Letter from Carlos Cardenas Martinez in Nicaragua
December 10, 2008
Estad firmes y constantes creciendo en la obra del Senor siempre, sabiendo que vuestro trabajo en el Senor no es vano.
1ª Corintios 15, 58
Floods in Tabasco, Mexico:
An updated reflection on psychosocial work in emergencies
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Receive our warm greetings from Nicaragua!
This June we were in Tabasco briefly to support the joint efforts of the National Presbyterian Church of Mexico (INPM) and Presbyterian Disaster Assistance to assist hundreds of families with emotional recovery and material damages following the floods of November 2007.
Later, we joined a small team composed of Luke Asikoye, who is in charge of global response at PDA headquarters in Louisville; Sister Praxedis Suarez Surita, shepherd of the Church Assemblies of God; and Hermilo Llergo Gonzales, elder of a church in the INPM’s Presbytery Grijalva Usumacinta. Hermilo drove us through narrow streets bordered by immense piles of sand bags placed for kilometers along the Grijalva and Usumacinta Rivers. Residents of this city of more than a million inhabitants witnessed the uncontrollable fury of waters that brought the city to the brink of collapse for 15 days.
Our journey lasted a little more than an hour, and we arrived at a beautiful and green valley still flooded in its low parts, but with visible signs of having been submerged several months. Our guide stopped and proposed we visit the communities of Torno Largo and El Censo in the municipality of Tabasco Centro, which is near the main highway that leads to Jalapa.
We were welcomed in the first home by sister Natividad Martinez Valencia, whose family is composed of daughters, sons, parents, grandparents, grandsons and a son-in-law, all living under the same roof. When they saw brother Hermilo—also a member of the ACT-PDA recovery project team—the family welcomed us and invited us to come in.
We were introduced as PC(USA) visitors from North and Central America. The faces of our hosts lit up in surprise at our unusual visit. Everything in the home seemed to be paralyzed. Ordinary domestic works were stopped. The grandmother, who is blind, was seated on her rocking chair listening to our voices and perceiving them as a foreign presence in her home. People said that ours was their first visit since they’d participated in workshops and meetings with pastors who explained the recovery project. The workshops explained the Code of Conduct of the International Red Cross, which the INPM and PDA are committed within the ACT alliance. (Actions by Churches Together—a global of churches that does emergency response. PDA often works closely with ACT.) This was the first opportunity for the community to express their feelings and concerns about the transition from the emergency phase to the recovery phase.
After we explained why we were visiting, they humbly share the following: “Your visit encouraged us. it is a privilege for us. We consider it a blessing full of hope that Presbyterian mission gathered people from such diverse corners of the world so that we could share our fears and ask how we are going to recover from the floods.”
I continued, with difficulty, doing the translation, but I was sure of every word pronounced by Luke, and I suddenly felt that all the obstacles created by our cultural differences disappeared, and we had overcome the language barrier. I realized then how gratifying it is to serve as a bridge between persons who speak about blessings they have received from God. I admit that often it is not easy to hear God’s voice, even when we are acting in His name!
We asked them about recent events: How did they survive the emergency, and how were the coping with their fear of floods? What organizations helped them? How did they feel when they returned to their homes? What do they feel when something reminds them of the tragedy?
They could not answer and avoid sudden and uncontrollable tears, unexpected flashbacks, and a return of the emotions that they lived through during the days of the emergency. There were also tears of relief and gratitude to God for sending His grace and consolation through the disaster relief ministry.
The first aid workers to come were their own Presbyterian pastors from the Villahermosa Church Emergency Committee. They saved lives, provided shelter, warm sheets, food, and moral support amidst the chaos and despair. Losing one’s home, I think, is comparable to the feeling of being sent from paradise. You leave behind a whole life of sacrifices in that humble, submerged house.
Luke glanced at me, and I lowered my eyes as we listening to the sobs of sister Natividad Martinez. Something in my gut stopped me from translating: I felt like I was experiencing their recent wounds, as if I’d gotten under the skin of the suffering community.
Our conversation continued for a long time. Luke was visibly worried by the damage still visible in their home and asked the family what they were doing. They were cooking in a small rustic kitchen in the backyard, and the fire was extinguished.
Sister Natividad said that his family now gets its income by buying and selling animals for slaughter and selling of meat. “The work is hard,” she said, “and scarcely covers the cost of the basic needs of the family.”
After inviting us to share their traditional food and drinks, we prayed and said goodbye with emotion. Then we visited other families.
On the way back home I asked Luke if he’d seen that the pain and suffering was still visible in the faces of the people. Collective trauma can remain for years, marking people with its traces and making their existence painful. That’s why PDA and other ACT members assign a key role to the Community-Based Psychosocial Service Approach for helping people recover after emergencies. Luke made himself comfortable in his seat and said, “There is still a lot of work to do in increase awareness on this topic, since many people think that it is a useless expense to attend to the emotional needs of people impacted by disasters and conflicts.”
His concern made me reflect on recent emergencies in Latin America in which institutions are recognizing that psychology must base its work on a critical perspective, recognizing that the process of attending to emergency and disasters is deeply linked to the political, economic, and social realities of our societies.
The understanding of the disaster phenomena is reduced to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). So we see our call is to dismantle and examine the way people understand psychosocial approaches in post-disaster situations.
It is essential to rethink our presence in the field of disaster response, beginning with the rescue of the communities and continuing to work with the people until they understand what they’ve been through. For we understand that our fundamental work is cultural in nature; we engage in a cultural dialogue with the communities so that they can take control of the diverse aspects that affect their lives, including the risks they live with, the analysis of the socioeconomic conditions, the availability of resources, and the legacy that the community has already developed through its long process of historical organization.
The psychology of emergencies and disasters must be linked to community psychology. The community is the fundamental focus of attention. This is the only way that communities can assume the leading role in the protection of their own safety.
May the grace of our omnipotent God be with you,
Carlos Cardenas M
The 2009 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 282
