Organize+Solidarity

(From the Right): Me, Maximina, and Marli!

Hello! I realize it was only just a few days ago that I last posted, but I am so energized by today’s events that I had to write again! Today we had our first organizational meeting with the women in Zapotales….

Getting there was quite the adventure! We waited about half an hour before we could get a mototaxi (a golfcart like mobile) to carry us to Zapotales. Unfortunately, two other Trascerros women who were supposed to accompany us were unable to attend after all, but me, Marli, and Maximina pressed onward!

About 5 minutes into the trip, the little mototaxi was unable to make it up a big hill. So we proceeded on foot to Zapotales, which probably took about another 25 minutes. I personally loved the chance to walk, although I was worried about our late arrival….

The mototaxi that didn't quite make it....

Two women were waiting for us when we came to the school where we were supposed to meet that afternoon, but the teacher with whom we had spoken earlier had forgotten that this week there were no classes, so no one had left us a key to the building. I can imagine that this would have been a big source of frustration/stress if I had been in the United States….but not in Honduras! Everyone is so flexible, and no one was upset or even slightly irritated at the mix-up…we simply decided to meet somewhere else, and as it turned out, one of the women had a key to the church which worked out perfectly!

For those of you who haven’t visited Latin America, life moves at a much slower pace. We arrived late (45 minutes or so), and there were two women waiting patiently for us in the shade. Thirty minutes later, and we had a total of fifteen women present for the meeting! Although punctuality certainly has its virtues, I thoroughly enjoy how laidback everyone is here. It makes me think about all the times back in the US when I’ve been pressed for time, stressed out about not making it to this or that appointment, etc. But in Honduras, time is rarely “of the essence”…instead, people are! There is always time to visit and to share a conversation before we continue on our way.

While I know that there were other women we had visited last week who were not in attendance today, I was pleased with the overall turnout. Not only were the women there, but many also brought their children. I found myself hoping that the younger teenage girls in attendance, although timid, would really soak up the experience, and benefit from seeing their mothers and grandmothers organizing together.

(I might also add that a husband was in attendance with us as well. While his presence did not deter the other women from sharing and talking with one another, the wife of this man remained silent during the meeting...)

To begin the meeting we had a brief prayer, followed by a small devotional….Genesis 1:27-8 and Galatians 3:26-8. This was an easy way to start out the conversation, by talking about how we are all created equal in God’s eyes. Likewise, while people may not necessarily go to church, everyone I have met so far in Honduras believes in God and looks to their faith for strength in the day to day, so the Bible seems to be a good tool that people respect.

This was followed by some conversational exercises about la autestima, in which the women were able to share what they liked/did not like about themselves. We concluded that even with our imperfections (as everyone has some) we all have a value and a purpose in life, and sometimes our imperfections are even actually our own unique gifts! (Romans 12:4-8)

A small story was also used to help visualize this idea …the story of the man with two pails. The story goes that a man with two pails walked to the river every day to fetch water for his master’s house. Every day he would go, back and forth, but you see one of his pails, the one he always carried in his left hand, had a hole in it and so by the time he would arrive at the house the pail would be less than half full. His neighbors laughed at him for this, and the man became very disheartened, and came to his master saying that he was extremely sorry for not completing his job. But the master told him, “Next time you go to fetch water, take notice of where you walk, and when you come back, tell me what you saw.” So the next day the man goes to fetch the water, and as he returns to the house, he sees the grass and the flowers growing to the left side of the road, whereas to the right, the ground is dry and dusty. When he arrives at the house, he understands – although his pail with the hole did not carry water, it still served a purpose, and brought beauty to the otherwise barren path.

Isn't that a great story??

Finally, the meeting concluded with a conversation about how the women would organize themselves…leading to the election of a president, vice president, secretary, and treasurer. But we also talked about how despite having these representatives, everyone in the group was of equal value and in order for the organization to be successful everyone would need to help support and contribute to its work.

The first meeting of the Zapotales women (and company)!

I was really inspired by the energy that these women brought to the meeting! I can only hope that organizing in other communities proves to be this rewarding. I have heard the Trascerros women talk before about apathy in communities, so while optimistic I know that I could easily experience this problem next week somewhere else. And as I said before, I know that there were women who we visited last week that didn’t make it today to the meeting. But that is not to say that it was a result of apathy. It is really difficult for women to take the time to leave their housework, costly even. During the Zapotales meeting this was also discussed as women were elected to be representatives…several women were nominated but declined as they could not feasibly commit due to their workload. This was especially true for women caring for their younger children.

In reality, this is not that much different from the experiences of women in America. We pick and choose what we can or cannot commit to (sometimes overcommitting at the risk of our own personal health). For the working woman, her responsibilities are often twofold…after her day job, she comes home to a whole other set of responsibilities, aka the “second shift”. This isn’t true of all families (for instance, I had a stay at home dad for most of my childhood years, and to this day I think my parents still do a pretty good job of distributing the house chores fairly amongst themselves), but it is for some.

I am sure I will be writing more as the women’s project progresses, so stay tuned! I will say that our work is under a bit of pressure now…we have been told in other communities that it is important to organize the other women as quickly as possible, before the municipality has the chance to take notice of our efforts and revokes its contract with the Women’s Municipality Office, in which the 7.5% in designated funds for women’s projects would be lost.  Please be praying for these women and our work in the coming months.  

In Solidarity,

Malinda