Progress (from Him)

Well. We’ve been on-site nine months now (not counting the first two months of training). Working in the schools has been great for us: It kept us busy, helped us meet a lot of the families in the area, gave us a way to reach out to kids, and helped us assess what the needs of the community are.

Now, however, while the schools are still nice and we do a great deal of work there, we are increasingly busy with other projects. I’ve already reduced my teaching days to three per week – easy for me, since the school just switched to a computer program for scheduling classes… and I was the only one ready to tackle that… so I guess another project is helping some teachers figure out the computer scheduling program. I still teach all the classes that I previously took four days to tackle; I just don’t take break periods now. She’s going to reduce her teaching days from four to three next school year, as well.

So what have we been up to lately? As for me:
Working with two donor organizations and two private (wealthy) donors to complete the computer lab at the secondary school, including bringing the internet and getting a generator to deal with the once (or twice, or thrice) -per-week blackouts that occur;

Bringing internet to the local NGO;

Working with one of the same private donors on sports equipment, including a fully-concreted basketball court;

Providing consultation services to an NGO in the capital city, giving lectures at one conference and planning for another;

Giving targeted IT classes during the holidays, providing support to new computer owners and teachers;

Looking at providing consultation for a hospital in the regional capital, as well as one of the main court-remanded youth homes in the country, supporting mental health services (I understand that there are one, possibly two Ph.D.s in Counseling/Clinical psych in the country, and I may be the only M.A.);

And of course, teaching IT twice a week and Guidance & Counseling once a week to grades 7, 8, and 9 at the local secondary school.

As for her:
Working with small groups in remedial reading at three of the four local primary schools;

Connecting local youth to youth in the States through pen-pal letters;

Running regular staff-development sessions at the same schools;
Providing computer instruction at the one primary school that has computers (it has 5, to be exact);

Running holiday lessons in literacy and computers for primary schoolers, and literacy for secondary schoolers;

Running a pilot library at one primary school, with plans to expand to the other two (more on this later);

And we are working together on some things as well:

Pushing farmers in the area to grow crops that do well on the international market as opposed to the depressed local market (this is in tandem with a large, government-funded organization based out of the capital city – connecting local growers to international markets is a big bite for two volunteers to chew);

Planning a month-long set of summer lessons that will grow on the small project we ran last year, complete with funding, crafts, sports, pairing with local businesses, etc.;

And, something we’re pretty passionate about right now: taking the local hospital playground, currently old and, well, defunct; making it operational, drastically expanding it, and including benches and shade for parents. We’re calling it a “family-friendly area”, basically almost a park. We’ve already garnered support from a number of donors – local business, national corporation, wealthy donor, and we’re chasing grant money as well. Sandbox, swingsets, slide, etc. I can’t even imagine how this sounds from your side of the screen right now, but remember: The main public spaces are rum shops, which are not exactly family-friendly, and churches, which only fill up once a week (at most). The playground was a big deal 15 years ago, but now only the merry-go-round still works (barely).


But that’s all still in the works for us. My big project, revolving around computers and internet access in the community, is just now starting to chase money. Our third big project, however, the one She is heading, is well underway. I’m talking now about the library project. First, you have to understand that a great number of communities in the world have nicely-constructed buildings, many of them even with books, put together by volunteers like us and intended as school or community libraries. Most of these buildings remain unused; many have fallen into disrepair. Between this and the current ease and relative low cost of dropping a satellite dish into a community for internet access, libraries are very much out of vogue in development work.

But. Many of those libraries were put up by volunteers who decided for their communities that libraries were needed (just as many volunteers decide for their communities, now, that internet is required). A grant was written, building constructed, and people went along because, well, the volunteer was often white and Western, spoke eloquently, and spent grant money locally. It’s a winning combination.

To be honest, the big project I worry about most is my IT infrastructure improvement. A huge part of it is making it income-producing; otherwise, everything will slowly break and in two years we’ll have a beautiful computer graveyard. In 20 years, I see IT development being looked at the same way libraries are now: Well-intended, but not well-thought-through projects. If it doesn’t make money (and a decent amount, at that), how will computers be repaired and replaced? How will the monthly net bill be paid? Where will you get the staff to run it, people with the expertise necessary to keep a network running?

