Sabbatical Report – Julia J Aegerter – Oct. 13, 2002
The last time I spoke to you, I spoke a bit about the unknown and some fears and hopes I had for the future. When a minister heads off for sabbatical there are 2 things they worry about: 1) that the place will fall apart while they are gone and they will come back to a big mess and 2) that it will not fall apart and the congregation will discover it doesn’t really need them. Fortunately, this congregation did not fall apart. I came back just in time to work in the booth at the fall festival with you. And not only did you do fine without me, you also missed me. The folks I have seen this past week at the booth have been very welcoming.
T.S. Eliot wrote:
We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
I have had a month to go exploring and have returned knowing myself, and my world a little bit better.
And so this morning I want to say thank-you. Thank you for providing me with a sabbatical this year. I realize that it is a privilege and that most of you don’t get to take time off from your lives to leave work, family, responsibilities and explore an interest or passion or just catch up with yourself and who you are becoming.
I know that many of you want to know what I did. And so this morning I will take this time to tell you a little about the what I did and saw and thought and offer some reflections.
On Friday Sept. 6, I flew out to Albuquerque and rented a car. I made a visit to old town and had dinner and then drove up into the Sandia Mountains. I got to stand at the crest and look back into the city as the lights were coming on (thanks to Roger and Pam for recommending this to me). On Saturday, I visited the Pueblo Cultural Center and learned about the native people who have lived in N. Mexico, and then I drove up to Santa Fe which is about 1 hour north. I went to the Georgia O’Keefe museum and then to a sculpture gallery and foundry. I was lucky enough to get to watch a video on the process of making brass sculpture and to watch a live pouring.
Sunday morning I went to the UU church of Santa Fe where they were having their water communion and then drove out to Bandolier Monument and explored a few old Anastazi ruins. That evening I drove back to Albuquerque, feasted on what may be my last steak and checked in at the Center for Action and Contemplation where I was an intern until Oct. 4. On Sat. Oct 5, I got up at 4 am and drove over to the fairway where over 900 balloons were to lift off. It was fun to watch people set up and fill the balloons and ready them for take off.
By 7:30 there were probably 50 in the air and I set off for the airport and my return to Evansville.
What I did at the Center
My days as an intern were busy. The first week we were busy with “workshops” we had one on Centering Prayer, one on Contemplative Journaling, and we spent a day processing 9/11 and also took part in a rally for peace. We were generally on the go from7:30 amthe time of our first daily meditation until8:30 pm.(The second meditation period was at4:30pm.) We each had a chore to do daily. Mine was to feed and water the chickens and hunt for eggs.
We learned about agribusiness and the cruelty with which cows, pigs and chickens are raised and slaughtered. The videos we saw were great motivators for becoming vegetarians. In addition one day while we were traveling S. in N. Mexico we drove by some large animal “farms” and got to see the animals all penned into small areas. I had never seen that before. When traveling out west, the animals seemed to graze freely on the ranches I observed.
At the end of the week, we traveled to Jemez pueblo and got a chance to try our hands at making pottery, eating native food and learning about spiritual practices and also the terrible poverty on that pueblo. We also spent time hiking and sitting in the hot springs. It was good to have some time to reflect after a busy week.
The second week had more space in it. After meditation we headed off for our work sites. Mine was the St. Martin’s Hospitality Center. St. Martin’s is open from 7am until 2pm and provides services for the homeless. People can come there for breakfast, to take showers, get clothes, pick up mail, use the telephones and get messages. There is someone there who will help people find work, and another person who will help people with legal proceedings, there is also a long term storage room. Some hang out and sleep, others socialize. On Wednesday two local chiropractors come in to do alignments. On Thursday an artist comes in and lets folks work with art materials.
I enjoyed my work at St. Martin’s and was especially gratified to see that all the staff and volunteers were very respectful of the people who came for help.
During our third week at the center we had presentations on social analysis and were being prepared for our trip to Mexico. That Thursday we drove to Anthony NM and heard presentation on GATT and NAFTA and how these policies are affecting Mexico. That night we stayed with a local family. The family I stayed with lived in a trailer. The Martinez family had running water but only toilets and tub, no sinks. The adults only spoke Spanish and they were as they say down there, undocumented. They had come into the US with working papers but had lost them during the crack down on immigrants after 9/11 and they were deported a few days after I stayed with them. It was a difficult story to hear.
They had been in the US for 12 years and living on this piece of land for 4 years, having purchased it. They along with other adult family members were raising pigs, chickens and helping each other survive. They had come to US seeking a better life for their children. The oldest daughter was to graduate from high school in December and wanted to go to college to become a teacher. She worked as the translator for me. Now, that dream is dead. I was hard pressed to keep from crying when Mrs. Martinez asked me why Americans hated them. And was it true, she asked, that Americans thought they were terrorists?
Why indeed do we “hate” immigrants? Why do we want to keep our borders closed to others? Aren’t all of us immigrants? My grandmother and grandfather each came here from poor European families looking for a better life. They didn’t speak English either.
On Friday, we set off again. We visited with an immigration lawyer in El Paso, Texas and then with the border patrol. The lawyer told us how hard it is for brown people to get visas and come to this country legally. She also informed us that most do not want to stay. They want to come here to earn money and then return to Mexico to live; a process which has become less and less possible. The border patrol told us about the “fun” of capturing people coming across the border. They too said people came to the US looking for a better life for their families.
