Hemos sufrido bastante. I am learning how to live simply, how to appreciate the little things. Although his work in the CPRs differs substantially from my work as a human rights accompanier in a community of returned refugees, I can relate to many of his experiences and reflections. Falla writes about his amazement at the complete generosity of the people of the CPRs, their eagerness to give all of what they have to him when they have next to nothing. I often wonder why it has taken living with the poorest of the poor to learn what true giving is.
Accompaniment literally means to walk with or alongside people.
Walking with the people of Santa Elena is my attempt to understand their struggle as Mayan campesinos. Theirs has been a sixteen-year struggle for physical survival, and also a struggle to maintain some level of human dignity in a society and world that tells them they are expendable. Accompaniment is also an act of friendship, and ultimately, a mechanism for building solidarity. Accompaniers also can play an important role in listening to and transmitting the stories of those voices who might not otherwise be heard. We have suffered enough.