On Rural Community Development

6 May 2015 - Wednesday

The work of SembrandoPaz (and other organizations I'm getting to know, like Pres. Obama's in Chicago) is so different from the typical poverty-fighting work done by governments and NGOs. The usual process is giving reparation payments, building low-income housing, redistributing income, opening homeless shelters and food banks, meeting real physical needs. But something is lacking in this work which has to do with long-term underlying structures, with the origins of the physical needs or the reasons that people can't meet their physical needs. That is the work which SembrandoPaz is trying to do: help communities select (better) representatives, help them understand the laws which concern them, help them organize to prevent violence and abuse, and help them become self-sufficient. It is extraordinary. The people here (in Montes de María) have suffered so much from guerrilla violence and rural poverty and government corruption (or misunderstandings) that I'm not sure they believe much can be done in their situation. This organization is trying to change that perception.

SembrandoPaz, in the process, has decided that the best way to help these communities become self-sufficient is to keep them where they are, to try to convince people not to move to the city. But the way capitalism has – according to the claims of its adherents – brought millions out of poverty is by involving them in the inevitably mercantile system present in cities and in surrounding areas. No one becomes rich in a rural collective system, and in years of drought or agricultural disaster people do die. But a capitalistic city-based system kills as well, from gangs and traffic to hearts. Cities are emotionally draining for the poor, both because of actual repression (police brutality in poor neighborhoods, real estate hard to acccess for the poor) and because of unintended repression/side effects (comparison with the rich, separation of families for work, moving constantly for work). Being poor is hard in any context, but I think it's harder in the city. (Except, what of the rural deep South in the US?) At any rate, does that mean that the best way to help these communities is to keep them where they are, more equal but more poor? It's an anti-capitalistic move, but that just may be what this region needs. However, a fast-growing population in a constantly shifting, global modern economy – is it capable of maintaining collective ownership without losing youth to high-paying jobs, property to the highest bidder, and lawsuits to city-trained lawyers? Is a communal system even sustainable in our modern world? If it's not, then it may not matter how much better it is for the soul. And certainly a communal system would take a level of cooperation which I don't know if I see here.

One of our views on the way to the workshop.

 Many of these feelings were brought on by a large meeting of community leaders that I attended today. Ricardo Esquivia drove a few of us three hours into the hills, the last hour over a winding dirt road that ducked and crashed through an incredible jungle. It was no Amazon, but it was just wet enough to support an impressive variety of trees, vines, and occasional stray dogs. The accompanying picture shows a bit of that scenery – it was stunning at moments. Then we joined the group for some conversation time, a huge lunch, and finally a large meeting with representatives from seven or eight communities. It was so interesting to watch them introduce themselves and their projects, though I missed quite a bit. I think the combination of clipped Caribbean-esque Spanish, a brand-new country, and new political terms has limited how much I understand in official and normal conversation here. Still, I know enough to recognize some serious wind-bagging alongside impressive accounts of how communities are making progress. Clearly they want to become strong communities, but doing so will requires significant change in their basic community structures, which seem to be rather torn between their traditional elder-centric culture and the new democratic structure that the government requires.

At the meeting of community leaders.

Last night I also had a nice experience. After a long day creating a survey for the youth and talking about how to structure our workshops, we closed up shop and I started working on normal evening tasks (emails, reading, blog). Somehow my hostess and I got talking, and soon she was deep in an account of her childhood. When she was only nine months old her mother left the family and her father raised them from there. My good hostess was always quiet, a stay-at-home child, though she began to go to a Christian church in her late teens and finally made some friends there. Then, incredibly, on her nineteenth birthday, she was conducted to her mother… but the story is not mine. Suffice it to say, it was a deeply human night. For everything that I learn when I travel, for everything new and thought-provoking, one of the best things about travel is being reminded of our shared humanity. Every individual struggles with social and familial issues, finds joy in relationships, loves and fears and cries and lives. It is beautiful, how much we share, and it gives me hope as we move into the unknowable future.