April 8, 2011
It's been so long...
...since I've written a post for the blog. So March 27th through Apil 3rd, I was in Ngaoundere for a conference called Inservice Training a.k.a. IST. Jeff (Niger evacuee with me who was in my same Health/Agriculture class) and I joined our new-Cameroon-class for a week of meetings. The first three days of training was with our supervisors, and the other four were just the volunteers. We were split up into our Agriculture/Health groups. A lot of the information, I think, was same-old same-old for current volunteers, but for me the majority of it was new or Cameroon-specific, so it was all very beneficial for supervisor, Essaya, and myself. I left the training with a lot of motivation and currently have a ton of kokari (sorry, had to, "effort" in Hausa) to complete assessments and start projects in my village.
Goals for this month:
All-men-in-village meeting
All-women-in-village meeting
All-peeps-in-village meeting
Find school teacher to be my Fulfulde/Dii tutor
Identify first big project the people in the community want to do
This is a good place to talk a little bit about the d-word: development. We touched on it a bit during IST but I have been thinking a lot about it recently. My PERSONAL feeling about development is that it needs to be 100% organized and managed by the people it will benefit (thus making it completely sustainable). In Niger, I had an interesting convo with dear friend Yaa, who I believe is now in Namibia??? I'll facebook her. She said that her feelings about development paralleled a quote found on the UN website. She had it written down, but I will paraphrase it: Development is only fully achieved when an entire community or population of people seeks change and achieves it in every aspect being socially, financially and culturally.
Ok, I'm going to try and find the quote. But essentially, what it was getting it, is that change and development of a culture needs to come from the people themselves. If I go to my village and conduct malaria education or bring a 100 moquito nets and distribute them, that is great and all, but it can't be classified as development. That is just someone coming in and leaving something that wasn't there before. Change needs to come from within the people, and I would be there to act as a resource in order to make the change that they seek, and will mantain, possible.
So today, actually, Essaya and I were chatting before the men's reunion, and we got onto the topic of development. I tried to explain this philosophy of mine to him in that I want to assist in projects/development that the people themselves are initiating and seeking to achieve. Even though he has worked with PC volunteers in the past, it was still difficult for him to understand why I couldn't just bring money and things to the village if I have access to them? After explaining for a long time to him that doing that will not benefit the community, I realized that I can't blame him. Currently, Africa is a breeding ground for NGOs. Essaya has lived here his whole life, and has seen more "nasaras" come here and leave that I think I'll ever fully understand. Every now and again, he will tell me a story about an organization that he knew of that was working here. No wonder he and every other person in the village expects things and not information from me.
A little anecdote about training that I would like to share: ok so day 1 of training with our supervisors. Some of the supervisors are brand-new to Peace Corps so we had a session about: What is Peace Corps? What do volunteers do? Do we bring money and then peace out like many other NGOs people here are accustomed to? The answer to that last question is obviously no. So while our whole group is having a discussion about all of this, Kim, a past Cameroon volunteer who has worked for PC here for many years, stands up and explains in both French and English that fundamentally, we are ambassadors of peace. And for Americans to travel to a foreign land, be welcomed, and integrate and live in harmony with Africans in our community, that is truest form of peace there is. I don't know about anyone else in the room; but I had tears. At the end of the day, when two people, one American girl from good ol' VT and an African woman who has eight kids and knows four different local languages, can live side by side and be "in harmony" with each other; that is really what peace is all about. Right?
Yes, so today was the all-bro giant meeting in village. When I arrived back from Ngaoundere, Essaya and I wrote an announcement in French and posted it on the street (on a mud wall, but apparently it's an important wall or something, I don't know). We had the meeting today, Friday, directly following the afternoon prayer. The meeting was...a success? I think. It's hard to tell. I think I've been extremely spoiled with how we run meetings in the U.S. 125 men came, so that means it was a success in terms of numbers. But in terms of getting ideas across and all being on the same page, I'm not so sure that was achieved.
