The Fabric of Humanity

Sometimes with the constant setbacks, broken vehicles, and missing machinery, it's hard for us to focus on the multitude of things that have actually gone right!

One of the most impressive things that is going right this year is the organic and fair labor cotton production. And it's going right in a big way. In July of 2010, 42 farmers planted 345 acres of organic and fair labor cotton. This is 4 times the number of farmers we had last year and 7 times the amount of cotton produced last year...what a jump! We extended farmers nearly $80,000 in credits for planting and harvest costs. Included in the group of cotton farmers this year are two women's cooperatives!
In December, farmers began to harvest their cotton, and are continuing that harvest now. We estimate that they will harvest a total of 600,000 lbs of seed cotton! The market for organic cotton is supreme this year, and for the first time ever, all that fiber has already been pre-sold!

That seed cotton is being ginned at the cotton gin which this year is being managed by the processing and marketing co-op, COPROEXNIC, rather than CDCA staff, the first step toward the gin's independence. Rather than requiring CDCA to finance the operation of the gin this year, the gin is operating on upfront payments for that cotton...this is a HUGE help to us!

The cotton gin (a 1964 Lummus that has been around the block a few times) has recently had all of its blades replaced, resulting in a per-day production capacity that is 6 times what it was previously! The gin is now consistently ginning and baling 6 bales for a total of nearly 2,550 pounds of processed fiber per day! The gin is operating two shifts for the first time ever and employing a total of 14 people. We expect the gin to run for about 6 months this year, twice as long as its run in past years! With this increase in cotton production, our gin is at capacity, and we're hoping to expand the gin to accommodate next year's expected production.

The Genesis Co-op, is stuck without spinning machinery, thanks to that whole debacle, but meanwhile we are not only giving them basic grains to help feed their families (thanks to generous donations!), but they are also working, getting paid to inspect the cotton for polypropylene contamination before it goes to the gin. Their big beautiful 15,000 square foot building is FULL of organic cotton right now!

Meanwhile, the market for organic and fair labor cotton clothing continues to grow...We are the first organic cotton chain in the world to be certified in fair labor practices from crop to closet, a distinction that we feel merits some positive attention. Maggie's Organics, the maker and distributor of our organic cotton clothing, has made a video about the cotton chain...a beautiful video that highlights the Maggie's Organics connection in Nicaragua and the CDCA's role in the chain. You can now watch this wonderful video, called The Fabric of Humanity by clicking here and scrolling down.

With so many things going right...who's to say we can't overcome those things that haven't gone right quite yet? -- Becca

Best Christmas Gift of All

In our December newsletter we wrote about our financial situation and asked people to consider giving a little more. We also sent a letter out to people who had given $500 or more over the last five years also asking if they could give more….wow! You all came through! In December donations totaled c lose to $100,000!!! Again…Wow!

It is hard for us to ask for money. We sort of missed the Oral Roberts’ gene of having the chutzpah to ask outright, but the work needed us to ask…so for the first time in 13 years and the third time in our 32-year history we sent a special letter.

And with the gifts came; lovely…heartwarming…notes of encouragement and surprisingly, validations of our asking for money.

One woman wrote about the newsletter “Good for you for telling us you need money…you need to do that when you get low.”

We received an email from a dear friend who had been unemployed for many months of this year and when working she tithes to this work…she said that she didn’t think she could give any more but then looked at what she had bought for others for Christmas and sat down and wrote the CDCA a check.

I talked to Mama on Christmas Day. She is the one who receives your gifts in South Carolina and deposits them for us. “How has your day been, Mama?”

“Good.” Then lots of family news exchanged and thanks for presents, etc…you know…Christmas Day stuff.

Mama then says, “Do you know what my favorite Christmas present has been? Opening all those envelopes and pulling out all those checks for y’all. It has been just wonderful…absolutely wonderful.”

We agree. Thank you one and all.

And yet again Wow!

Next week we’ll write about our budget needs for 2011…stay tuned! -- Kathleen

Christmas: Called to Make the Poor a Priority

Almost 30 years to the day, Tiff (age 4), Jessica (age 2), and I were talking about the Christmas story…the birth of Jesus. I remember telling them it was important to remember that Jesus was born poor and homeless (we were running homeless shelters at that time). “Why?”

