Batey 7's "Awakening Workshop" June 19th

January-July 2018: A roundup review of the CHE work in southwestern Dominican Republic: Blog #6

As many of you know, Jenny and I are mission workers with the Presbyterian Church (USA), working for their international mission outreach agency, World Mission (PC(USA) World Mission). We have been stationed in the Dominican Republic since 2012, helping promote, support and develop the Community Health Evangelism outreach program of our partner here, the Dominican Evangelical Church (IED--Iglesia Evangélica Dominicana).

2018 has been an an exciting year, with three of the four communities where we work taking on a number of new challenges. This blog is part of a series of eleven short presentations of the work that has been developing. I am posting them in reverse order so that the images from January will be at the "beginning." This also represents a commitment on my part to fully complete my blog ambitions.

"Awakening Workshop" in Batey 7: Blog #6

Yulisa explains the drawing her group made of a tree representing the
life of Batey 7. In the roots the group wrote some of the things they
know about their community's history. In the trunk they wrote some
of the realities that define the community right now and in the canopy
they put their dreams for how they want Batey 7 to become. June 2018.
Photo by Mark Hare.

The first thing I probably need to do is to answer the obvious question, "What is an 'Awakening Workshop?'"

In Spanish the title sounds a bit less odd: "Taller de Despertamiento." The image of "despertamiento" in Spanish is less specific to the physical act of sleeping and more generally applied to any situation in which people find themselves lulled into complacency or satisfied with their lack of understanding. Spanish also has the word "conscientización" which becomes "conscientisation" in English, but apparently it is not a word that is frequently used. "Blogger" has it marked in red for not being properly spelled.  Google translates "conscientización" as "raising awareness."

Somewhere in the mix of those words is an explanation for what we were trying to do in Batey 7 on June 19th. Based on the community surveys the CHE committee of Batey 7 did in January with the participation of folks from Westminster Presbyterian Church (Greenville, South Carolina), the committee selected about 60 respondents to participate in this awakening workshop. The goal was to raise their awareness of the work of CHE. The committee wanted their friends and neighbors to understand what CHE is, how it has already made a difference in Batey 7 and to get them excited about being part of the process. Of about 60 who were invited, a total of 42 participated.

The Workshop

The goal was to start at 10 AM, but since usually folks generally arrive late, I arrived just shortly before 10 AM, expecting to have some time to talk with Juan and Altagracia, review the program and resolve some confusion about the funds to feed the workshop participants. In fact, when I got to the IED chapel, there were already a handful of people ready to go. Some of them had come at 9 AM. Committee members had told them one hour earlier to make sure they got there on time. Well, we all shocked, because they did get there on time, at the hour the committee had told them!

Instead of having time to work out last minute kinks, we had to jump into the workshop. We were all basically ready. We had spent at least four meetings talking and planning for this workshop, and I had reviewed a semi-final version of the program with committee members during the regular meeting on Tuesday June 12th, when they had made their final changes. But Juan and I, the two main facilitators, did not really have a chance to decide who was going to lead which activity. So we basically tag-teamed it all day, with one taking over when the other was out of breath.

At one point, we tag teamed in one of the participants. Juan and I had to put together a skit as part of an exercise looking at common myths people from outside the bateys have about batey communities. We asked one of the middle-aged women to facilitate the observations that people had after doing a listening exercise while Juan and I prepared our drama. When we came back, she was sitting up front doing a bang up job of helping participants sum up their experiences. I was particularly impressed that she was using a phrase that I have only recently learned to use, "Uh huh. Good. And what else?"

Participants were engaged in everything we put out for them, even though it was a long day, made longer for everyone because the cooks started cooking late. Instead of eating at 12:00 PM, the food was finally ready around 3:30. If I tell you that some of the participants had not had anything to eat for breakfast, that may help you understand how late that really was. But the energy and enthusiasm of everyone kept us going, along with some crackers and some soda pop. I thought that when the food finally came, folks would eat and leave, but instead, they came right back in and finished out the final session for the day. Honestly, I was dumbfounded.

The committee did a report on the workshop the following Tuesday (26 June) and all of them, especially Juan and Altagracia (Cucuta), were ecstatic. When I asked when during the workshop they had felt that the Holy Spirit was present, Cucuta said, "The whole day."

Here are more photos:

The Program: 11 AM-12:00 PM: The tree activity; 12-12:30 Lunch;12:30-12:45 Technique
for listening; 12:45-1:30 Myths of the bateys; 1:30-2:00 Crossing the River; 2:00-2:45 Look-
ing for treasure in the Community; 2:45-3:15 Biblical reflection (Luke 10:25-28); 3:15-4:00
Reflection on the cause of Batey 7 and the commitment; 4:00 Prayer of departure and thanks-
giving. June 2018. Photo by Mark Hare. We actually started around 10 AM and we finished
around 4:30 PM, lunch was at 3:30 instead of at noon, but other than that we did pretty
good....