Itinerary for the meeting:
-Introduction of Hadidja, explain what PC is, another volunteer coming here in December for agriculture
-Map of village, what resources are here already
-List of problems/things we need here. Distinguish after between needs and wants
So this itinerary seems pretty straight-forward right? An hour tops for the meeting. Ya. Not so much. Ok, first of all, I'm talking in French the whole time, and that gets translated into Dii by someone. So already the intro and why I'm here takes forever. And the explanation of what PC is about could have gotten lost in translation. Is there a word for development in Dii, a language where she, he, it, and you are all one word? I'm thinking not. So then we move onto the map. Ok, so before the meeting, we had a mini-meeting with the translator and designated-drawers of the map. In retrospect, I should have explained the purpose of the map better. It is to show the people what resources are ALREADY here. It is supposed to be very simple and use symbols so that even the men who can't read will understand. But the designated drawers instead started designing a full-out map with every single road and house. I was like you've got to be joking me, but I stayed calm because I knew it was good for them to draw it and work it out. But after 45 min of map drawing, I said something about justtttt drawing the resources...and so they started the map over again. Which turned out fine, like an hour after that.
Ok, so the list of problems. I chose someone else from the group. Audience participation right? No. The person didn't know that we were just brainstorming a simple list (why would they? they've never done something like this before) and started writing lengthy descriptions in French of the ideas. So I ended up writing the ideas, using symbols and big simple words in French that everyone could understand. Ok, so then the list was done. Now, here was the big one. Save the best for last. I need to look into this, but I'm thinking that the words "need" and "want" are the same thing in Dii. Or have the same meaning in Fulfulde and Dii. I explained the difference between a need/want, then my translator did, then Essaya did in Fulfulde, then one other person did. So we get to first problem in village: don't have a football stadium. And all the men in the group yell out "need". Ok, so we explain all over again: a need is something that, if you don't have, you will DIE. A want is something that you seek, but it won't hurt you if you don't have it. We completed the list (kindof) and that was the end of the meeting.
Who am I to tell the men in my village, though, what they should need or want? If they say problems with anemia is a want (which they did, don't even get me started on that one, I had to really practice patience at that point) and a multi-media center is a need, maybe that's the truth for them. Possibly different lifestyles and upbringing yield different priorities. Or maybe the whole activity was lost in translation.
Another thought about wants and needs: Before I left for IST, Essaya and I chatted with the chef to ask his permission to have the men-meeting. We asked him his thoughts about the development for the village and what was needed. He said very simply: "1. health 2. water 3. fire. Without health, you cannot drink water. With fire, you make the food. Everything else is a desire." But he also meant fire like electricity. Ok. great. So, what do we really need in life? I thought about this at the health center the other day when some Fulbe kids came in for malaria medicine. These kids were 8 and 10 and had never been to a health center or seen a doctor before. They hadn't received any vaccinations and were healthy, minus malaria. I thought vaccinations went on the list of needs until I saw them. So what does go on the list? Clean air, clean water, clean food. How do "need for space" and shelter fit on the list? Do gravity and the ozone layer go on there, or are they assumed (had to, sorry, miss ya biochemistry)? When do vaccinations and medicines go on there? Is the list of needs specific to every culture or community of people? The two Fulbe children didn't neeeed vaccinations, but they did need malaria medicine in order to continue living. Or is the list separate to every single person? If I'm going to run with that arguement, then here is my list of needs:
(assuming I live on planet earth, with gravity and intact ozone layers, in the climate I'm in right now that stays between 70-120 degrees Farenheit, in the village I'm in right now where there is land for miles and miles so there is no worry about not having enough space)
1. Clean air (questionable on days when people burn trash including plastic bags, batteries, etc.)
2. Clean water (thank you filter, or pumpos that provide clean-looking forrage water :) )
Ok where is where it gets interesting. Ok, so humans, we can live for a month without food, right? How long can we live if the water we drink has bad stuff in it? If I drink bacteria-infested water, will I need antibiotics before food to stay alive to hit the one-month mark when food is absolutely necessary?
3. Antibiotics and other basic medicines (so not vaccines).
4. Food (if I'm going to be picky, I'm going to ask for a balanced diet rich in iron, vitamins and minerals, but this is a need so I'm going to be very broad and not even put cleannnn food).
5. What goes here? Vaccinations? If I hadn't had the typhoid vaccine before arriving here, I would definetly have contracted that thus far. So should I prioritize vaccinations?
....so, as you can tell, this list of "needs" or the things that are obligatory for life here on planet earth is very difficult to make. How can I ask a group of people to clarify their needs versus wants...if I can't even do so for myself?
Good News
puppy. puppy. puppy.
Bad News
Abdou, my little best friend, is in Ngaoundere visiting his mother for awhile. I miss him. I told his fam the only way I know how to express my feelings in French: that I'm going to die if he doesn't come back.
