sex, religion, and the environment intersect in Honduras.  I also wrote it because I believe in the power of altruism to heal the wounds left open by imperialist capitalism.  The multi-billion-dollar loans from the IMF to industry and multi-million-dollar deals from the U.S. for security leave little for sick and hungry families starving for an education and a step up.  I believe in the power of volunteers and missionaries to do what governments and business will not.  And if the non-profit world is going to be the solution to global injustice, it must approach its role with an ecofeminist mindset.  For it is in the words of Karen Warren:

Ecological feminists (“ecofeminists”) claim that there are important connections between the unjustified dominations of women, people of color, children, and the poor and the unjustified domination of nature (Warren, 2000).

As the ultra-rich and powerful survive and thrive in this dominion, they do so by denying personhood and self-determination to women, people of color, children, and the poor while also passing the buck on climate change.

This is not a plug for my cheap book but to stand up and remind you that this missionary believes in the power of volunteerism to provide a path to intersectionality.  This teacher believes in pluralistic education and promotes its free and unlimited access.  A sociopolitical economic system that etches the words of revolutionary democracy into stone but refuses to read them can’t stand.  This leader urges you to get involved in the intersectional work to which you are called.  We all can’t be everywhere meeting everyone’s needs all the time, but we can devote our lives to ending discrimination in the spheres where we are most passionate.  And in this way, we are united in solidarity for peace and love.  In this way, we can live forever through Christ.

If you would like to join one of our annual Río de Agua Viva teaching teams to Honduras in 2021, please do not hesitate to let me know.  We are an egalitarian mission charged with supporting ACSI (Agentes Comunitarios de Salud Integral) in their ongoing commitment to education and sustainable health projects throughout the most-overlooked areas of Honduras.  One of our discussion groups next year will be on the topic of privilege, and we need your help doing it well!  Get started by contacting me here today

Together, we are the difference.

El Arroyo de Agua Viva 2020

The sounds and stories we use to narrate the past form much of our identity. Euphonious memories paint the pictures of my summer in Honduras as a thirteen-year-old child in the late 90s.  I met children who chanted my name, “Michael, Michael!”  I heard prayers in three languages at once prior to shared clanks of cuchara to frijol.  We woke up to the cock’s crow and went to bed to the crashing of Caribbean waves.  I can still hear Pastor Carlos singing “How Great Thou Art” in Garifuna while paddling the Limon.  “Corina, Corina” played in the foreground before laughter and singalongs.  “I can’t explain what it is like.  You just have to go.” was the way I responded to my parents.  This was just days after the click of a camera prefaced Uncle Tom standing a patient half my size next to me in the middle of clinic one day and saying “He and Michael are the same age.”  The voice of my dear friend Gloria Lacayo walking me through the identification of malaria under a microscope personalized the aeration of Off! canisters.  

I have only ever skipped a year returning to Honduras once in the last twenty-three.  I was writing a paper for grad school on “The Song of Hiawatha” when footage of the 2009 Coup crushed my dreams of a work trip to Copan and Utila.  That missed year of travel did not hurt and possibly helped our leadership group process "serving from home."  It was over that next year that we assessed interest and strategized what would become AHMEN’s Community Empowerment Program.  The next several seasons resulted in cheers of “Agentes Comunitarios de Salud Integral” graduating from their 3-year trainings and applause to success stories of graduates' resulting achievements.  Many bucket percussion sessions by the Río Plátano and steel drum sunsets in Roatan later and the Río team was formed as as a yearly supplemental seminar series for 1-2 workshops sites.  Out of the lion's den, our Honduran counterparts have arrived equipped to lead their own capacity trainings.

That is why it is with a sad heart and disappointed soul I have to say that AHMEN’s Río de Agua Viva team is unable to return to Honduras this year.  We will postpone our travels until further notice.  The current world climate has provided us multiple reasons to avoid our regularly scheduled community education team.  However, within the last few week Honduras has not reopened its border from a May 15 decree.  Morally, though, we cannot risk traveling with Covid-19 to small towns across the North Coast where the virus might not ever reach without the arrival of Western missionaries.  History looks unkindly on that American tale, Feivel.

No, we write a new saga!  All of you, God.  We precisely set up ACSI to serve as an end to the white savior complex, and we are seeing it thread the needle like Odysseus right now!

Jerry Castillo’s group of ACSI have completed a distribution of essential goods to the neediest homes in and around Punta Piedra, Cusuna, Iriona, Ciriboya, and Sangrelaya.  The coolest part isn’t that this happened in response to the food supply chain screeching to a halt from stay-at-home orders but that ACSI-Cusuna decided it was their responsibility to do it.  Based upon the fact that they could not conduct a previously-scheduled training on community savings and loan due to social distance recommendations, Jerry and the gang proposed using this relief effort as a community project.

Currently we are awaiting ACSI-Jutiapa’s final planning for a similar effort by the Youth Network.  Greg Thompson has done an excellent job taking over the responsibility of leading this portion of the Río team.  The Youth Network advocates for clean planet and clean communities on a whole.  Last month, though, they approached this relief effort as a mentorship for their younger members.  A distribution of food bags will take place later this week!

  

ACSI-Yorito would like your help in proceeding to the next level in sustainable clean water technology on a community-wide scale.  They seek training from a medium-sized non-profit specializing in scaling up what the group has already accomplished in terms of cisterns and home-based bio-sand filtration.

I can’t wait to read reports from our leaders in these locations and see what the agents in Raistá propose.  They are still grieving from losing three community members in a recent fire at the mayor’s house.  Pastor Wilinton continues to smile the value of health education to whomever will listen.  Stay tuned for more updates!

We will not be returning to Honduras until we can do so ethically.  In the meantime, we will continue to support those Catrachos and Catrachas on the ground fighting for basic rights to clean water, enough to eat, healthcare, education, and a home in which to prosper.  How can you help?  To truly make use of our lost travel time, we could really use your help in the following areas:

·         Community Development Intern

o   Communication liaison, documentarian, web presence development, discounted travel

·         Río de Agua Viva team leader to Yorito

o   Begin working with ACSI to bring dynamic sustainable economic development workshops, medical brigades, and long-term planning volunteers

·         ACSI-Yorito planning committee

o   Maintain relationships with Yorito central committee to ensure ongoing planning and project development

·         ACSI-Roatan planning committee

o   Work with Roatan Río team leader to plan an educational needs assessment for a 3-year workshop training in Roatan

·         Traveling team members for all teams

o   The only requirements are to be open-minded and as prepared as possible. Topics include environmental awareness, health education, appropriate technology, community organizing, and more!

·         ACSI chief of fundraising

o   We are seeking an individual who would like to donate several hours per month to help conceive and carry out various fundraising strategies to multiply our efforts to provide both vital capacity-building for Honduran leaders and scholarships for deserving volunteer team members.

What can you do to help some kick ass community leaders build a healthier and more just Honduras?

Together, we are the difference.