Newsletter: Spring, 2001

Walking in Compassion and Solidarity
— Patricia Mathes Cane, Capacitar Founder/Director

The tragedy, as well as the grace of human life, confront us daily as we witness the massive destruction wrought by earthquakes in El Salvador and India, conflicts in the Middle East and Africa, and violence in our own backyard. It is impossible to comprehend these tragedies without faith in something greater than ourselves.

I remember a conversation I had after Hurricane Mitch with Gladys Lanza, well-known popular leader and current Capacitar Coordinator in Honduras. The hurricane, rather than passing through and out to sea, circled over the country for eight days causing more and more destruction. In trying to make sense of the disaster, Gladys said that she saw the hurricane as both a destructive and cleansing force needed to bring her people back to what was most important. The country had become so corrupt, that the body of Mother Earth needed to cleanse itself. The massive loss of life in El Salvador and India has been blamed not on the earthquake, but rather on rampant corruption in the construction industry with its greed and disregard of human life and the environment. The earthquakes literally tore open the lives of many with the possibility of cleansing and renewing the hearts of the people.

Buddhist scholar and meditation master Pema Ch–dr–n in her book When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times, speaks of awakening a fearlessly compassionate attitude toward our own pain and that of others, relaxing into the spaciousness and groundlessness of the moment. She encourages us by her own experience not to fear or run away, but rather to lean into the pain, befriending the experience, opening our hearts with gentleness and clarity to the human dilemma. "What is seemingly ugly and problematic and unwanted actually becomes our teacher…We can just look at the whole thing. She talks about the discovery in ourselves of bodhichitta, a Sanskrit word for the "noble or awakened heart", our soft spot, our sense of tenderness for life.

There is a powerful Buddhist practice called Tonglen: breathing in, taking in the pain and suffering of the world or of another, and breathing out wellness, kindness and compassionate love. When we breathe in pain, somehow it penetrates our armor. The way we guard ourselves gets softened up. A kindness and a tenderness begin to emerge, so when we breathe out we open our whole being. Chöndrön says that "Instead of transcending the suffering of all creatures, we move toward the turbulance and doubt. We jump into it. We move toward it however we can… At the bottom we discover water, the healing water of bodhichitta. Right down there in the thick of things, we discover the love that will not die."

Capacitar is committed to walk in solidarity and compassion in places where pain and destruction have torn open the hearts of many. In May Joan Condon and Mary Litell, OSF, will work in East Timor, where most of the infrastructure of the country was destroyed in the violence in 1999. Mary will also start work in Papua New Guinea, and will return to Chiapas, where the violence continues. Pat Farrell, osf, and I will begin to work in Colombia with grassroots groups desirous of building a society of peace and nonviolence. I have also been invited to work in Delhi and Calcutta with street children and victims of AIDS. Closer to home, we will start bi-national work in the El Paso/Ciudad Juarez area of Texas, where many thousands of immigrants and refugee women are suffering traumatic stress, deeply affected by the policies of NAFTA and border politics. Our current trainings in Multicultural Wellness Education in California, Wisconsin and Kentucky are forming trainers with healing skills to reach out to the underserved in the US—the homeless, abused women and families, recovering addicts, prisoners, immigrants, refugees, gangs, and youth.

As Capacitar we invite you to walk with us in a spirit of solidarity and global outreach. From our own pain and the pain of those we accompany, we can together learn more about compassionate commitment and the awakened heart.

El Salvador
— Joan R. Condon

The Capacitar El Salvador team had a heavy schedule as they respond to the two earthquakes that have devastated much of El Salvador. (For more details see the enclosed letter.) The team of seven includes three psychologists-therapists, Irma Quijada, José Manuel Ramírez and Sister Patricia Farrell and paraprofessionals Leonor Sanchez, Mercedes Reyes, Mercedes Escobar and Sister Nancy Meyerhofer.

Team co-leader, Sister Nancy Meyerhofer writes, "We take portable massage tables to the emergency centers, wherever they may be set up. February has been a month of intensive work and it looks as if March will be also." The team uses a combination of body work, therapy and natural essences, an integral approach to trauma, working at the body mind-spirit level.

"In the ambience of constant tension and fear - everyone is still waiting for the big one - due to the many and strong aftershocks weeks after the quakes, we feel our work has been making a difference in the lives of some of the survivors. Hopefully, they can use the techniques we teach long after we have left their lives."

Transforming Death and Violence — Guatemala
— Patricia Mathes Cane

Pedro, Manuel and Luiza arrived late for our recent Capacitar workshop in Chichicastenango, tired and stressed from accompanying another exhumation of a clandestine grave in Quiche, the area most affected by 34 years of violence in Guatemala. Over the last few years the bones and remains of thousands of Mayans have been recovered, identified by their loved ones, and given proper burial. Nearly half of all the human rights violations, including over 344 massacres occurred in this area during the conflict, with the entire population traumatized by the violence. "Utz K'aslemal Salud Mental", a mental health and popular education program developed by Sisters Barbara Ford, SC, Virginia Searing, SC, and Mayan leaders, invited Capacitar to share holistic practices which we have used effectively with other traumatized communities in Central America.

