Spending the last month in the constant company of the Tamarindos, I find myself thinking a lot about the true nature of what we in the States so loosely call an “organization”. Whenever I begin to tell anyone about my time spent there, I find that the only way to give them a satisfactory answer is to say that I was working (or even, I shudder to think, “interning”) at a community organization that provides opportunities for disadvantaged youth. And the people are generally happy with that explanation, and continue along their merry way with the thought that someone they know was helping the poor in a backwards, Central American country. And yet it greatly saddens me to do this, since it doesn’t even come close to being able to explain my stay. That month spent amongst you was much more than my giving my time as a teacher or organizer. The true value of those days, I have come to realize, lies in the time spent – though it was much too short – living in your midst, growing closer in friendship and understanding with people of a background radically different from my own.
As I reflect I’m forced to confront the reality, frustrating though it may be, that I didn’t complete any great or magnificent works during my month there. What work this gringo did is nothing compared to that which the conscientious individuals of Guarjila carry out in patience and solidarity every day. I realize, now, that it wasn’t my place to give and teach alone, but also to receive and learn, truly learn, what it is to live outside of myself. I hope that I may have planted a few seeds, but I am nonetheless humbled by the goodness of many in this town in the face of trials and adversity.
Before I left, I asked John a question that had been bouncing around in my head for a good part of the month, namely, why it is that he had never expanded the Tamarindo to other locations in an effort to spread its benefits elsewhere. To an extent, I think that I now understand why it hasn’t, and why the Tamarindo wasn’t a foundation from the start. More than anything else, my stay taught me what it is to live outside of myself, to be truly concerned and attentive to the needs of others before my own. This was a thing that I learned from observing the work that is done here. That’s why the label of a “community organization” just doesn’t seem appropriate. There is no faith here in the apparatus of an organization and its ability to attain funding or expand. The Tamarindo is the result of people loving and caring for people, and for that it is at the same time simpler and greater than any organization could ever become. John often spoke of the “revolution”, and only now do I think that I realize what it really means: the work of building the kingdom on earth cannot be left to a particular political or social ideology, but only to the simple and magnificent love of people for their brothers and sisters, in short, seeing the body of Christ in all of his people. This idea, not any organization, has the power to create a revolution in the world in which we live. I thank you for teaching me that, and I hope that I can aid you and your vision in the future.
Love,
Peter Salazar
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