Vultures and Butterflies: Living the Contradictions Book

Susan Classen sums up many of the feelings I have been unable to name during my MCC term. While mine has been far less intense than was Classen's experience in the refugee camps during the El Salvadoran civil war, her observations are universal for anyone who feels strongly about accompanying the poor. Having lived in Honduras during a unique and tense time in its history -- the 2009 coup d'etat and its aftermath -- I can identify with the ubiquitous injustice, the nature of violence, and the power of coercion. Ultimately most middle class North American, no matter how much he or she sacrifices to live with the poor, end up having to "live out the contradictions" as Classen so succinctly puts it. We are part both part of the oppressors and the oppressed, both powerful and helpless. No matter what, after having lived in a neighborhood where poverty and violence pervades every day life for almost all of my neighbors, I, like Classen, will never be the same.