During her term as an MCC service worker, Kholiwe Vundla worked as a paralegal assistant with the Deborah Program in Siguatepeque, Honduras.
“Si esta mesa hablara, a saber la cantidad de historias que podría contar.” (If this table spoke, who knows the amount of stories it could tell) said my host sister-in-law during my last dinner with them, reflecting on the past two years of endless dinners, lunches, celebrations, and goodbyes around the home-made wood dinner table in the home of my host family.
Kholiwe Vundla with Rosa Delmis Funez, Guillermo Fajardo, and the rest of her host family in Siguatepeque, Honduras.
As my two-year term in Siguatepeque, Honduras comes to an end , I’ve been processing the amount of tables that have given me the privilege of joining in communion, to hear the humble stories they’ve had to offer. In Proyecto Aldea Global (Global Village Project), an MCC Honduras partner since 2008, my work for the past two years has been in a program called Programa Deborah. Our work is spread over 23 cities in the region, where we have formed partner groups made up of community leaders from schools, churches, health clinics, groups for the elderly, support groups for those living with HIV, and other special groups. The aim of the project is to work with community leaders that work directly with victims of different human rights violations (i.e., domestic violence, child abuse, sexual abuse, elder abuse, abuse to special groups, etc.) in order to prepare them, both empathetically and intellectually, to be able to better receive and work with these victims. I was directly involved in helping with psychosocial trainings while others facilitated legal training. Once a month we would visit each partner group, building relationships and engaging in joint discussions about topics such as self-esteem, teenage pregnancy, counseling, family therapy, resilience and self-care, while the legal team tackled topics such as human rights, rights of the elderly, children, women, those living with HIV, etc. I use the word “training” loosely because that would imply our expertise in the topics that were discussed, when in reality we were building on the strong knowledge base that was ever present in each partner group. Our role could be better described as providing tools, techniques and technical knowledge that would assist each partner in the work that they had already been doing long before we arrived.
The most meaningful moments of my experience have been when the training sessions came to a close, the presentations packed away, and the conversations began to flow in their most genuine and natural form. In those moments the partners we work with became more than just names and institutions. Relationships have been the most integral part in the joint effort to create more just communities. When one´s investment involves direct relationships, the stories and the cases we hear have faces that accompany them, and the cause becomes more personal.
Kholiwe Vundla, an MCC service worker with the Deborah Program, facilitates a closing ceremony in November 2017 to complete the training process for a group of program participants who are members of the Taulabe community, Comayagua department, Honduras. MCC photo/Matthieu Dobler Paganoni
When I view these two years in retrospect, I can’t help but see the big picture in all of the conversations shared with those with whom I have had the privilege of crossing paths. Every story I have received is a gift born from the relationships built. The tables I’ve sat at have become an imperative part of my journey here, because they are the place when the facilitator becomes the participant, where we trade our mouths for ears and are graced with the experiences of those who have been working for justice in their own communities long before we arrived, and will continue to do so long after the end of this program. Tables have been the places where hidden stories and pains have been brought to light and dusted off, brought to shine again.
If these tables spoke, how many stories could they recount of the multitudes that have had the pleasure of communing at their thresholds? If these tables spoke, could they recall all the festivities they have hosted; in celebration of new years of life, of new welcomes, of new births, of heart-wrenching goodbyes? If these tables spoke, how much compiled advice could they share from their generations of practice in the art of consoling, counseling, conversing, and recollecting?
“Si esta mesa hablara, a saber la cantidad de historias que podría contar.”