The library, meanwhile, is going really well, mostly because She laid excellent groundwork. Before writing a single grant or talking to anyone in the community, she simply gathered a few hundred books and started lending them out. This quickly became a major venture, involving student volunteers and a computer database. And it paid off. On a given day, she might check out somewhere approaching 200 books. Parents approach us and talk about their kids making everyone in the house read to them, so we know that at least some of the books are being used. And using student volunteers ensures that more people get practice in actually running a library.

So now we’re able to begin expanding, due almost entirely to the support of our families and hometowns. We have received a number of books that is, to say the least, astonishing. We have to go in to the regional capital to pick up packages, and we usually get offered rides home by people we know – who have no idea what they’re getting themselves into when they offer. On the last trip, we got 11 boxes, each weighing 40+ pounds. We have over 1000 books now, all without writing a single grant. Soon, she’ll be running a carnival as a local fundraiser (and awareness-raiser), including a raffle. So in the end, what will change people more? Five computers in her primary school, or 1500+ books, checked out 200 at a time?

But to you, reading this: Don’t underestimate the effect one person can have. In the States, beautifully-constructed franchises and public works spring up as if by magic, and I think we end up really disconnected from the nuts and bolts of development. Our hometowns aren’t even finished with the library donation yet: At least one more donation may happen after a project in my home area this summer. But all this has come from just two town areas. It’s easier to get involved than you might think – and movement tends to snowball, building mass and momentum as people you talk with begin to get excited themselves.

I don’t just think that we’re disconnected from development, period; people actually do want to be connected to something like this, something with tangible results, something that changes the lives of people. Most people just need someone to provide that connection.

Library

After receiving numerous book donations from various individuals, we now have a temporary lending library set up at one of the primary schools in our community. We have around five hundred books. Currently, I am the main librarian. Starting at the beginning of the next school year, the rest of the teachers will be responsible for brining their students to the library to check out books. There are a handful of grade 5 & 6 students that come in during their lunch break to help sign out books for other students. We will be relying heavily on student librarians to run the library. The library has been extremely successful so far. Students are very eager to get into the library as often as possible to check out a new book. Many of the younger children take their books home and ask every member of the family to read the book to them. Some children do not have any literate family members to read to them, so they simply enjoy the pictures. One child recently acquired a new puppy and decided to name it Copper, after a dog in a book they had checked out. Currently, a group of teachers are working on writing a grant and asking community members for donations in order to fund the library project. We will be fixing up an empty classroom at each of the schools to use as a library. The goal is to build several bookshelves and a couple tables, and sew hammocks and mats for the children to sit on. Once we have received funding, we will travel to the capital city to purchase as many books as possible.

Gender Roles

Prior to arriving in this country, my partner and I did not fit into the typical gender roles. He helped out in the kitchen every night, we shared the responsibilities of cleaning the apartment, and we each did our own laundry. Now, ten months into our stay here, we realized that we fit into the stereotypical gender roles completely. I cook all the meals and wash all of the dishes. I clean the house. He does a lot of the laundry while I am busy cleaning and cooking. At many religious functions, we are introduced as Sir _______ and his wife. Oftentimes, he is called upon to say a few words on our behalf. It seems that it is the woman’s job to stay somewhat in the shadow of her husband. Some of these things have taken a while to adjust to, while others have just fallen into place without us even recognizing it (like the cooking and cleaning). It is amazing how quickly your behaviors can change when you are in a culture that has very strong traditional gender roles. Also important to mention is the large role washing machines and dishwashers have played in the liberation of the woman. It is almost impossible for a woman here to even consider going to University and pursuing a career, because 90 percent of the day is spent washing, cleaning, and cooking. There are no restaurants in our villages for days when you are just too busy to cook any food. Many families do not own refrigerators, so all food must be prepared that same day and the leftovers are tossed out. Laundry involves hand washing all clothes. This is very time consuming and labor intensive. So women, I think we all need to be extremely grateful for the invention of the dishwasher, the microwave, and the laundry machine, among others, for greatly improving the quality of our lives and allowing us to pursue other occupations if desired.