Emotional First Aid
Divinity does nothing on accident.Monday, April 19th, I found myself in Berkley, working on projects at cafes, running into Dark Odyssey friends, and reconnecting with someone dear to me. Its dinnertime, and my friend Warren asks if I'll be grabbing a bite here, or back in San Francisco. I say either could work... and after some indecisiveness, he decides to join me for dinner.The Thai place was closing, so we go for option 2, a local burrito joint. As he grabs his food to go, mine already arrived and consumed, two fellow seminarians in his program arrive. Well, what a coincidence. Turns out they are telling tales of their recent trip to Haiti doing Emotional First Aide and Trauma Response training... I am captivated. I stay. Here is a piece of their tale:"If you can't feed one hundred people, then feed just one"-Mother TheresaSo began the journey of four women and two denominations to the island nation of Haiti. 6 months ago there had been a plan to go out and teach emotional first aid classes to a small group of ministers out there who wanted such knowledge from fellow United Church of Christ and United Methodist Church (UCC and UMC) leaders. It was a good plan. They set the training for late January.The earthquake hit. Flights were cancelled. But the need was greater that ever.The first week of April the trip was on again. They arrived expecting 30 people, as first planned, at the church that still stood in Port Au Prince, brought together by the folks at CONASPEH- Le Conseil National Spirituel des Eglises d´Haïti.There were 350.90 degrees. 90 percent humidity. One fan. One translator.But the need was great and the population was hungry for knowledge. For answers. So they took the plan, expanded it... because half way through the first day they realized they were trying to teach emotional first aide to folks who themselves were deep in shock and trauma themselves. Teaching these skills is enough of a challenge when the students are not asking, with fear in their eyes, "how can we have God not do this to us again?" Caring for trauma is different when the trauma is held by the caretakers.In grief, they said, you can not offer false hope. You can not say it will not happen again, because that can not be gauranteed. Nor can we say "I don't know," because then you are incapable of providing them information, and ears shut to future wisdom from your mouth.Instead they urged those who suffered to pray. Urged them to work together. Prayed side by side with them.One of the tools they offered was the Five Finger Holds to Manage Emotion. When our body faces trauma, we are overwhelmed by five major emotions: Grief, Fear, Anxiety, Anger and being "Not-Enough".Stress: A body's reaction to outside eventsEmotional: Reactions beyond the core centeredness of the body, living outside our skin.Trauma: Being beyond our body's ability to cope with or process it, whatever it is.Thus, the tool they offered, was that when stress builds up to a point of being Emotional and leads to Trauma in some form... breath. Assign one of each of your fingers one of the emotions above. Say it is Anxiety. Breathe. Grab your middle finger, assigned as "Anxiety". Think "this is Anxiety." Breathe. Fell the pulse of that middle finger. Put attention and intention into that feeling, be with it. Know it is there. Become aware of it, without needing to dive into it lest you so choose to. Once calm, and aware of that emotion fully, pray. Next time you feel anxiety... repeat. Eventually grabbing the middle finger will create calm and awareness in quick reaction.Trauma on a National Scale is a Catastrophe.They spoke of singing as a tool for prayers.They bore witness to the fact that in times like these, in Haiti, LITERALLY all you can do is pray.300 vials of anointing oil had been consecrated in California... at the event they handed them out to the pastors, annointing them- and in turn the pastors annointed others. This was a liturgical act that mirrored the prayers of so many- don't give us hand-outs. Give us the ability to help ourselves.They pray out loud in Haiti. Praying out loud, in my own opinion, does many things. It provides us with an ability to let others know we need help. It lets the divine hear our same prayer, over and over, as thousands echo that same voice to the heavens. It allows for subconcious action to start taking place. It creates power, and bonds within community. It creates a loudspeaker to God.Piete a Piete. Little by Little. The work is being done in Haiti, little by little.Instead of building and running, these minsters, pastors, and the folks at CONASPEH are saying they are making a covenant for the long haul. The CONASHEH logo is an upside down tree. Because when we plant our roots in heaven, we bear fruit on earth.I plant my roots, and watch the world flourish... even amidst trauma.We can not gaurantee there will not be another earthquake. But we can make covenants to be there for those we love the world over. We can offer solidarity and dignity instead of only offering charity that we do with one eye closed, turning from the pain. We can bring what we have to the table, when we can, where we can.And when our buildings fall around us, like they did for the nursing students in January in the COASPEH building- we can sing until they find us.What does your voice sing?What do your prayers carry?I could speak of other topics they spoke on... on the sheet cities (for a tent is a luxury in Port Au Prince), on the White Oases of standing hotels, on the poverty and HIV crises that are hand and hand with the detestation, on the fact that one man they met said:"The US has been here and continues to be here and continues to do nothing for the people. The UN is the same."I could speak of the kids who protested the US army out of their school when the US Army came in to "help" by taking over any buildings still standing and forcing children onto the street. Of the hummers on the road. Of women's place in Haiti and the fact that in all of the country there are only 6 female recognized ministers...But instead know that two weeks ago, in Port Au Prince, in a packed church- a woman named Jerri from California blessed the bread for communion before over 500 people packed body to body. That women sang prayers to the sky. That the UMC and UCC are making a covenant with their fellow folk of faith in a hot place to Stay, Pray, and Pay to let Haitians rebuild themselves.And we can tell their stories, and pass them on. Why pray silent, when we can all pray, all tell the tale of four women who went before 300 hungry souls in 90 degree heat and 90 percent humidity to help, for one moment, heal the traumas of some. Because when we can not feed the world, we feed one.