The Value of Being Useless

I'd like to share an essay I wrote for a a recent scholarship proposal. The essay prompt was to describe a cross cultural experience and what I learned from it. Naturally, one instance stood out . . .

I bend over, hands on my knees, and watch with winded gasps as an elderly Ayamara woman ambles slowly beside me before bending over and pulling at least thirty pounds of stones into her shawl. I observe with listless fascination as she heaves the rock-laden shawl over her shoulder and turns around to make her way back to the construction site.

The distance between the rock pile and the unfinished schoolhouse is less than a quarter of a mile, but I can only carry four stones per trip. That being said, watching an elderly woman carry twice my load causes me to drop my head and laugh. I’m traveling with the group Choice Humanitarian to a village outside of La Paz, Bolivia called Jichurasi Suriquiña in order help build a new schoolhouse.

After a few days of working non-stop, nearly every experience I’ve had has left me feeling weak and insufficient before my hosts and quite frankly, I couldn’t be happier with myself. Because while transporting a pile of stones from point A to point B may be helpful in building a schoolhouse, my proudest contribution has been juxtaposing myself beside villagers like the elderly Ayamara woman.

My hope is that when they see my ineptitude to even carry a few stones, they gain a sense of confidence about their own abilities to take care of themselves, and realize their own potential to achieve community development without the help of outsiders such as me. In turn, I see my own uselessness as something of revelation, because I previously thought that I could only offer practical abilities in a cross cultural exchange.

This expedition has made me realize that my exchanges need not be of a professional nature; it could be optimism brought to a team effort, a sense of humor in an awkward situation, or the sense of pride instilled in another person when someone needs their help.

The elderly Ayamara woman turns around to look at me, and laughs when she sees the small stones in my arms. I find myself laughing with her; being useless never felt so great.

Wordless Wednesdays

Wordless Wednesdays

An Inspiring Story

Today I read this article from the NY Times. It was amazing to me. I am amazed at just how good some people really are. In this season of gratitude I am thankful for the inspiration.

http://bit.ly/2cGESc

Wordless Wednesdays

A Photo's Worth. . .

A thousand words, right? Lately, as I've been perusing thousands upon thousands of ASCEND's photos for an upcoming presentation, I've been doubting the truth of that adage. After collecting what I believed to be the most inspirting, I have to concede that I agree with the sentiment behind the saying.

In a photograph, we see many things. Sometimes there is consensus of what the photograph is saying: 'joy', 'grief', etc., but sometimes, if we are lucky, the sliver of the moment when the photograph was taken lays the human spirit bare, and we who look in are rendered speechless.

In ASCEND's collection of photographs, there are many stirring things; the gloved hands of a volunteer worker heaving dirt, the smile of a Ecuadorian school-girl, the distracted glance of an Ethiopian mother. Each photograph is beautiful in its own right, which initially aroused my suspicion. "What's it worth?" "Yes, it's lovely, yes the light is just right, and yes it will entrance whoever looks upon it, but what is it conveying?"

After all, a photograph is a logical, mechanical thing- and it's something I've always appreciated for conveying 'truth' to the world. However, as ASCEND's photo collection proves, even a mechanical thing such as a photograph can hitch on something unexpected that makes us pause, that causes us to register sentiment with logic. It's a jarring combination, but stinging clear and eloquent at heart.

The purpose, then, of this little diatribe, is to perhaps share my sense of confounded logic and sentiment to you. The hope is that you will look at ASCEND's photo, and let your gaze linger a little while longer as you register logic and emotion in the same intrigued/perplexed fashion as I did.

Wordless Wednesdays

Living in The Americas

Just after I graduated from college (liberal arts degree in hand) I went to Ecuador to live there for nearly 18 months. I love Ecuador, I love the people, I love Spanish. I love South America. At my current job I get to interact nearly every day with employees in Ecuador, Bolivia and Peru. Having lived in Ecuador means that during these interactions I can use really hilarious slang (though sometimes I've crossed the line not realizing that in some countries funny slang is actually pretty graphic and not to be used with co-workers), that I actually know what Shakira is saying in all of her songs (ok most) and that I have a little more sympathy when our interns (who live in country for about 4 months) write me to tell me all about the happenings in country. This week I've been thinking about living in Latin America and missing it a little. So here is a list of things to miss.

• Collecting banana stickers. Ecuador is home to the majority of the major banana exporters and somehow we found a whole trade of young people who tried to collect as many different stickers which mark the bananas as possible
• Hot Chocolate or Tea and Bread for dinner. I'm not a coffee drinker but whenever we were over at people's house in the evening they would serve us hot chocolate or tea and bread. The tea is amazingly sweet and you dip your bread into your beverage for dinner.
• Bread in general. During one point of my stay in Ecuador I lived above a bakery where they made the most delicious chocolate bread. I think we had at least 3 pancitos every single day (my waist line did not thank me)
• Menestra. I still dream about the traditional bean dish made in Ecuador. I've tried to recreate it here but it's never the same.
• Yucca. We don't eat Yucca too much in the states but there are few things as delicious as the yucca French fry.
• Busses. Here in the states I don't ride the bus very often and my city isn't known for it's all encompassing bus routes but I loved being able to stick out my hand and pick up a bus anywhere as well as being able to get off a bus just by yelling "gracias" and heading toward the door
• Community sports. Every weekday night and all weekend long parks were full to bursting with local futbol leagues, volleyball and other sports.
• The blurred line between church and state when it comes to holidays. Even now I'm envious of our employees who get all kinds of religious holidays throughout the year. Good Friday? Yep. Day of the Dead (today)? Yep. And don't even get me started about how they all get a full month of extra salary for Christmas. Our employees are always shocked when I tell them that we don't have those kinds of benefits here in the US.
• Walking everywhere
• Cars and buses each a memorial to a person's personal design (complete with fringe, lace, and tweety bird stickers)
• Nicknames. I very clearly remember one 9-year old turning to me and asking, "what's my Aunt Negra's name?"
• Most beautiful children in the whole world
• Chickens. This is sort of a love/hate relationship. Once I lived on the second floor and 5 chickens lived in the courtyard below us. I poured water on them almost every day to get them to stop clucking. Funny now, but not funny when it was happening
• Loud Music everywhere
• Ranchera dancing (also kind of a love/hate relationship)
• Fresh Fruit—1 million times better than the fruit here
• How everyone has so many names
  

So what have I missed? What are the best things about living in South America?