Meals at the ranch (at least when the kids aren't around) is always a treat. That parenthetical needs a bit of unpacking. When the kids are around, we get meals that are consistent with what the kids are used to eating. Since the kids come from poorer backgrounds, the food is much simpler. That doesn't mean less tasty, just simpler. If they made fancier foods, the kids would not eat it, and the food would go to waste.
But when the kids aren't around, the variety in the food goes up, and that's more of a treat for me (being an adventurous eater). There are a couple staples that are always served: black bean puree and tortillas. This night, there were potato wedges in a tasty broth, a mole chicken, grilled beef, and rice. The rice at the ranch is always cooked with very finely diced carrots. I don't really think it's something I'd do for myself, but it's not bad. It makes the rice a little sweeter. The carrots are small enough and cooked long enough that their texture is pretty much like rice.
That evening, we went through our supplies, including a suitcase full of materials left from the medical trip earlier in the year. I also did some teaching of the crafts that we had to the team from California. Nothing too exciting.
The next day, we began the more serious planning phase. We met up with the Mexican team from Guadalajara. There were three guys and one girl in that group (Pablo, Obed, Abi, Anahy). The theme for the week was Luchadores por Christo (Wrestlers for Jesus). The theme verses were Romans 8:37-39. The lessons would be about Noah, the Good Samaritan, David and Goliath, Elijah, and Hudson Taylor (a missionary). Basically, it was about people that had to fight (in some way) for the faith. Noah had to stay faithful to what he knew was right even when others thought he was crazy. The good Samaritan did what was right even though it was culturally unacceptable. David stood in faith against the Goliath. Elijah fought with the prophets of Baal by trusting God to come through for him. And Hudson Taylor crossed borders to share his faith.
We also made a schedule, but in the end we really didn't follow it. That's just something that you learn to accept about time in some cultures. I think the term that was ultimately used for the schedule was "aspirational." Especially in the evening, the times were irrelevant. The order was basically correct, but the times were way off.
At this point, I need to make a note about the fact that the children weren't on the camp yet. It was supposed to be a week-long camp. But many children were tied up in school. This is due to a teacher strike that occurred earlier in the year that pushed the last day of school later and later. The politics of the strike are very interesting. For a while, there was basically an agreement between the government and the union. The union would ask for raises, and the government would give it to them. But when a new governor came into power, he thought he would try to stand up to them. But the union organized itself and basically shut down the city of Oaxaca in 2006 during Guelagutza, the most important cultural celebration of the year. It was a huge mess, and the union won. This emboldened the union to push for more and more from the government. (This is easy to Google.)
So now the union has a very favorable situation. And it makes for almost a hilarious (and sad) political situation. The teacher union consists of public school teachers. They have successfully lobbied to have the government pay for their children to go to private schools because the public schools are so bad. Think about that.
From a planning point of view, it was good for us to not have to start right away. It gave us time to really work through things completely and be as prepared as possible. It also gave us time to do some other tasks around the camp. I spent most of the day on top of the dorms, painting a red sealant over the cracks in the poured concrete roof.
A quick rundown of the food for the day (don't forget the tortillas and black bean puree):
- Breakfast: Eggs, fruit (papaya and pineapple), Oaxacan string cheese. Oaxacan string cheese is something quite nice. It's like string cheese, but more moist and saltier. I kind of wonder if you can mimic this by brining American style string cheese. That's one I want to try to do for fun at some point.
- Lunch: Rolled tacos with lettuce, crema, and queso fresco. These are individually hand-rolled tacos that are simply deep fried. It's basically a way of using up leftover food. I don't recall whether these were filled with meat, cheese, or both.
- Dinner: Spaghetti and cheese, pork stew with carrots and potato. The spag-and-cheese dish was interesting. It's basically mac and cheese, but with spaghetti. I'd never have thought of doing that, but it works.
It struck me as very odd that she didn't see why it wouldn't work. It felt kind of like a dogmatic view of Christianity ("This is how you are supposed to do it and teach it"). There were a lot of little things over the next couple days that reminded me of some of the things that I dislike about some forms of Christianity. I'll touch on those a little later in this post.
The next day was a somewhat casual day. We did a little more prep work before the first batch of students arrived that evening. We made a few sample crafts, so that the children would be able to see what the desired outcomes would be. We drew family portraits (with names -- this was a way for us to identify and connect children together in family groups and know a little bit more about them), we converted some wooden paddle-style fans into masks by cutting out eye holes (which they would eventually decorate), a couple God's eyes, a friendship bracelet or two, several pony bead animals, lanyards, and I learned a new craft that uses the lanyard material to make a bracelet.
