How do we avoid saying something offensive, or inappropriate hand gestures we are unaware of?
Luckily, Living Waters for the World (LWW) who set up this trip has some guidelines emphasizing sustainability, training the trainer, and partnership to really work on the “how” so that the presence of God is made clear with a project like this. As an organization LWW is attempting to get more
With the YAV program and our work at Ferncliff the emphasis is on things like solidarity, empathy, compassion, simplicity, partnership, sustainability and just understanding the complexities of our world and what struggles are like for the vulnerable. It’s an extreme Christ-like year full of putting on someone else’s shoes, building relationships, and being vulnerable yourself. If you complete a project that’s great, but these things come first for YAV. Before projects.
So for me to switch that mindset and do a short term water system build was a big switch in philosophy from what I’m used to. I was reminded by a YAVA (YAV-Alum) named Emily who served in Guatemala, that if you are intentional you can keep the emphasis on relationship building, empathy, solidarity, and vulnerability while also doing a project. That has been my hope for this trip.
I, like most beginning missionaries got involved because I like to build things. I like making technologies like solar cookers that can help someone without access to all the conveniences that I have. It excites me that something I like can help someone else, and it makes me feel better about myself when I help people. I like to build, cut wood, drive nails, and put stuff together. That’s me. But I had to overcome that because a main goal of Living Waters for the World is to “Teach the Teacher”
After I finished their training at Clean Water University I realized I was not trained to build the water system. Rather I was trained how to teach future operator how to build and operate the water system. A nuanced difference that my trip leader observed has not been realized by everyone whose been trained. I was trained how to assume the trainer’s pose.
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| Mr. President and Mr. Vice President displaying the "Trainer's Pose" LWW teaches a hand's off approach to turn ownership over to partners. |
Perhaps I was over zealous in the quest to share the work when I handed the drill to Diego to drill the top screw not realizing the screw 6ft above the ground was much easier for me to drive than for him since he was only 5 ft tall, or when I gave it to a younger guy and couldn’t think of the Spanish word for “push” and we kept stripping all the screws. That mindset kept popping up, and keeping me in check during times when I’d start gluing pipe. I’d be reminded to let someone else do it and then immediately hand over the glue and pipe to Jaime or Diego who gladly accepted and joined in the work.
It was as much a teaching workshop as a construction project. Much like getting the Second Pres Youth group to build garden beds, or teaching farm campers, or even camp counselors how to turn over compost. Much like John teaching me to raise quail or make castile soap. Give a little talk, explain it, and pass over the instructions and tools to the padawan.
This has all been a good exercise in sustainable mission work.
In order to make lasting change in a community you can’t just do the work yourself and make the community’s success depend on you. You need to give up a little bit of pride and start teaching other people what you think needs to happen and step back and watch them do it. That is how I understand the “train the trainer” model.
This is a realization I’ve seen through both YAV and LWW, and the more I think about it, this is how people have invested in my life—teaching me how to make the changes they want so that the spark continues after we’ve gone.
“Be the Change you wish to see in the world”—Yes my college, JMU uses that on all their brochures.
But enough about changing the world. A 10 minute video has some pictures and a voice of my opinions of this Living Waters trip to Guatemala. This video is also on YouTube at this link if your computer has trouble loading it below.
The trip had 3 components. First we were building a water system in El Xab, north of Retaluleau in the western Pacific Coastal region of Guatemala. Second, we checked in with the water system operators at the Long Way Home School in San Juan Comalapa where Mac, Dan, and Joan had visited and built a Living Waters system in 2013. And finally we spent one day in Antigua, Guatemala—a very old city settled by the Spanish 500 years ago and destroyed multiple times since them due to earthquakes. It sit’s at the base of several MASSIVE volcanoes one of which is active. Antigua has 400 year old or older ruins from the original stone buildings destroyed by earthquakes the last several centuries. Most of the houses are build from the ruins.
This blog and video focus most on the build at El Xab which was the most meaningful and challenging part.
The follow up visit at Long Way Home was amazing. The school was built out of trash designed by former Peace Corps volunteers. Kids that attend pay their tuition in trash by bringing one piece of trash every day and the requirement that they stuff 4 plastic soda bottles full of trash every year. Trash and stuff bottles is used as filler material in the cob, cement, and or used-tire wall. The cob, mud, or plaster covers the trash, and the trash saves on the volume of expensive, energy intensive lime plaster needed to fill the wall. I had an amazing time there meeting Lars, Genevieve and Rachel. Awesome operation they have, I’m strongly considering going to live there for a few months to teach them about straw bale construction from what I’ve learned at the Eco Center, and learning some tire construction. Their newest endeavor is to start molding their own plastic bricks from all the plastic they collect as trash. Plus they need some minor repair work on their small solar panel array…..Anyway as amazing as that part of the trip was, I want to emphasize the build because that was the most moving and challenging part of the trip.
In just four days we went from a school getting their water from a well with a bucket on a rope to filling twenty- 5 Gallon bottles with “agua pura” or "agua purificada".
So how do we do these things like train the trainers, and give our tools to others to build with them. How do we pass the torch?
#1. Humility--recognize that you aren't the savior, God is
#2. Recognize that you are not God. You are just as much a sinner as this person you are serving regardless of your income, race, gender, etc. You got your own stuff you need help with so get off your high horse. Maybe your partner can help ease your pain.
#3. Communicate with your partners in service get to know their needs and plans for the system, and other business stuff. If you are doing a project while building relationships do all your planning ahead of time. Use your brain, not just your heart.
#4 Learn about your partner's culture. Learn their language.
#5 Become a friend to your partner. Take time to have conversation with them about their family, job, interests, hobbies, dreams. Make it more than business
And now a final Lilla Watson Quote: "If you have come here to help me then you are wasting your time. But if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together."