The 32 participants in our 5-day Capacitar workshop were young grassroots mental health promotors from all parts of Quiche who have been working in the formation and multiplication of local mental health teams in over 120 communities. Their interest and enthusiasm was infectious as they discovered how Tai Chi, acupressure, massage and visualization could relieve aches, emotional pain and the many symptoms related to posttraumatic stress disorder. They spoke with great wisdom about how they could adapt the practices in their mental health programs with the many Mayan communties who continue to live in an atmosphere of violence generated by land disputes, political corruption, lynchings, and frequent bus accidents. On the opening day of the workshop a drunken bus driver plunged over a bridge in nearby Santa Cruz del Quiche killing 28 persons, some friends and relatives of participants.

The UN Truth Commission report, Memory of Silence, declared that over 200,000 persons were killed or disappeared in the genocide in Guatemala during the civil war. However in this time of "peace and democracy" political violence continue to increase with the congress controlled by a former dictator responsible for the death of thousands. This was apparent at our workshop in Chimaltenango sponsored by Centro Monsignor Gerardi (named for the bishop who was assassinated two years ago after promulgating the church's human rights report). The director of this center, Maria Estella, was brutally raped by three men several days before our workshop. As she shared her traumatic experience, she spoke of her commitment to continue to work for justice and peace in the face of this threat against herself and the organization she leads, which has been involved in legal cases for human rights.

It is a privilege to accompany and support the Mayan peoples of Guatemala who have suffered so greatly and are learning to transform death and violence, and who teach us so much with their wisdom, love and grace.

Belize after the Hurricane
— Patricia Mathes Cane

Belize, a country of 250,000 people, half under age 20, is one of the most culturally diverse places where Capacitar works. Mestizo, Maya, Creole, Garifuna, Central American immigrants, and peoples of European blood form the society of Belize. The people pride themselves on their rich culture and on their capacity to live and work together with respect and harmony. Last fall Hurricane Keith destroyed many homes, farming areas, banana and citrus crops, businesses, and several of the cayes popular with tourists, heavily burdening this country where over one third of the people live below the poverty level.

In such a small country everyone knows every one and there is a great interest in learning Capacitar practices. The Garifuna, Maya and Creole cultures in Belize have long traditions of healing based on energy practices. In a workshop last year in Dangriga, Garifuna women spoke of practices that their mothers and grandmothers used traditionally for cleansing and healing themselves and their families.

We recently facilitated Capacitar workshops in Belize City coordinated by Mary Lee D'Arche, RSM, Director of Help Age, an organization that works with the elderly who have few resources. The workshop involved training leaders who will offer an ongoing Capacitar program in Belize. A second workshop in Orange Walk sponsored by Muffles College and organized by Marilyn Panton, RSM, worked with teachers, staff and parents greatly affected by Hurricane Keith and the resulting floods in the area. Teachers spoke of the need to build self-esteem and to encourage positive attitudes and community in their students, who are the future of Belize. The growing drug trade and an increasing level of domestic violence have affected the lives of many Belizians, by nature a peaceful people.

During our visit we met with Joan Musa, wife of the Prime Minister and President of the National Women's Commission, and Agnes Flowers, Commisssion Coordinator, and Commisssioner Sylvia Sampson-Cayetano, to explore ways that Capacitar can be of support to the women of Belize. Plans are underway for future trainings for leaders as well as for women of the villages. We also discussed the possibility of collaborating with the Commission's work within the prisons using some of the Capacitar material on trauma healing. The people of Belize are characterized by energy and beauty, connection with nature and multiculturalism and have much to teach Capacitar in our growing work there.

Northern California — Solidarity with the Underserved
— Mary Litell, OSF

We are a small group, in a room that faces out toward trees, many of them blossoming in January! A winter-blue sky is the backdrop. It is easy, today, to sense the flow of life and our connection to this flow. At the end of this first weekend of a four-part training, the participants are sharing their plans for practicing the Capacitar exercises during this year of training.

Francisca and Luis work with families and with gang members who are spending time in the San Francisco Juvenile Hall. They explain that they will have to choose carefully the exercises they plan to teach because of restrictions there. Ken and Laura work with Pace é Bene, facilitating training programs in the spirituality and practice of active nonviolence. Their projects will be to share ways of embodying nonviolence with workshop groups and with the Pace é Bene Staff. Joan plans to use what she is learning in one-on-one fashion with patients in her regular practice, and perhaps in "five-minute moments" with the staff. Mary, also a nurse, is working with older persons with mental disorders who live in board and care homes. She is thinking of a volunteer workshop for clients. Joan will work with breath and finger-holds, Tai Chi and might do shoulder and hand massage. Maureen and Vicki will be working with poor and homeless men in an urban recovery program. Maureen intends to ask what they want to get out of the sessions. This work could help the men develop the habit of doing something postitive. Maureen and Vicki talk to our group about the value of a "River of Life" visualization and reflection with drawing. Gene also works with poor people, men and women, in a recovery program in a rural area. Right now they have a two-hour Capacitar session once a month which participants are helping to lead. He is planning to lead a lunchtime mini session during the week. Liz wants to work with a small group of women from an AA/Alanon group that she knows. She will make up a flier about self-empowerement through embodiment using the 12 Steps. Liz is thinking of using Tai Chi, finger holds, Salute to the Sun and visualization, but will let the group choose what they want for their focus.

Each of these participants comes from some experience of Capacitar work in Northern California or from a friendship with Capacitar trainers. They are so rich in a wide range of experience and in a daily practice of choosing life, wellness and transformation. As we closed the weekend in a circle of prayer for one another, and for the people with whom we share our lives, I am moved and grateful to be a part of this group. At the end of March we will gather again to learn from the experience each has had in carrying out their plans and to focus on trauma healing and transformation.