Solidarity with the Poor

Solidarity with the poor is something that has been somewhat of a theme in my life over the last few years. I think I first heard the term during a class my freshmen year of college, in which we were reading Bryant Meyers' "Working With the Poor." The whole premise of Meyers' book is that if we really want to do development that actually transforms lives, for the better, in the long-term, we have to actually live among the poor. As a very green 18 year old college student, this idea rocked my world. I had been raised in a family that taught me to love the poor, who demonstrated that love in many ways- from taking our family vacations to Mexico to do construction to opening our homes up to foster children. But the idea of intentionally denying material wealth and taking up residence in forgotten and abandoned places among forgotten and abandoned people changed my whole worldview.

After college I took a fellowship as a grassroots organizer for an international NGO, which paid a pittance and gave me an opportunity to practice poverty and reliance on others. I moved into a poor DC Suburb (yes, suburbs are increasingly the abandoned and forgotten places- chew on that!) and lived for a year among motley crew of people who taught me lots about the whole solidarity with the poor thing. We had late night conversations about what it means to choose poverty, we shared meals with the homeless and we opened our doors a host of interesting kids. Though short and arguably un-intentional, I learned a lot about what it means to see a neighborhood from the inside out.

So now I find myself here, in rural Guatemala, a Peace Corps volunteer with a monthly stipend that would barely cover the cost of my old DC metro habit. The whole idea of the Peace Corps is to gain the trust of your community by living with them and like them, eating the same as them, washing your clothes like them, bumping shoulders in the market with them, and then the goal is to see where you can use your skills to maybe improve their quality of life a bit. While I often struggle to put into words, or even into my own head, how I've improved the quality of life of my town, I can say without a doubt that I have learned in small ways how to live in solidarity with the poor. It's a humbling and amazing and sometimes nerve-wracking experience to reach the 15th of the month and have very little month left. It evokes creativity, thrift and community- as you lean on your neighbors for advice on how to stretch what money you have left.

I don't pretend to think that I can ever truly take on the weight of poverty; my parents would bail me out the second they thought I was skipping meals so I could pay my light bill. Nonetheless, I am amazed at this experience that I'm immersed in, and thankful for the lesson.