What kind of poverty is this really?
I think the most challenging part of teaching arts relating topics for me here is, in my mind, the most difficult issue this country has to overcome. I think that in
Poverty of survival is easy to see. Material poverty is clear. People do not have clothes, food, secure shelter, education, opportunity. These things are obvious here; these things are in plain sight.
The more complex poverty here is the cultural kind.
I think it is a result of an oppressive religion and government, of oppressive foreign policy (aka, the US's manipulation of this country for the last 100 years), colonialism, neocolonialism, and a result of a kind of foreign aid, that while well-meaning, has for decades provided unsustainable handouts and has done little to guide the communities here towards providing for themselves in the future.
It is a culture of "give me, give me!" and not of "teach me."
And thus they are always waiting. Waiting for donations of food. Waiting for death to bring them the afterlife they are told to live for by their spiritual leaders. Waiting for the rain so start, stop, start.
These people often can not communicate outside of basic human needs. Food, sleep, water. Life in the communities in these mountains is primitive. It feels like you’ve stepped back into an age before modern thought, before the brilliant gift of human intelligence and creativity was understood, or acknowledged.
This is not true of everyone, of course. I see many lights here shining in the dull gray; I see sparkling eyes here and there. I fear for the children whose eyes now sparkle, I know the education they are provided with will not maintain the now sharp edges of their thoughts. I fear those blades will slowly dull to blunt unquestioning edges.
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In Manualidades, for example, the kids are told (by the other teachers, I challenge this model every single day) what to do, how to do it, what colors to put where, etc. There is no space provided for creativity at all. A tree is green, the sky is blue, and that is that. Often times, the kids don't even draw their own images, the teachers will draw them and tell the kids what colors to color them. In a painting project yesterday, one of the teachers at the school sat and made her own painting among the children. In the end, I could not tell hers apart from those of the six year olds. All fifteen of the kids and the teacher painted the same images, in the same style, in the same colors. An artist or not, this adult’s creative growth stopped at a place long ago in her youth. Someone once told her how to draw those images and she has done it the same way her entire life.
How can a person here, as an adult, be capable of solving their own problems, of poverty, of spirit, of family, of community, if they have never been challenged through their entire growth, to think of an answer to any question for themselves?
3 comments:
Lauren, interesting insights into the poverty and whether it is better to "provide the basics" or "teach one to fish". I've always felt it is better to provide a hand-up instead of a hand-out. There are interesting political arguments that providing increased social services does not liberate one from poverty but shackles and creates a society dependent on government services. I've always felt the strict doctrines of the Catholic church help keep poorly educated people in poverty. I first formed this opinion on my first trip to the interior of Mexico when I was in 8th grade. The churches were beautiful and literally gold gilded but the members who supported the church lived in extreme poverty and ignorance.
Lauren, interesting insights into the poverty and whether it is better to "provide the basics" or "teach one to fish". I've always felt it is better to provide a hand-up instead of a hand-out. There are interesting political arguments that providing increased social services does not liberate one from poverty but shackles and creates a society dependent on government services. I've always felt the strict doctrines of the Catholic church help keep poorly educated people in poverty. I first formed this opinion on my first trip to the interior of Mexico when I was in 8th grade. The churches were beautiful and literally gold gilded but the members who supported the church lived in extreme poverty and ignorance.
Lauren, interesting insights into the poverty and whether it is better to "provide the basics" or "teach one to fish". I've always felt it is better to provide a hand-up instead of a hand-out. There are interesting political arguments that providing increased social services does not liberate one from poverty but shackles and creates a society dependent on government services. I've always felt the strict doctrines of the Catholic church help keep poorly educated people in poverty. I first formed this opinion on my first trip to the interior of Mexico when I was in 8th grade. The churches were beautiful and literally gold gilded but the members who supported the church lived in extreme poverty and ignorance.
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