It's been so long...
...since I've written a post for the blog. So March 27th through Apil 3rd, I was in Ngaoundere for a conference called Inservice Training a.k.a. IST. Jeff (Niger evacuee with me who was in my same Health/Agriculture class) and I joined our new-Cameroon-class for a week of meetings. The first three days of training was with our supervisors, and the other four were just the volunteers. We were split up into our Agriculture/Health groups. A lot of the information, I think, was same-old same-old for current volunteers, but for me the majority of it was new or Cameroon-specific, so it was all very beneficial for supervisor, Essaya, and myself. I left the training with a lot of motivation and currently have a ton of kokari (sorry, had to, "effort" in Hausa) to complete assessments and start projects in my village.
Goals for this month:
All-men-in-village meeting
All-women-in-village meeting
All-peeps-in-village meeting
Find school teacher to be my Fulfulde/Dii tutor
Identify first big project the people in the community want to do
This is a good place to talk a little bit about the d-word: development. We touched on it a bit during IST but I have been thinking a lot about it recently. My PERSONAL feeling about development is that it needs to be 100% organized and managed by the people it will benefit (thus making it completely sustainable). In Niger, I had an interesting convo with dear friend Yaa, who I believe is now in Namibia??? I'll facebook her. She said that her feelings about development paralleled a quote found on the UN website. She had it written down, but I will paraphrase it: Development is only fully achieved when an entire community or population of people seeks change and achieves it in every aspect being socially, financially and culturally.
Ok, I'm going to try and find the quote. But essentially, what it was getting it, is that change and development of a culture needs to come from the people themselves. If I go to my village and conduct malaria education or bring a 100 moquito nets and distribute them, that is great and all, but it can't be classified as development. That is just someone coming in and leaving something that wasn't there before. Change needs to come from within the people, and I would be there to act as a resource in order to make the change that they seek, and will mantain, possible.
So today, actually, Essaya and I were chatting before the men's reunion, and we got onto the topic of development. I tried to explain this philosophy of mine to him in that I want to assist in projects/development that the people themselves are initiating and seeking to achieve. Even though he has worked with PC volunteers in the past, it was still difficult for him to understand why I couldn't just bring money and things to the village if I have access to them? After explaining for a long time to him that doing that will not benefit the community, I realized that I can't blame him. Currently, Africa is a breeding ground for NGOs. Essaya has lived here his whole life, and has seen more "nasaras" come here and leave that I think I'll ever fully understand. Every now and again, he will tell me a story about an organization that he knew of that was working here. No wonder he and every other person in the village expects things and not information from me.
A little anecdote about training that I would like to share: ok so day 1 of training with our supervisors. Some of the supervisors are brand-new to Peace Corps so we had a session about: What is Peace Corps? What do volunteers do? Do we bring money and then peace out like many other NGOs people here are accustomed to? The answer to that last question is obviously no. So while our whole group is having a discussion about all of this, Kim, a past Cameroon volunteer who has worked for PC here for many years, stands up and explains in both French and English that fundamentally, we are ambassadors of peace. And for Americans to travel to a foreign land, be welcomed, and integrate and live in harmony with Africans in our community, that is truest form of peace there is. I don't know about anyone else in the room; but I had tears. At the end of the day, when two people, one American girl from good ol' VT and an African woman who has eight kids and knows four different local languages, can live side by side and be "in harmony" with each other; that is really what peace is all about. Right?
Yes, so today was the all-bro giant meeting in village. When I arrived back from Ngaoundere, Essaya and I wrote an announcement in French and posted it on the street (on a mud wall, but apparently it's an important wall or something, I don't know). We had the meeting today, Friday, directly following the afternoon prayer. The meeting was...a success? I think. It's hard to tell. I think I've been extremely spoiled with how we run meetings in the U.S. 125 men came, so that means it was a success in terms of numbers. But in terms of getting ideas across and all being on the same page, I'm not so sure that was achieved.
