Revisiting a Samarnon's Pride in the highlands of Peru...  page2
(by Addi Batica)

May 16, Sunday.  We were late in arriving in Lima, but not too late.  That night, we were scheduled to meet the “Lima Cadre” at ICA headquarters for a friendly get-together, at 7:00 p.m.  We arrived at headquarters before 7:00, by then our old guard, colleagues we’ve known for 25 years had already gathered:  Alfredo Castillo Diez and his wife, Adela Anderson; Luz Marina (Lucy) Aponte Galvez, Yolanda Yanase Morita, Elena Miura.  Another member of the cadre (Vicky Carpio) could not join us, as she was headed towards Miami to visit relatives.

Together with the younger ICA staff like Gloria Santos, her husband Pedro, and Jesusa Aburto – we literally just spent over two hours reminiscing and reflecting on the last 25 years, but focusing on the time period when Elsa and I were in Peru – March 31-November 4, 1979.  Alfredo, Adela, Lucy, Yolanda (and her ex-boyfriend Isaac Flores Calderon), and Vicky hosted a despedida party for us before our departure for the U.S. in 1979, and it was quite uplifting to see the same old faces waiting for our return – 25 years later.  Such are the ties that bind us to Peru.

We talked about the early days, our trials and tribulations, the many hurdles we had to overcome.  Yes, those were exciting (and trying) days, when we were younger and dreamed big dreams for Peru.  Those were also times of uncertainties, as back in 1979 Peru was transitioning to civilian rule after being ruled for 11 years by a military junta.  I still remember the months of July-August, 1979 – when Lima was rocked by confrontations between protesters and the military.  And how can I ever forget the month-long teachers’ strike and the general strike in support of the teachers – a strike that paralyzed the entire country?  Oh, for a country that reminded me of home!

And yet, in spite of the trials and tribulations, our Peruvian colleagues simply stuck it out.  We communicated with them through letters and postcards, back in those days when there was no e-mail.  And then communication between us simply ground to a halt.  Until a friend of ours (Dick Alton, former project director of our Philippine pilot project) visited Minneapolis in the mid-90s and told us about the many accomplishments that Azpitia did.  The news touched a nerve in us, and from that point on – Elsa and I began plotting our return to Peru.  For 25 years, Peru was always on our minds, because of the many positive memories we had of the country.

Then came my toying with plans to retire in the Philippines, which came to me around 1997.  Since then, I’ve been focusing on it, and have promised myself that, should I retire in the Philippines, I’ll live in a rural setting and try to replicate what I did in Peru.  What dreams!  And yet…why not?  I’m getting old, have always had a passion for grassroots work, and rather than wait until I’m 65, might as well take the plunge and do something significant, not for myself but for others.  Be a model like the village of Azpitia, show folks that there’s hope in spite of the many challenges we have to face in life.

As the night dragged on, and as our Peruvian colleagues bade us farewell and good luck, I shared my plans with them:  “I’ll be retiring in the Philippines.”  There were smiles on their faces.  And then the touching question:  “Are you coming back?”  My response was “Yes, I’ll be back.”  “How soon?  We hope it won’t take you another 25 years!”  It felt good to realize that they missed us…just as we have missed them.

Yes, Peru…I’ll be back.  Hasta la vista, baby!

May 17, Monday.  Our flight was not scheduled to take off until 11:30 p.m. that night, so we literally had an entire day for last minute sightseeing and shopping.  All I can say is we did many things, but I’m not sure if they’re worth mentioning here.  As far as I was concerned, my mission had been accomplished:  we made it back to Peru and visited our beloved village of Azpitia.  The village was the only thing that mattered to me.  The tour of Lima, the visits to Cuzco and Macchu Picchu were just icing on the cake.  My visit would still have been complete even if I only made it to Azpitia.  That we made it to Cuzco and Macchu Picchu was a consolation prize.  It’s funny – during our entire stay in Peru in 1979, visiting those favorite tourist destinations never occurred to me.  Well…  Peru’s famous tourists spots were never my “Gold Watch” (a la “Pulp Fiction”), but Azpitia has always been.

POSTSCRIPT

I would like to believe that what I did in Peru really made a difference, that it was the blood, sweat, and tears that I shed which made the Azpitia “miracle” possible.  The locals used to say during the early days of the project, Lo imposible es posible.  “The impossible is made possible.”  On the other hand, I’d much rather believe that the people did it themselves, that they won the game, simply because they were coachable.  Comparing my Cebu and Peru experiences, I must say that perhaps, I even worked harder in our Cebu project.

Hence, here are a few of my insights, which I hope will serve as guideposts in my future endeavors:

Ø       Development is not possible without the active participation of the local folks (the so-called “beneficiaries”, although I’d try to avoid calling them as such, because they’re really partners.)  As miserable as a person’s situation may be, nothing can be done if that person is not willing to be helped.  It’s just like the curative process – the patient must cooperate and have the will to get well.  We are no longer in the age of ministering, we are in the age of development and empowerment.

Ø       Symbol is still the key to change.  The spirit life of the community does matter, and I’m not talking “churchy” stuff here, either.  A strong cultural base, a strong sense of identity, history, community myths and legends, and common ground – are the glue that holds a community together.  Call them “values”, etc., but it takes more than plain material benefits to really catalyze change.  People must strive for something more profound, be moved by something more profound.  And again, I’m not talking religion here, because in Peru – our approach was totally secular, even if the village was predominantly Catholic.

