As an independence-loving, authority-questioning, full-blooded American, it is sometimes a stretch to see the world through my Thai neighbors’ eyes.  Some parts of community organizing that inherently make sense to me are counter-cultural to the women I’m working with.  Other aspects of it go against my own grain.

I heard recently that on the spectrum of individualism and collectivism, America ranks #1 for the former, and Thailand is at the extreme other end for the latter.  Thais also have a much greater trust and acceptance of the existing social hierarchy and authority figures.  Though protests and coups in recent years would seem to dispute this, this value is alive and well in my slum.

In many ways, the value of collectivism is really helpful in organizing people in the slums.  There is a loyalty not only to one’s own family but to neighbors and community.  The common good is emphasized more than personal achievement.  One example of this is my neighbor Gop.  She managed to complete college and secure a good job at a pharmaceutical company; she really doesn’t need to be living in a slum.  But instead she has stayed, in order to provide for her ailing and addicted parents and step-parents, and more recently, to give back to the community that helped raise her.  This kind of self-sacrifice goes against my American dream mentality.

I’ve never tried organizing in the States, but my guess is that it’s easier here for people to see the benefit of working for the good of a community, and of doing it together.  When I lived in the States, I hardly knew my neighbors, let alone talked with them about how to work together on issues in our neighborhood.

However, when it comes to the inevitable confrontation with authority figures, I just think that comes a lot easier to Americans.  The idea of working for positive change, even if that means going against someone with a title, just makes sense to me.  I don’t feel that I owe deference just because of someone’s position, nor that I need to wait for them to do the work that I could do, or at least give some formal sign of permission.  But this is where my neighbors and I differ the most.

We haven’t had any kind of open confrontation with authority yet in Phothong.  And maybe we won’t, at least nothing dramatic.  But even just the fact that a group of women is meeting together to talk about issues in the community and what they can do about it, and that this group usually has at most one community council member in it, has caused some tension.

Gop helped me lead our last house meeting.  A group of mothers and grandmothers were planning an activity for the kids over their summer break– a drug awareness afternoon for 6 to 12-year-olds.  Afterwards Gop and I debriefed the meeting.  A lot was said about the success of the meeting and the plan, but she also shared her insecurities.

“I felt like I led that really strongly,” she said.  “I wanted other people to talk, but they didn’t say much.”

“Why do you think that was?” I asked.

“Well, here’s what I think.  I think people came here and they saw that no one on the council was here and they started wondering ‘why am I at a meeting that wasn’t called by the council?  Why isn’t the council the group trying to help our kids?’”

The most interesting part of this, to me, is that the council is practically non-existent at this point.  It’s like the “emperor with no clothes.”  Everyone pays deference, but the president has long since fled because of debts to community members she couldn’t repay, and the vice-president recently abandoned her family to move in with another man.  Those remaining haven’t met together in months.  The group has a history of squandering government funds meant for community improvement.  And the list goes on.  Yet still, this is the group that the community has signed over responsibility for bringing about any kind of change in the community.

I tried to reflect back to Gop that I had talked with each of the women individually, and they definitely do have a desire to work together.  They knew coming into it that the group would be made up of people who really were concerned for the kids, not necessarily those who “should” be there, those with titles.

“Yeah, we shouldn’t have to just sit and wait for the council to do something,” she said.  “Hopefully once people see how well this program goes, once they see that we really are doing things that are good for the community, people will trust us more.  Hopefully others will join us who right now don’t know why we’re the ones trying to do something for the community.”

It’s exciting to see this hope growing in Gop and others.  I’m encouraged by Gop’s desire to learn and grow as a leader.  I do think that as she grows in her confidence to lead, even though she is not part of the council, that she will become less dominant in the meetings and more free to invite others’ input, trusting that the group is committed to each other and to acting for the good of the community.  It may go against the culture of the slum, but it has always been God’s intention that Phothong community members would be free to act, free to make choices about the environment their kids are growing up in.  I’m praying that this movement toward taking responsibility for their slum would grow and truly transform that place.