Outgrowths
My partner and I had just completed and written a very intensive four-hour interview with a key figure of the country. Then she died unexpectedly. It may have been her last interview, and NOW she was documented forever. Her grandson wrote to us. He had learned things about his grandmother he had never known. His mother chose not to discuss many of the grim details of his grandmother’s life during the war; torture and captivity are not dinner conversation topics. This sealed the deal for making this a long-term project. He wondered if we have additional photographs of her to share. Obviously reading her story awakened interest in this college-age boy about his remarkable relative who chose not to live in suffering but to empower others in similar situations. We were happy to be the medium through which that happened for him.
From the very nearly first day my partner and I began interviewing and writing stories for this project, we were re-evaluating just what we wanted the project to look like. What began as a faith story project soon morphed into a Salvadoran historical memory/oral history project. We discovered the youth of the country did not know their own country’s history. What better way to tell it than through actual stories of its people?
Simply approaching the project from a faith perspective was far too limiting for this project. Plus we soon discovered that for many reasons people often avoided speaking about their faith that they equated with the formal institution of the Roman Catholic Church, which they had reasons to reject.
We tossed around concentrating our project on survivors of the Salvadoran civil war, or members of the campesino communities. Again, each area was too focused on one specific group.
“What if we look at a representation of the entire country in terms of a tapestry of lives, relationships, connections?” That approach made the most sense, and we did not limit it to only native-born Salvadorans, since many folks living in the country are expats contributing in myriad ways. By choosing to live there, they also offered a fresh and different perspective to life within the country.
My partner and I were amazed how willing and ripe these folks were for sharing their stories. They, in turn, suggested other names who they felt would make good interview candidates. We could barely keep up with all the names being offered.
We do not give a verbatim account of the interview. Instead, during the interview we listen attentively for a kernel to emerge that speaks to the theme of the story. Then the story develops around that theme.
Our goal was and remains to present an accurate story as told to us. We will not “doctor” it. We allow the storyteller to edit what is written. What we will NOT do is allow others to change wording within an approved story, which is unethical; we will not tolerate such actions. This situation happened only once; we stood our ground.
We have chosen NOT to use Facebook other than on our church website. We do NOT use ads on our small website. Instead, we want to remain pure to a limited number of readers who are truly interested in Salvadorans and Salvadoran life as we experienced it during our travels.
Our reputation for being trustworthy and genuine to the people has spread, and we are pleased with some of the unexpected outgrowths of our project.
Beyond merely compiling these stories for posterity’s sake, this project has taken many unforeseen twists and turns resulting in countless surprising outcomes. The stories have moved some impassioned readers to respond to specific storytellers by wanting to donate to their needs/causes. These include financial help to a homeless shelter/soup kitchen, money for solar cells in a community without electricity, money for well-drilling and sanitation projects, financial help for a child’s eye surgery, assistance to pastors and missionaries in need, help for the building of a church, helping an organization searching for missing children, those working in faith-based communities, to a human rights’ activist, and a peace center working in the arts. (Read Sister Peggy O’Neill’s story at this link):
Likewise, we interviewers are privy to “ah ha” moments of epiphany during the interviews themselves when people being interviewed suddenly recognize something deep within themselves they hadn’t realized. As they gather thoughts, suddenly those thoughts gel for them. Exciting revelations and transformations take place in their thinking. Sometimes decisions even result over difficult issues that they have been struggling with for a very long time. It is magical to watch this happen and be a part of.
“Why can’t we buy this poor guy a boat?” was a total surprise that several people asked regarding the fisherman story. This led to a full-scale campaign to do exactly that in the form of a micro-loan. In a similar vein is a second micro-loan to a man who lost his truck which he depends on for his livelihood. These have not only improved their families’ oppressive lifestyles and economic situations but also give them dignity.
When we had our project published in The Lutheran magazine, a woman whose church has a long-term mission in Mexico contacted us about how to set up a micro-loan business with a local. She wanted to initiate that concept within her congregation to do for her sister church in Mexico.
Another colleague asked: “Do you have a list of questions that you use/ask during your interviews, or do you go about it a different way? If so, would you be willing to share that or the questions with us? My god-daughter is a third year journalism student at the university in San Salvador and has agreed to do the interviews for us. It will be a great experience for her, plus she’ll earn some money as well. Thank you for your guidance.”
