You are sitting in a meeting, big decisions have to be made or the project is f**cked, nobody wants to take responsibility for anything in case they might look bad if it flops, half the people in the meeting are asleep or doing something completely unrelated to what needs to be done.
How many of these meetings have we all been to?
The part that makes it all different and pulls me towards it more than any employment ever has is that people’s lives are at stake and I have something to contibute that may help them a little.
Today we found out that the pigs, of which there are 9, only have 2 days of food left. Somehow, who knows how, we were led to believe that there was enough food to last until October or so. Crisis. Pigs don’t like to skip meals. If the pigs die, a lot of work and all the revenue (200,000 tsh for each fully matured pig turned to bacon - about $160) down the toilet. That $$ goes along way to improving the lives of these people.
These people are Chawamaki. Each of them live with HIV/AIDS. None of them have any $$ to speak of. They all get sick from time to time and require specialized medicine. They all have families. They are together for support and to try to come up with ideas and ways to generate income to help support themselves and their families. The group is officially 17, but only about 10 or so are active in the group right now. I am the resident Mazungu at the moment. I help them with ideas and things that I might know about. It sure is not pigs or farming, but I do know a few things. Today it was a cost/benefit analysis of selling one of the pigs early to pay for food to keep the rest alive until they are mature in December. Perhaps the easiest CBA I have ever done, but also perhaps the most important.
I think that is what volunteering is for me so far. Applying skills that I have previously used for what seems to be the silliest things (e.g., whether we replace a server this year or next), to projects that determine whether people eat next month.
It’s not all so serous. We drink beer at night at a ‘bar’ across the street called “Deo’s”. You pay your 80 cents for a standard African Lager and then have a seat in a lawn chair surrounded by mosquito nets on a dirt floor and drink and act silly with people from all over the world and from next door. Joseph the local drunk is passed out in the corner. We eat some of the best, freshest food I have ever had, prepared by some of the nicest people I have ever met. We play kick-ball (go Team A) in the school field.
We are all learning Swahili. Organized lessons as well as on-the-job training every day. Most of the people in our placements do not speak English, so we are all eager to try to bridge the gap by learning. The better we can communicate with the locals, the more affective we can be.
6 days here and I want to stay forever. I want their challenges to be my challenges. Thank goodness I have another 3 weeks to settle down!
wow, that sounds great paula.
if when you come back to canada you decide to go back to telus you should take one of the lesson’s you learned with the pigs back to them. making decisions and doing business in a timely manner, if i could get a t1 installed in the time you made the decision and acted on it (in the case of selling the pig) i’d be a happy camper.
glad to hear you guys are having a good time, i miss you guys!
speedo
July 27th, 2007