Rain, injustice and community organization

Well, after a whole month with no rain (which is super rare in this climate during winter) it seems like we are now making up for lost time. The streets around the church flood easily as garbage blocks sewage drains and on Tuesday some of the homes flooded quite badly. I saw lots of people coming and going with wheelbarrows piled with dirt and rocks as they tried to clean up the mess. Getting home tonight will be intersting as I didn´t bring my raincoat like I did yesterday (but thankfully I do have an umbrella). While the rain does cause problems it is neat to see community members helping each other out so readily. I hope my neighbours back home would do the same and I´m sure some would but we don´t even all know each other unlike here where it seems like everyone knows everyone´s business.

The mom of one of the kids in the project is spreading gossip and being very malicious because a boy in the project bothered her daughter (who is also in the Compassion project). The children´s teacher dealt with the situation and it was not her fault it occured (he made a crude gesture at her). The mother is mentally unstable and her family has a lot to put up with so things are complicated. Apparently this is not the first time this scenario has occured with this woman and her older daughter is really hurting right now since she really loves being at the church and all her friends are there and now she is being told she cannot attend. The attitude of the community people has been described to me as the following: `This is our space and so we do things our way here.` Therefore, when a conflict emerges or community people do not agree with the decisions made by the church and it´s projects gossip and quarrels are often a result. The oppression generated by this situation is fairly intense and I could really feel a heaviness about the building this morning. I could barely work and it took quite a bit of prayer to clear the atmosphere.

I also found out that two of the young men in our church were doing odd jobs last week and received nothing for their labour. No wages at all. This often happens to the people that live in the favella. I get so mad when I hear about these scenarios. These people need jobs to feed their families they work in good faith and then receive nothing! Or in some cases only receive half of what was originally agreed upon. I so wish there was something I could do. Rober Linthicum´s book ´Empowering the Poor´ talks a bit about addressing these type of situations and it is really challenging me to ask some good questions. What are the felt needs of the community? Is the church empowering these people or creating dependents? Great stuff. The book report is due on Monday.

(gotta run now so I will continue this later)