“Because then we can realize that we need to take care of the poor,” I answered.

Tiff thought and said, “We do more for poor people than anybody I know.”

I replied, “That may be true, but we can still do more…lots more.”

“But, Been…We. Do. More. For. Poor. People. Than. Anybody. I. Know.”

Sometimes I agree with Tiff, especially when I am weary. Not that I seriously think we do more, but sometimes it FEELS like that we have done enough and we can stop. Especially at Christmas…

We see the people who have so much in the world trickling down their generosity to the poor and if I have had a bad day, I think we do actually do more for poor people than anybody I know.

THEN I open my eyes and see anew the poverty staring me in the face and think of the stable and manger… I imagine what an improvement a stable is to the home that many babies are born into here… there is much still to be done.

Let me quickly say that I have no illusion that I am ridding the world of poverty or even enabling people to rise above poverty. The people we work with work so hard to make their lives tolerable. Mostly I hope beyond hope that the little we do might give some a chance to right a few of the wrongs that the powerful have dealt them.

BUT on bad days I think there is no more energy or imagination to keep pushing…to find money, to fight Coker International, to look at new clinic services, and, I think, we have done enough over the many years.

The Christmas story tells us that the embodiment of hope was born poor and homeless. There was no Santa Claus. No Christmas trees, stockings, and no roast beast…but poverty and hope. We who are Christians need to remember our profession of faith is rooted in the poor…and we need to remember that no politics, no economic system should divert us from those roots. We were called to make the poor priority…and we can never…never do enough. Not until all bellies are fed, all have a roof over their heads, feet with shoes, bodies with clothes, not rags…in other words not until shalom…salaam…justice prevails.

The Jubilee House Community sends you all the hopes of the angels this coming new year:

Peace on earth and good will towards all.

-Kathleen

The First Purisima

This evening is the celebration of the conception of Mary without sin...Purisima. Nicaragua celebrates this Catholic Holy Day for than any other country in the world, I do believe.

I always think of it as a cross between China New Year with the fireworks exploding for hours, Christmas caroling with people going door-to-door singing songs about María and praying prayers to María, and Halloween with gifts handed out to the people who come to your house or shrine.

In 1994, our first year living here, we being the true newbies, were told by César, our Director of Projects, we should set up a Purísma shrine. Well, not being Catholic or Nicaraguan, we had no idea what to do.

“You put up a Mary down by the gate. You need to give some little food, and a little gift, like a toy,” he told us.

We had so little money. “For how many?” we asked.

“Oh, everyone will come expecting the gringos to do something…so 500.”

500! But we were up to the challenge! We popped and filled 500 little bags of popcorn. We went to the market and bought 500 little noisemakers…the toys were little the noise was LOUD! Henry and others from my English class came to help us set up our shrine.

The Purísma Marys are all very white skinned, dressed in blue, and have a halo. We didn’t know that then, so we pulled out our last Advent banner which has mother and child…Haitian mother and child on it.

“Whoa! You can’t use that!”

“Why not?”

“Well….hmmm…well…hmmm…she has a baby. Mary is a virgin.”

“But this is the only Mary we have.”

Then we could just see their resignation and the realization just how ignorant we really are…and like you say to a child who dressed herself for a party completely inappropriately but so proud… “This is great!” ….uh yeah.

So our banner went up, Henry et al, decorated our altar so, so prettily with flowers and palms and we got all set up. We stood with the Coury, age 5, and Daniel, age 2, at our gate in the middle of the countryside…the city then had not moved out to us…and we waited with great anticipation.

And we waited.

And we waited.

About 20 plus kids came from the cooperative next door. That was it.

The next morning….“Cé-é-é-é-sar. No. One. Came.”

“Well, of course not. You didn’t shoot up fireworks…they didn’t know you had an altar.”

Sigh. We too did not know.

We ate the 480 bags of popcorn. And since that time, we have just enjoyed OTHERS’ celebrations of Purísma. -- Kathleen

To Hell With Good Intentions

For all of us who go to Nicaragua – or indeed, any place poorer than where we are from: India, Mexico, Appalachia, Detroit – our first instinct is to fix it. Whether we will admit it or not, the very first thing we do when confronted with a terrible situation is to furiously work through possible responses to that problem in our mind until we hit upon the “magic” solution.

