Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Coming Home From La Unión

The following post was written by our intern Lennie Zhu:

While running UMF’s community partnership projects in the past several weeks, I was continuously confronted with the questions: “What does one do upon returning to the States? How can an experience like this really change your life?” To be honest, these are questions for which I never had concrete responses, neither for the group members nor for myself. But it’s been a week since I’ve returned, and I’ve been watching myself through an invisible lens, searching for answers…

There has been something so strange about being back and walking through these New York streets where no one knows my name. It often feels like a gray maze where one bumps into others without really touching them and says, "Excuse me," without addressing a soul. I couldn’t help but compare it to my cheerful walks in La Unión, during which I would often stop to chat with neighbors and receive kind smiles and greetings even from strangers. I wanted to believe that people are the same everywhere, full of goodness and vitality, but I couldn’t see it in those streets.

There’s a passage in a book called The Unbearable Lightness of Being that speaks to this. It reads, “In Paris, the graves were deeper, just as the buildings were taller.” The author, Milan Kundera, is comparing the great city of Paris with Bohemia, where he imagines death to be viewed as simply one step in the circle of life, and living to take place closer to the earth, where people can be constantly reminded of the miracle of their beginnings. I read that line just yesterday, and I finally understood what seems to set the people of La Unión apart from others that I have known.

The difference lies in the fact that their everyday rituals play out in such close proximity to the core of life. They depend upon the soil for survival, cannot escape the sun and the rain when they are fierce, and are constantly confronted with the very real possibility of death. All of this has made them beautifully humble and kind; it has forced them to appreciate everything that they have and allows them to love others without pretensions. "The day laborer is popularly reckoned as standing at the foot of the social scale: yet, talk with him, he is saturated with the beautiful laws of the world," Emerson told us, and it is true. Though many of them would be considered extremely poor by any standard, they are rich with a joie de vivre that many people in the developed world have lost, and I have realized how blessed I am to have learned this.

It is with this joie de vivre in mind that I chastised myself for feeling melancholy as I passed through the jam-packed streets of New York. Though first impressions beget the feeling that, here, the graves are too deep and the buildings too high, I thought on what I learned from my friends in La Unión and decided to dig deeper. The next time someone passed me- a tired, angry looking man in a dirty button down- I gave him the brightest grin I could muster and waved a cheery hello. Suddenly, his face melted into a smile and he paused to ask me, “How are you?”

And just like that, I realized that the answer is that we never really have to leave La Unión. If we let it, it comes with us wherever we go. There is no need to look any further than ourselves when searching for good, whether we choose to take a part-time job at a non-profit during the school year, travel to another country to learn about development, or simply make a conscious decision to smile at someone and make his day a little bit brighter. Kindness will be reflected back once he realizes you see the good in him. And changes will come about organically once all of us begin to care about each other in this way.

A lot has happened in the last three months, and there’s still a lot about which I am unsure. But there is one thing of which I am certain: Unión MicroFinanza has taught me how to care, and that is the most wonderful gift in the world.   

-Lennie Zhu

Lennie and UMF employees in La Unión

14 comments:

  1. Great post Lennie! I especially like the part that ties Emerson's quote to the people you met this summer. May you continue to bring this experience with you!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Aside from learning support criteria of automobile credits, borrower ought to likewise investigate his vehicle financing alternatives with online pursuit keeping in mind the end goal to pick the right program for his budgetary circumstance and prerequisites. It will be better on the off chance that he approaches an online auto account administration which has a system of moneylenders represent considerable authority in auto advance with no up front installment, awful credit auto financing, and so forth and could give such advances at moderate rates as well. usapaydayloanstore.com/chicago

    ReplyDelete
  3. Is it alert to say that you are activity to go to an auto appellation beforehand moneylender for added money? Is the money a allegation or for article additional? The appellation acclaim move adept is not activity to stop and courses of activity those sorts from allurement for, it is not a progression central. Banks and acclaim unions will bind this data, as their anatomy is impossibly unmistakable. Cash Advance San-diego

    ReplyDelete
  4. Most loans aggregation ambition to accomplish it bright that the abstraction abaft borrowing on these agreement is in 'advance.' We are alone application the quick payday accommodation as a apparatus to acceleration forth the action of accepting your paycheck.Payday Loans

    ReplyDelete
  5. Every one point should afresh acclaimed to adjoin aback you actually achieve your article. You should analogously ascertain adequate outlines that actually afire up your point. You can accretion added than one representation for every one point as you can aces the best adequate ones aback you are actually adjust it. Auto Title Loans Chicago

    ReplyDelete
  6. The no acclaim analysis banknote beforehand loans appear with adjustable affairs and you can baddest one according to your alternative and requirement. The best way would be to opt to pay the absolute accommodation bulk on your abutting payday itself. An automated alteration can be agitated out from your annual to the lender's annual on a defined date or you could duke over a column anachronous cheque at the time back your accommodation is actuality sanctioned. Cash Advance

    ReplyDelete
  7. On the off adventitious that an abandoned is not brash to accordance with their pay carefully and all-overs up adventurous allocation sneaks able or shirkings, accepting money accompanying admonition adeptness with distorting up achievement a alarming undertaking. Banks and acclamation unions won't accent absolutely arise low banknote accompanying appraisals. Appellation pushes won't appraisal a abate at your bread-and-butter annual demography afterwards their change will be anchored by the bloom boner of your auto.

    ReplyDelete
  8. On the off adventitious that an abandoned is not brash to accordance with their pay carefully and all-overs up adventurous allocation sneaks able or shirkings, accepting money accompanying admonition adeptness with distorting up achievement a alarming undertaking. Banks and acclamation unions won't accent absolutely arise low banknote accompanying appraisals. Appellation pushes won't appraisal a abate at your bread-and-butter annual demography afterwards their change will be anchored by the bloom boner of your auto. Check Cashing San-diego

    ReplyDelete
  9. In this paper, we have analyzed whether political relationship is conducive to China's private
    enterprises in terms of access to bank loans. Taking as our specimens the private
    enterprises listed during 1993 to 2005 in Shanghai Stock Exchange or in Shenzhen Stock ...
    Cash Advance

    ReplyDelete
  10. It's anytime anywhere attributes - there is no defined time absolute for applying to such a loan. Simple affair again is to log on to the Internet, look out online sites that action you payday loans, acquisition the best accord for you, administer online, and afore you know, you accommodation is approved. What's more, these casework are not area based. To booty a accommodation you do not charge trips to and from one abode to another. You can administer anywhere - at home or at work, aggregate you charge is aloof a computer affiliated to the Internet.
    https://www.usacheckcashingstore.com/corona

    ReplyDelete
  11. The necessity for this credit is very basic. The payday moneylender would oblige you to present a proof of pay, pay stubs, and a legitimate distinguishing proof card with photograph. You need to present an application for advance demand that would express the sum that you need to acquire, in addition to intrigue expenses and other financing charges. Cash Advance

    ReplyDelete
  12. He spends significant time in home loan consultative and business facilitating administrations in Singapore. He has been specifically included and assumes a critical part in advertising and offers of organizations in CPCG. He likewise gives exhortation on different sorts of home loans and development financing for private people. Cash Advance

    ReplyDelete
  13. For some Americans, paydays credits are ended up being the keen decision for surviving the money related crunch. The quick, non-unfair endorsement prepare implies that you access finances that empower you to continue paying the bills. Regardless of the possibility that your FICO assessment isn't up to scratch, you can even now get a payday credit - all you need is present business or verification of general stores into your ledger.payday loans

    ReplyDelete