This Friday, January 15th, Jim Lochhead will be sharing on his experience interning in rural El Salvador this past summer. Working with a small capacity building NGO, Voices on the Border, Jim did a qualitative research study (stories, interviews, observations) on the effects big agriculture sugarcane production is having on rural Salvadorans. For three months he lived in a community of 125 families, slept in a hammock, and babysat one year old Samira in-between conducting interviews. Ten years after the signing of the ‘free trade’ agreement CAFTA-DR and in a climate of extreme violence, Jim would like to share a bit on the reality of the Salvadoran people from his perspective while investigating sugarcane.
“Since starting my masters studies in International Development and Social Change at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts, I have come to appreciate just how much of a child of St. Louis I am at heart. I graduated from De Smet and then St. Louis University and have had the good fortune of studying abroad in El Salvador with the Casa de la Solidaridad, living in Ecuador for a year with Rostro de Cristo and traveling to Kenya, India, Peru, and Nicaragua. I am also very fortunate to have lived in an intentional community, Claver House, in North St. Louis City for three years. Of my accomplishments, dancing on time (mostly) to salsa would be one of my biggest.”
Join us FRIDAY 15 January! Potluck begins at 6:00 p.m., and Jim starts sharing at 6:45. We gather at Sophia House, 4547 Gibson Avenue in Forest Park Southeast. Please park at the west end of Gibson or on Taylor Avenue, or on the 4400 block of Chouteau.
Dr C! It’s been a while!