The usefulness of what is

"I hate to do this, but we only have 10 minutes left!"

"No you don't, it's your job!"

My job this week was keeping us on schedule, making sure we were well fed (with the support of Maria Teresa and Flor, who helped prepare for weeks), and calling our group on and off of our mini bus every day. It was exhausting, but rewarding. I felt comfortable in my role, despite all the running around and details to keep track of. Give me a trip to plan and a clipboard any day, and I'm your person!

Being host means being a container for an experience, providing spaces. It reminds me of a poem that Debra shared with us once by Lao Tzu:

Thirty spokes are joined together in a wheel

but it is the center hole

that allows the wheel to function.

We mold clay into a pot

but it is the emptiness inside

that makes the vessel useful.

We fashion wood for a house

but it is the inner space

that makes it livable.

We work with the substantial,

but the emptiness is what we use.

The usefulness of what is

depends on what is not.

When our visitors from Bread Loaf Peace Literacy Network and Estrella del Mar arrived this week, the "what is" was ready to be filled. Depending on who you ask, it was an obra that was in the works since 2014, or 2015, or May 2017. We worked on it in concentric circles of objectives, content, participants, costs, funding, materials, scheduling, transportation, food, flights, lodging and buses. We revisited what had been done many times, making small changes and incorporating more details as we went along. 

Speaking for Anne, me, when I got involved as host of the week, this meant weekly meetings not only with Rich (and often Jenny), but also with ConTextos's administration team to make adjustments as we went along. I did my best to keep our communications team informed, but I think for future events this can be more intentional and go even further than Rebecca designing event invitations, posting pictures on our organization's social media, and Ale inviting relevant partners to the conference. Jenny was our representative from the programming team, supported by Carlos and Jackie who invited our teachers and Zoila who reminded us to keep things simple and keep our objectives in mind. As the week took shape, I did my best to designate clear roles for other participating members. However, as the week went on, they often anticipated gaps and took the initiative. For example, the role of translator changed often. They helped enormously to identify and address the needs that emerged during the week, like where to pick up Berfalia on the way to Perquín or giving Lorena a place to stay. The devil is in the details, and everyone stepped up. This paragraph is certainly not exhaustive in terms of the work of our team! 

Having the big things well defined and having several weeks of planning to coax out the other details, like evaluations for the teacher conference, as we talked through the week, made things flow much easier. For future conferences, I think it's important to have visiting participants and flights defined at least a month in advance. Speaking as host and host organization, the uncertainty in numbers and logistics made it difficult to "mold our pot" in terms of creating working teams and making arrangements for each visitor.  I think this will also help bring down what visitors spend on flights! Rex commented that there was very little time to plan for class in Borja; having the certainty of who is participating would create the possibility for communication before landing in the country. 

Using Lao Tzu's metaphor, we had a pretty awesome pot ready for this week. Today, just a day after the action, this is the sensation I have. This week, we need to meet as a ConTextos team to evaluate the other details and what we've achieved as an organization and teacher trainers. One of us will post the summary of that meeting here. 

As usual, thank you for your hearts and believing in people.