I know this because I do it all the time. Even after ten years of living in Nicaragua, I still do it. I go to Nueva Vida, the neighborhood created by Hurricane Mitch resettlement, and with everything I see, I work through scenarios to “fix” what is “wrong” in Nicaragua. It works like this: Wash water running down the street. That creates mud and breeds mosquitoes that carry dengue and malaria so the city should put in a sewage system but they don’t have any money so people should have gray water catches in their houses but then children fall in those all the time so we should go to each house and put in a filter system so families can filter wash water to water plants and have kitchen gardens in their backyards and feed their families so they aren’t malnourished. There! Gray water filtration systems for everyone! Gang members on street corners: there’s crack cocaine and thievery in the community because all the young boys join gangs because they don’t have any skills to go to work and they beat their girlfriends because all they know is violence so we should teach them all how to treat people and give them skills so they can work for a living. There! Gender trainings and carpentry workshops for all gang members! Skinny dogs: pets don’t get fed enough, so…

And the list goes on, a constant and steady stream in my head.

Growing up in the U.S., we are taught that for every problem there is a solution and that our ideas are always best. Unconsciously, we believe that if other countries don’t look like ours, that’s because they haven’t “gotten there” yet. The idea that other ways of living are just as valid as ours does not even occur to us. We are hard-wired this way to such an extent that it is simply inconceivable to most Americans that our ideas aren’t the better way of doing things and so it is veritably impossible for us to keep our great ideas to ourselves.

Monseñor Ivan Illich condemned this is the mindset in his address to US volunteers in Mexico in 1968, “To Hell With Good Intentions.” In his address, Illich disputes “the idea that every American has something to give, and at all times may, can and should give it.” He challenges the volunteers – and all of us who go to a place poorer than where we are from to “help” – to “recognize your inability, your powerlessness and your incapacity to do the ‘good’ which you intended to do.”

Illich is absolutely right, we must stop trying to fix everyone…who are we – who am I – to know better than my Nicaraguan neighbors how to “fix” their country? Who am I to assume that it needs fixing?

I have struggled with this, and indeed continue to struggle with this all the time. It was not until I was a junior in college that I began to understand that these were even issues that needed to be dealt with. I was well educated, open-minded, and extremely well-traveled for a U.S. citizen. I had traveled alone around Europe visiting local families, I had spent a summer volunteering in Mexico, I had spent an entire semester studying and volunteering with reconciliation organizations Northern Ireland. I was critical of US foreign policy and practices, and considered myself well-informed. And still, I was completely unaware that the way I wanted to do things as a U.S. citizen – and the ideas that I instinctively wanted to spread that around the world – were actually part of the problem.

That didn’t change for me until one day when I was fervently arguing with my Spanish housemate that the image of the U.S. in other countries – and feelings about the U.S. – are overall very positive. After a lengthy discussion, she finally turned to me and in no uncertain terms said, "No, they’re not. We don't even like you."

It took someone shocking me, angering me, and in the end offending me to get me to begin to see my own irrelevance… the idea that I might be insignificant to the rest of the world had never even occurred to me. What an incredible sense of entitlement we are given as U.S. citizens! I cannot thank my housemate enough for turning my world 180 degrees so that I might finally get a glimpse what others see of my country, from outside of it.

When I first came to Nicaragua, I thought I was coming to help Nicaraguans. I was sorely mistaken. None of us are needed here. No matter what my skills are, Nicaraguans are capable of doing everything I will do here, and in most cases, do it better, faster and more efficiently. So what is it exactly that I do?

What I try to do is to accompany Nicaraguans, to, in the words of Paolo Freire, “suffer with them and fight at their side.” To walk beside them for awhile, as much as we ever can with that great gulf between us, between what we have and what they have. Accompaniment means that we don’t call the shots. We strive toward – and oftentimes fail to reach – a voluntary powerlessness. This is hard. And it’s certainly not sexy. We try to learn. And we receive infinitely more than we can ever give, as Illich says, we are “receivers…without any way of returning the gift.”

-- Becca