Gracias

Where to begin? Perhaps where I am. Which happens to be Philadelphia at the moment. After a whirlwind few weeks of final planning for and celebrating the Casa’s big Jubilee birthday party, I jumped on a plane for the AFSC Corporation meeting, and will head up to NYC tomorrow to watch Alberto run the marathon. A few hours after he finishes we jump back on a plane, separate planes actually since we couldn’t get the same flight, and get back to Mexico late Sunday night with just enough time to collapse before getting up for work the next day. Why do we do this to ourselves?

Well, mostly because it is worth it. The Casa’s Jubilee Celebration was wonderful, well worth the months of organizing and stress. Over 100 people came throughout the weekend, many of them people who had known the Casa in a different era – the 1960s workcamps, the 1970s youth group, the 1980s refugee program – and who credited the Casa with the formative experience of their lives. Jean Duckles, who ran the Casa for 30 some years with her husband Ed and who is now over 90, unveiled the new plaque out front dubbing us a Centro de Paz y Entendimiento Internacional. The Casa’s Mexican Jovenes group, who are all now in their 40s and 50s, came and spoke about the friendships they had formed that changed their lives. Mexican voices for peace helped us understand the realities of conflict in the country, even as we watched Oaxaca convulse into violence. And countless friends of the Casa came to share in the warmth, the memories, the laughter, music, food, and piñatas. And the Noche de Talentos – complete with singing, skits, dancing, and of course lucha libre - will definitely go down in history in the Casa. It was a Jubilee by all accounts.

Still not ready to stop after three days celebrating in the Casa, a group of 17 of us went to visit the small pueblo of Vicente Guerrero in the state of Tlaxcala, where the Casa supported a workcamp service project some 20 years ago. From that project grew a spirit of community service which took root and led to self-organized projects to provide clean water, primary and secondary education, agricultural innovations, and most importantly a remarkable structure of cooperation and collective responsibility. You cannot help but be there and feel that another world truly is possible. We were welcomed warmly, fed and hosted, shown the simplest and deepest hospitality and friendship, and thanked for the Casa’s role in the history of the community. We were guided through a traditional sweat lodge experience, emerging from the small clay hut feeling cleansed and released. I couldn’t help but feel that whatever contribution the Casa made to Vicente Guerrero in the past, they were the ones teaching us now.

So here I am in a Philadelphia hotel room still trying to process it all, being swept up already into the next meeting, the next cause, the next phase of work. But not without saying gracias to all those who made the last week a remarkable experience, who reminded me what community really means, and who continue to make it all worth it.