This was also a day of interesting conversations. I learned about a framework of thought from "When Helping Hurts" that helps us to think about the nature of the work that is done in cross-cultural mission work. These were five forms of paternalism. I didn't write them down, but I found a source on the internet: http://christianstandard.com/2013/11/are-we-being-paternalistic-when-we-talk-about-missions/
They list five kinds of paternalism the church has been guilty of in its efforts to help others: resource paternalism (trying to solve other people’s problems with our money and material resources), spiritual paternalism (we do all the teaching about God and they do all the listening), knowledge paternalism (our knowledge and expertise is always best), labor paternalism (we do the work that others could do just as well for themselves), and managerial paternalism (we take charge and put efficiency first). If people associate the word missions with this kind of lopsided relationship, we should not be surprised when the welcome mat is withdrawn.Basically, it's saying that cross-cultural missions trips can sometimes cause damage by an attitude of superiority. Be feeling (or even acting) superior to those you are going to, you basically act in a disrespectful manner that turns them away from you. I somewhat feel that this is a particularly American manifestation, as we do often have an air of superiority about us. We like to think we're the best (and we often are), but that's not a good attitude for a relationship building process. Instead, humility must be the leading edge, so that you come more as a student to learn about them and not as the teacher to tell them what to do (or believe). I found those thoughts to be insightful and helpful.
Another interesting conversation revolved around something on the mission field that you would only understand after you've made the mistake. Americans are familiar with the macaroni art projects. You take raw noodles of different shapes and sizes and glue them onto a paper following some pattern or design to make a picture. One time, a group did this project with some children. As the children left, the group felt proud of themselves for a job well done. But as the children walked home, they ate the macaroni because they were hungry. In our abundance of food, we see food as being something other than food. But to someone who lives in a scarcity of food, food is to be eaten. And on the basis of that experience, Dave strongly urges groups away from using food items in activities. It sends a very strange and confusing message. (This also includes something like doing an egg toss, where you can very quickly burn through an entire meal for a family in just a few throws.)
Sometime that afternoon, I also listened in on a conversation that fell into the spiritually weird category. A couple people on camp were talking and getting to know each other, and one person just kept saying religious platitudes. It's one of those things that drives me a little bit nuts sometimes. When you're just getting to know someone, it's really awkward to have that person try to speak into your life with deep-sounding Christian gibberish. If someone is sharing about a tough time in your life, you shouldn't say "God must have had big plans for you if he took you through that." There are some tough times that we earn because we make bad decisions. And saying that "you were exactly where God wanted you to be" is like telling Jonah that he was exactly where God wanted him to be when he was running away to Spain. (Well, if you're a strict Calvanist then I suppose you can frame it that way and have it make sense.) But at some point, I think talking about God's role in life events like that becomes problematic.
The last conversation that I'm going to recount was about the nature of churches in Oaxaca. Pastors there are often sponsored either by individuals or by missions organizations. I think the Southern Baptist Convention sponsored quite a few missionaries in that region. The reason that is important is because that means that missions work often had a top-down leadership structure. The churches are supposed to be autonomous, but sponsors often use the threat of removing funding as a way to try to force the pastors to behave in a certain way.
Now there is a valid tension there, which is that of accountability. You can't just send someone money and let them do whatever they want. Dave shared a story of a circle of churches that were all small, but connected. Any time one of the donors would come to visit, the churches would all show up to that one church so that it would look full and the sponsors would be happy. But the week-to-week church was really only a couple families.
This conversation came about because there were a couple churches that wanted to send children to camp, but were restricted from doing so because the pastor was told he was supposed to do a Bible study one of the nights. And it's not like he can just ask one of the other parents to ride out to camp (poor households can't afford to have the breadwinner not doing work for a couple days). What's worse is that the reason for not being allowed to participate boiled down to the idea that participating in the camp was not directly helping the particular church that was being sponsored, so that the efforts were essentially viewed to be wasted and the behavior is irresponsible. It's all very strange.
The first batch of children arrived late that evening. And that's where things will pick up next time. But before I finish this off, here are more food notes:
- Breakfast: Eggs with ham, fruit (pineapple, papaya, watermelon), bread and pastries, horchata. I really want to learn to make horchata like that. It doesn't look hard, but it does appear to take time. So I need to be intentional about that one.
- Lunch: Chicken milinesa, rice, hot vegetables (squash and broccoli), cold vegetables (cucumber and lettuce).