I must admit that fostering community “cohesiveness” will be a major challenge in the Philippines in areas that are overcrowded or worse, are chaotic.  But then again, community “cohesiveness” is a major factor in development.  In the case of Azpitia, there was a time when that part of Peru was just emptiness, just a vast expanse of desert, until 68 poor families from Lima decided to move south, carretelas, beds, pots, pans and all.  After they found that conditions in the big city were unbearable, they journeyed together to found a new community.  I see in this experience the “Exodus Dynamic”.  Fr. John Dunne (U of Notre Dame, Indiana) in his “The Way of All the Earth”, puts it simply:  great historical movements and transformations are characterized by a passage through time and space.  Something just happened to the participants in their journey through time and space.

Examples:  the Exodus from Egypt, Joseph and Mary’s flight to Egypt, Jesus’ and his disciples’ “walkabout”, culminating with the Via Dolorosa.  Now, these are biblical illustrations.  But here are non-biblical or non-Judaeo-Christian examples:  Mohammed’s flight from Mecca to Medina (the hegira), Mao’s “Long March” to Yenan, Mahatma Gandhi’s 200-mile hike to the Indian Ocean to make salt (he started with only a few walkers, and pretty soon – an entire nation got in the act); the civil rights marches of the 1960’s in the U.S.

Perhaps I’m just stating the obvious, but for genuine change to happen, the “internal space” must change before the “external”.  In all of the above examples, the participants first had to decide to embark on a self-transforming journey before they created something new.  As they marched, they were slowly transformed, the vision of one became the vision of all.  Everybody transcended himself/herself and became focused on something that was greater than themselves.  It wasn’t like somebody just came down from heaven and presto – everybody was set free.  (That’s why the idea of government or other entities simply stepping in and bringing in all kinds of “benefits” like water, sewage disposal, housing, shops, etc. seldom works.  I call this the “shopping mall” or “reservation” approach.  It’s still a dole-out, but a higher level dole.  And it’s happening in some depressed areas in the Philippines, where the “providers” look at it as mission work or ministry.  In the end, the residents simply wait for the “goodies” to arrive.  Such an approach only fosters more dependency or mendicancy.)  In the process of genuine liberation, everybody has to take part.

In the case of the Azpitianos, their elders journeyed together and decided to state a claim on a portion of the desert and eventually transformed it.  It was public land which the national government was more than willing to “deed” to those poor families (there was really nothing on the land).  When I do return to the Philippines, I might have to do many things differently, as the Peruvian experience is quite unique.  All my learnings about development, accumulated over a period of 30-something years – will surely be put to the test in Samar.  When I was in Chicago (1977-79), I spent most of my time studying development models from around the globe; there were at least 150 of us in the program (from 35 countries), we always had lively discussions on everything from Ujamaa (African socialism, Tanzania), Nava Gram Prayas (New Village Movement, modeled on Gandhi’s earlier efforts), South Korea’s village movement (Saemaul Undong), Kenya’s Harambee (Pull Together), and Peru’s Accion Comunitaria and S.I.N.A.M.O.S.   I literally had theory coming out of my ears!  However, when all is said and done, it’s still the praxis and the results that matter.

Whether I’ll succeed in Samar remains to be seen.  I do know that I can’t work miracles, and that people have to do their share as there won’t be any ministering.  Honestly though, my community organization skills have gotten rusty after all these years of working for the State of Minnesota.  I might even need a refresher course.  Like I promised my Peruvian friends, I’ll be back pretty soon.  I can learn from them, and they can learn from us.  The task ahead of us is truly immense, it’s enough to scare all of us out of our wits.  But perhaps if we could just start small, build on one success after another – some things will change.

_______________

[*Adelbert “Addi” Batica is from Basey, Samar. He is currently a Program Manager for the Office of Equal Employment Opportunity of the Minnesota Department of Transportation.  He is active in the local Filipino community in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis-St. Paul, and is a former coordinator of the Philippine Study Group of Minnesota, an advocacy group of Filipinos, Fil-Ams, and Americans interested in U.S.-Philippine relations, human rights, poverty and landlessness issues, and sustainable development.  In May of this year, Addi and his wife Elsa, who is from Abuyog, Leyte, made a sentimental visit to the village of Azpitia, 90 kms. south of the Lima, capital of Peru, after a 25-year absence.  They left Peru in November, 1979, after spending six months of doing community work in Azpitia, a hillside community overlooking the Mala Valley. Addi was the first project director of the Azpitia Human Development Project, an experiment in "total community development".  The pilot project, launched in June, 1979, attempted to address issues in the areas of health, education, environment, agriculture, and livelihood.  Azpitia was the perfect "laboratory" for many of the approaches and methodologies developed by the Instituto de Asuntos Culturales (Institute of Cultural Affairs), a sister organization of the Ecumenical Institute of Chicago.  Elsa and Addi Batica had just completed a two-year work-study program in community organization and revitalization at the Ecumenical Institute-Chicago when they volunteered for an assignment in South America. When they returned to Azpitia in May, 2004, they found a community that had been transformed -- for the better.  Azpitia has become a symbol of hope for other depressed communities, and it could serve as an inspiration for many villages in the Philippines.  Throughout his 6-month sojourn in the highlands of Peru, Addi drew inspiration from the words of the great Indian poet and contemporary of Mahatma Gandhi, the Nobel Laureate, Rabindranath Tagore:  "Unless the villages come alive, the world does not have a chance."]

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