Contributing to individual student scholarships has always been a high priority to us. By highlighting the lives of these recipients in our collection of stories, we hope to help individuals make a dignified living to support their families. We also hope to make our readers aware of their goals and keep these young persons in our prayers.
We began to find help to translate our stories into Spanish for our Spanish-speaking readers on our website who we discovered knew little of Salvadoran history. This is a wonderful service we didn’t think of when we began our stories.
A local family was so touched by our story of a little six year old that she spent months gathering clothes, toys, and educational products to send along on our next trip. I had to beg her to stop when the bulging suitcase reached the allowed airline weight limit! The same is true of others who have donated Spanish books to the family who is starting a children’s library for all the local Salvadoran children. It is wonderful when others have initiated ideas we hadn’t even considered! Part B to this story is that the same family is currently giving fewer material items to the child and focusing on giving financial gifts toward her education which will bring lifetime benefits to her.
We are HOPING that by sharing one of our storyteller’s life with a local senator, our story will help to convince him to coordinate the necessary legal requirements to help her get the visa from the U.S. Embassy in San Salvador to visit here. She has applied and been denied many times. Our story makes it clear that she is not a flight risk and will return to her country.
We also are hopeful that the composite story called “Sibs” about the family members who migrated to the U.S. can provide Americans real information on the reasons Latin Americans migrate, the dangers and high costs involved, and the harsh living conditions once they arrive. Given the immigration debate on our political agenda, this is important knowledge to have.
One of our Salvadoran storytellers has been so moved by our project that she is beginning a smaller scale project of her own to record the stories of a specific population of people who organize faith-based communities with whom she works. She wrote asking us for advice.
While we more aggressively marketed our first book of stories, we soft pedaled the second one. We gave our local synod Global Mission Committee members the opportunity to purchase copies. Most chose not to. However, the one guy decided to purchase a copy and take it along on a mission trip to Haiti. He happened to mention it to a Salvadoran girl he met there. Suddenly she became excited, realizing she knew us and that she was IN this book and grabbed it to find her story. (While she’d proofread her story many times via e-mail, she had not yet seen it in book form because it was awaiting her in El Salvador.) Our committee member was pleased to give her his copy and see himself as “God’s mailman.” More importantly, he saw the inter-connectedness of mission in the world much as Paul described the passage of the parts of the body working together. He thanked us for a new chapter beginning in his life of being used by God. He decided to make this the topic of his meditations for the next Global Mission Committee. The reaction of the members was such that they encouraged him to make it into a video segment to present to the entire synod voting assembly at its spring synod-wide assembly conference composed of all Lutheran clergy and two delegates from each congregation.
One of our young adults who was raised as a child at our church continues to hold a passion for those in developing countries. She recently spearheaded a campaign in her own congregation through ELCA Good Gifts for wells. By working with us for help with photos and her narrative to present, she helped raise enough funds for 2 ½ wells!
At our local Lutheran synod assembly in June, 2013, lay delegates from two local congregations showed renewed interests in becoming involved in Salvadoran ministries. They picked up our literature, including our books, and attended our presentation on August 25, 2013 at our church. Afterwards we met to do some preliminary mission trip planning with them. Another person we met at the same function is a second career nurse who asked for information about making a medical team trip to El Salvador. My partner Don has been in touch with groups who go regularly and exchanged names for future possibilities to join them.
Six days after our interview with a dynamic young woman confined to her wheelchair as a result of suffering spinal cord injuries from a diving accident in the school swimming pool at age 11, we received an e-mail. She wrote a thank you to those who have made a difference in her life and showed an awareness for God’s plan for her. The timing could be a total coincidence, but I have to wonder if our interview helped her do some deep soul-searching.
The translator to the Lutheran bishop in El Salvador writes us regarding our website:
Your blog is incredible, know that a lot of people see it and it’s priceless that you take so much time to capture these stories.
There are powerful things happening here among people who sometimes have little more than God. It’s important to share. Thanks,
We are delighted to serve as catalysts for so many others whose interest has been piqued by reading our volume of stories!
