RC in El Salvador
I recently visited El Salvador. There were many small but significant steps forward that I feel pleased about being part of. Any progress is appreciated by people these days. It seems that things have gotten worse in the country during the year and a half since I was last there.
Taxes have gone up, and they don’t go for services to help the majority of people. There is no medicine in many hospitals. Overwork is rampant. Some people have to work seven days a week to rent a room in a modest house. The minimum wage has gone up a bit, but the increase goes to pay new taxes, and a lot of the workforce is paid an illegally low wage of six or seven dollars per day. Vegetation suffers from the chemicals in the rain. It’s hard to find time for long Co-Counseling sessions, but somehow Lorena’s [María Lorena Cuéllar Barandiarán’s] group manages to have weekly short sessions at least.
Rolando picked me up at the airport again. We had many conversations and several mini-sessions during the following days, as he drove me to and from RC activities or on sightseeing excursions.
It was good to see my friend C— again. We had short sessions in the evenings, when he had finished his long day of work and study. C— and I have done monthly phone time, twenty minutes each way, for the last five years. One of the best things that happened was that C—, Rolando, and I had our first three-way mini-session!
I led a three-and-a-half-hour class for Lorena’s fundamentals group, with seven of us present. Lorena got some appreciation and support and was pleased with the topics we addressed and the thinking we shared.
Since the people in the class had had just a taste of RC and a short time using it, I focused on the long-term process of re-emergence. We worked on several aspects: (1) developing thoughtful closeness in Co-Counseling relationships (this included a demonstration with someone I do Skype sessions with); (2) the challenge of trusting other people enough to be open and discharge deeply, especially in countries with a recent history of violence and war (this included a demonstration with a woman who had lived through the Civil War); (3) the need to discharge on oppressions within a Co-Counseling group, to create safety (this included a demonstration with a young woman discharging the effects of sexism); (4) the role of the International RC Communities in supporting and inspiring the long-term process of re-emergence.
The next day I led a six-hour men’s workshop. There were four of us, including two young adults and three currently working-class men. All of us had been raised poor in families with campesino/peasant roots. We told life stories, and some deep discharge happened. The two young adults work in a supermarket, bagging groceries, and are unpaid except for a few dollars in tips. Sometimes they get nothing for their time and then get the message from friends and family that they are not real men. They tend to feel oppressed by women as men. (It will take some work to discharge and re-evaluate that point of view.) There was a request to work on issues related to the sex industries. Besides talking briefly about the issues, I did some work with the group on early sexual memories. Much of this aspect of RC was new for most of the men. It led to some important insights and discharge, and they want to do more.
I was especially glad that the next day, Joel, who assists Lorena in her class and had organized the men’s workshop, came over after work to do a session with me.
Los Angeles, California, USA
(Present Time 191, April 2018)