Friday afternoon we crossed the border into Juarez. We drove past the US factories and into the local colonias (neighborhoods). There are about 300 of these colonias, neighborhoods with no running water, some with electricity. I stayed with a family who had been living in their home for 12 years having left Durango looking for a better life. This was one of the “better” homes. They had built their home themselves out of cinder blocks, it didn’t have running water but the outhouse was a composting sort and thus less smelly than some. All of the homes here are built over an old dump. The dirt streets though worn down still yield up old sneakers, old bottles and whatever else is buried below. Many of the homes I saw were built of wood. Some from the wooden palates used to bring things to the factory and some only patchworks of cardboard or whatever is found around. All of these people are squatters on this dump. And that is also true of the surrounding dumps. The air is full of dust and hard to breathe.
Manuel and Chila were the parents of this family. He worked as a security guard at a maquilla, she worked at the church run co-op, her son, age 12, went to school but her daughters who were 13, 14 and 18 worked. The two youngest were seamstresses, the older, who was married with two children of her own, worked in one of the macquillas.
These factories pay a wage of 25-30/ week. We are led to believe that the cost of living is also less but that is not true. Food costs are the same and some products actually cost less in the US. All day long, those who can, stream across the border to El Paso to shop.
TheUSfactories moved to this area to reduce their labor costs and to beat the environmental restrictions of theUS. NAFTA drove hundreds of thousands of people off the land and into these waiting factories. Mexican workers are paid low wages, exploited and exposed to dangerous materials and situations. And when they reach a ripe old age say 40, they are fired for being too old
They dare not rebel because manufacturers are moving out of Juarez. Factories are lured to China where they can get still cheaper labor. In China they can “hire” prisoners which mean they have no labor costs at all. Since 2001, 80,000 people have been laid off and the poor are piling up at the border.
The situation in El Paso is not much better. In 1997, 7,400 people were laid off when Levi closed. Then in 1999, 6000 more laid off when more factories closed. The best jobs are the military and the border patrol.
The fourth week of my internship was primarily contemplative. We had a lot of silent time to reflect on what we had experienced and learned during our time at the center.
When the time had come to leave the women we were visiting in Mexico, they stood us in a line and gave us paper flowers they had made. Then they got in a line and came up to each one of us and blessed us. It is a traditional Mexican ritual of elders blessing the young ones before a journey. We all were crying.
It was not possible to leave these people without wondering at their hospitality, their openness, their joy of games and wonderful spirit in spite of the daily hardships they face. We the rich stood there before them and they thanked us for coming. They said, “We cannot cross the river but you can, please do not stay away.”
They have passed on an awesome responsibility to each one of us who visited with them. They shared their food and their homes with us in the hope that if we went back and talked about what we saw that things could change for them. They have hope for the future and they have entrusted their hope to us.
I was afraid I would come back changed and I have changed. I was afraid I would be moved to change from parish to community ministry, I wondered if I would want to move from Evansville.
I return committed to parish ministry and to working within this particular community of Evansville. What I might do differently; I don’t know yet. It is too soon and I haven’t had a chance to take in all that I have seen and experienced and learned.
One of the luxuries of a contemplative week was the chance to do things slowly and thoughtfully. And so one change I want to make in my life is to add more intentional silence and reflection. I would also like to teach some meditative practices her at the church. If you are interested let me know and we can explore how we do this.
Some people want to know if I came back vegetarian. Yes, I think I did. I’m a moderate vegetarian; sort of feeling my way into it. I want to be more intentional about eating in a way that is consistent with the values that I espouse but I’m not ready to become vegan and I’m still toying with fish. A little moderation is a good thing for me. I have a tendency toward righteousness. So doing things a little less than perfectly keeps my ego in check.
I’m choosing to be vegetarian because of the inhumane treatment of the animals produced for food. There are of course animals who have a humane existence, wander free, are not force feed and not shot through and through with antibiotics. Some of these might be killed humanely too. If I met one of those I might think about eating meat.
Then again, the world is running out of water and it takes a great deal of water to provide the quantity of meat that US people eat. If not vegetarianism than reduced meat intake might be an idea for you to think about as people who aspire to live out your values.
I come back more convinced than ever that we as citizens of the US have to make changes in our lives. We are destroying the world. We, for the most part have done it innocently enough but we can’t remain innocent any longer.
In the play “Blood Brothers”, two brothers, twins, are separated at birth because they are born to a mother too poor to raise them. One is given to a wealthy family and throughout their childhood they encounter each other although they are not aware they are brothers. Toward the end of the play they are roughly 20 and they meet again, the poor one is working for a living and the other is home on vacation from college. The poor one points out to the other that he has been allowed to remain a child.
Perhaps we in the US have remained children for too long. Our leaders are acting like our nation is entitled to anything it wants. We are running out of oil, go grab someone else’s. Want their land, go take it. Their government is not to your liking, go kill the leaders. And we are the beneficiaries. We are the ones demanding that purchase prices for anything we want remain low. We want whatever we want and we want it now.
It might be a tolerable attitude in a 2 year old. But we are not two year olds just spoiled rotten.
What exactly we as a church community should do about this is not exactly clear for me. We could explore simplifying our lives and learn more about US foreign policy and its costs. We could act for peace both by becoming more peaceful and by promoting peace in our community and world. We could explore the rise in Spanish speaking people in our area and their working conditions and needs. We could also think about how we might provide immersion experiences for our youth and those adults who are interested.
There are many things we could do – thinking up things is not difficult for me. Deciding what is manageable and where to put my efforts and where to encourage you to put yours that is the issue.
We are a small community with limited people power and lives which gobble up our time – so what is doable – that will be the next thing that you and I need to reflect on together.