Lucas presenting his group's version of "The tree of life of Batey 7." Lucas recently became the new leader
of the IED chapel in Batey 7. He has a considerable number of young people participating in the activities
of the chapel. He is intelligent and word has it, he can be very funny. When Batey 7 youth came together in
September to begin forming a youth group, sponsored by the CHE committee, they elected Lucas as
their president (Youth form their own group in Batey 7). June 2018. Photo by Mark Hare. 

"Técnica para Escuchar"  Technique for listening. The group splits into pairs and
then one of the pair is selected to listen and the other to talk for 3 minutes. A common
theme is given for all the pairs.I believe that we asked the person speaking to talk about
their dreams for a better Batey 7. The person listening is instructed that they may not
interrupt, even to ask a question. After the three minutes are up, the person listening
summarizes in a minute or two what the first person talked about. Then everyone comes
together and those who spoke share what it felt like to have a captive audience and whether
or not the person listening was really able to sum up what they had shared. Then those
who listened are asked to share what it felt like to have to be quiet and not interrupt the
other person. We also asked them what was hardest about having to listen. Their answers
were written on newsprint. Some of the responses about what was hard were: "Not
commenting"; "The noise around us"; "Concentrating"; "Analyze and relate"; "Looking
the person in the face." Someone also observed that "hearing" is not the same as "listening."
We also asked them in what context this exercise could be important. They responded:
"In workshops"; "In school"; "In daily life".  The final observation was from the our lesson:
"Listening shows the value we give to other people." 

Participants in a small group writing their responses to a series of questions we posed after the "Myths of Batey 7" skit that Juan and I presented. In developing the skit, I proposed to Juan that I represent a Dominican coming from Santiago, a city in northern Dominican Republic, to begin working with the sugarcane company. Juan would be someone from the city of Barahona who would be giving me advice on the bateys. Juan then began listing the things that someone from Barahona would probably say about the bateys. We practiced twice and then we went in and presented. Among other things, Juan, as someone from the city, told me was: a) Not to take my family to visit the bateys because they could get sick from the people there; b) That there are many problems in the bateys, but there aren't any leaders capable of dealing with them; c) that the bateys don't have running water or electricity or schools; d) That everyone who lives in the bateys is Haitian.

We knew we had a good skit when the audience started reacting from the moment Juan made his first observation. "No! That isn't true!" some of them shouted.  At the end, we worked through the standard questions, "What did you see and hear?" "What was the problem and why does it happen?" and "Does this happen here?" The resounding answer to this question was "Yes!!!!!"  Then we divided the participants into the small groups and they had to write their responses on newsprint.

"Myths about the Bateys." Answers from the group, "Las Veteranas." They
answered"Why does this happen?" with the response "Because of the
discrimination of [against] the bateys." To the question, "What are the roots
of what you all saw?" the group answered, "Enmity, discrimination and lack
of knowledge." When we asked them, "What can we do about it?" this group
answered, "Look for a solution to the problem so that all of us can be united." 

Juan, far right, leads the group in a discussion of the skit, "Crossing the River." This skit, or code, can be used in several ways. We generally use it to instigate participants to differentiate between assistance that leads to development versus assistance that leads to dependency. The colored papers on the floor represent rocks that allow community members to safely cross a dangerous river. Not visible in the photo is a piece of newsprint that represented an island in the middle. You can watch this video to see approximately how we do it: CHE River Crossing. Here is an alternate version as well: River Crossing--Foreigner. June 2018. Photo by Mark Hare.

Simena, one of the CHE committee members, adds her cup half full to the newsprint marked "BATEY 7." This dynamic came at the end of the discussion of hidden treasures in the community and the reflection on Luke 10: 25-28 (Luke 10: 25-28). The essential point is that we have been called to love God and our neighbor with everything that we have, our minds, our hearts, our souls and our hands. But if a cup partially filled up with water represents who we are and what capacities we have, then none of us is completely full, nor is anyone completely without "water." We are called to love God with what we have, not with what we lack.

After giving each participant a cup and providing some water, we asked them to one by one bring their cup to the community (the newsprint) and name a skill or a passion or some knowledge that they are prepared to offer in service to their family, neighbors and friends.

In CHE we work to discover what is in the part of the cup that has water--what the hidden treasures are in the community. This idea is consistent with a strategy known as ABCD: Assets Based Community Development (Five core principles of Assets Based Community Development. June 2018. Photo by Mark Hare.

List of participants, "Awakening Workshop for Batey 7."