Itinerary for the meeting:
-Introduction of Hadidja, explain what PC is, another volunteer coming here in December for agriculture
-Map of village, what resources are here already
-List of problems/things we need here. Distinguish after between needs and wants
So this itinerary seems pretty straight-forward right? An hour tops for the meeting. Ya. Not so much. Ok, first of all, I'm talking in French the whole time, and that gets translated into Dii by someone. So already the intro and why I'm here takes forever. And the explanation of what PC is about could have gotten lost in translation. Is there a word for development in Dii, a language where she, he, it, and you are all one word? I'm thinking not. So then we move onto the map. Ok, so before the meeting, we had a mini-meeting with the translator and designated-drawers of the map. In retrospect, I should have explained the purpose of the map better. It is to show the people what resources are ALREADY here. It is supposed to be very simple and use symbols so that even the men who can't read will understand. But the designated drawers instead started designing a full-out map with every single road and house. I was like you've got to be joking me, but I stayed calm because I knew it was good for them to draw it and work it out. But after 45 min of map drawing, I said something about justtttt drawing the resources...and so they started the map over again. Which turned out fine, like an hour after that.
Ok, so the list of problems. I chose someone else from the group. Audience participation right? No. The person didn't know that we were just brainstorming a simple list (why would they? they've never done something like this before) and started writing lengthy descriptions in French of the ideas. So I ended up writing the ideas, using symbols and big simple words in French that everyone could understand. Ok, so then the list was done. Now, here was the big one. Save the best for last. I need to look into this, but I'm thinking that the words "need" and "want" are the same thing in Dii. Or have the same meaning in Fulfulde and Dii. I explained the difference between a need/want, then my translator did, then Essaya did in Fulfulde, then one other person did. So we get to first problem in village: don't have a football stadium. And all the men in the group yell out "need". Ok, so we explain all over again: a need is something that, if you don't have, you will DIE. A want is something that you seek, but it won't hurt you if you don't have it. We completed the list (kindof) and that was the end of the meeting.
Who am I to tell the men in my village, though, what they should need or want? If they say problems with anemia is a want (which they did, don't even get me started on that one, I had to really practice patience at that point) and a multi-media center is a need, maybe that's the truth for them. Possibly different lifestyles and upbringing yield different priorities. Or maybe the whole activity was lost in translation.
Another thought about wants and needs: Before I left for IST, Essaya and I chatted with the chef to ask his permission to have the men-meeting. We asked him his thoughts about the development for the village and what was needed. He said very simply: "1. health 2. water 3. fire. Without health, you cannot drink water. With fire, you make the food. Everything else is a desire." But he also meant fire like electricity. Ok. great. So, what do we really need in life? I thought about this at the health center the other day when some Fulbe kids came in for malaria medicine. These kids were 8 and 10 and had never been to a health center or seen a doctor before. They hadn't received any vaccinations and were healthy, minus malaria. I thought vaccinations went on the list of needs until I saw them. So what does go on the list? Clean air, clean water, clean food. How do "need for space" and shelter fit on the list? Do gravity and the ozone layer go on there, or are they assumed (had to, sorry, miss ya biochemistry)? When do vaccinations and medicines go on there? Is the list of needs specific to every culture or community of people? The two Fulbe children didn't neeeed vaccinations, but they did need malaria medicine in order to continue living. Or is the list separate to every single person? If I'm going to run with that arguement, then here is my list of needs:
(assuming I live on planet earth, with gravity and intact ozone layers, in the climate I'm in right now that stays between 70-120 degrees Farenheit, in the village I'm in right now where there is land for miles and miles so there is no worry about not having enough space)
1. Clean air (questionable on days when people burn trash including plastic bags, batteries, etc.)
2. Clean water (thank you filter, or pumpos that provide clean-looking forrage water :) )
Ok where is where it gets interesting. Ok, so humans, we can live for a month without food, right? How long can we live if the water we drink has bad stuff in it? If I drink bacteria-infested water, will I need antibiotics before food to stay alive to hit the one-month mark when food is absolutely necessary?
3. Antibiotics and other basic medicines (so not vaccines).
4. Food (if I'm going to be picky, I'm going to ask for a balanced diet rich in iron, vitamins and minerals, but this is a need so I'm going to be very broad and not even put cleannnn food).
5. What goes here? Vaccinations? If I hadn't had the typhoid vaccine before arriving here, I would definetly have contracted that thus far. So should I prioritize vaccinations?
....so, as you can tell, this list of "needs" or the things that are obligatory for life here on planet earth is very difficult to make. How can I ask a group of people to clarify their needs versus wants...if I can't even do so for myself?
Good News
puppy. puppy. puppy.
Bad News
Abdou, my little best friend, is in Ngaoundere visiting his mother for awhile. I miss him. I told his fam the only way I know how to express my feelings in French: that I'm going to die if he doesn't come back.
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