Wednesday, December 28, 2011
Participatory Development - Problems in Groups
The first part here is a book review - if you are focused on the Problems in Groups issue, please skip ahead to that heading.
Book Review - Culture and Public Action
I just read this book on culture which was very disappointing, but it had one chapter on participatory development which I found very interesting. The focus is on primitive tribes, but there are similar problems in the communities which we are fostering in Nicaragua.
The basic problem with the book is that it is very "scholarly". It cites numerous published works and studies, but never really shares insights and stories.
Another problem is that it uses a very broad understanding of culture. When we are dealing with development issues, I think the best definition of "culture" is as "world view". It is the set of implicit values and judgments that people make about "how things work". The book includes things like music, stories, dance, costume, etc. Thus, some contributors say there is NO relationship between development and culture. In the broad meaning used, I would certainly agree. I don't think a culture needs to change its music, art, etc., in order to develop. But they would need to change things like the caste system of India - which is a "how things work" view of life that is very limiting.
In this perspective, the authors also undervalue the power of culture. They seem to see it as something that is very malleable, and that people can choose to ignore. They would benefit from exposure to the work of Hofstede, Cultures and Organizations, Software of the Mind. Culture in this sense is not conscious - it guides judgment and thought from within. It is the "software" of how we make judgments.
The book mentions Harrison and the culture and development school, but it casts them as extremists that view culture as fatalistic allowing no hope of change. I think that is a misreading of that school of thought. Harrison does understand the power of a world view, and he is very much working on how one can change that.
One other redeeming thing about the book - damning with faint praise - is the chapter by Amartya Sen. He is a Nobel prize economist, and his book, Development as Freedom, is really excellent. His main contribution is to clarify what "development" should mean in this context. It is not about acquiring things, or wealth, or power. Development should be primarily focused on providing the basic freedoms required for every individual to develop to their full potential - in whatever area they choose. The goal is the full enrichment of human lives, including art and poetry and music, as well as science and engineering. My view is that as long as one human being cannot achieve her or his full potential, we are all deprived of their contributions. And we are all made richer when one small child in Africa or Nicaragua can achieve their full potential. As my friend Red Green would have it, "We are all in this together". Of course, the basic pre-requisites here include adequate food, shelter, education, health care, etc. And that does require a level of wealth, for good or ill.
Book Chapter Available
The one chapter from the book that has good insights is actually available on the WWW. The original PDF is gone, but Google has retained a "PDF view", which can be turned into a Google doc. I really want to encourage you to read the original, as it has a lot of wisdom about how groups work in a social structure that is somewhat foreign to us. You can find it here: Participatory Development.
The Problems in Groups
What follows is an attempt to extract the highlights from this chapter.
After many hours in group discussion in communities in Nicaragua, I think this chapter has finally given me an insight into what exactly is going on. I often see what I would term "childish" or "petty" interactions among individuals in a community. I try to ignore them, but I always wonder just what is going on here. In my world, their actions would be seen as "not mature." In their world, they are the normal survival mechanism when you are dealing with group interactions.
On p. 12, the article points out that the role of elders in these societies is regarded as something akin to natural law - there is no way to change it. This group, the "elite", has the power to ignore or violate decisions made by the group. They can take over or capture the resources which are intended to benefit the whole group. In African tribes, the "elders" is a very formal position. In Nicaragua, it tends to be more a positional or historical thing where the "leaders" are not so formally designated. In one example, a leader decided that he could make better use of the group's computer than the newly elected chair of the group. Since he was a "leader" in their eyes, he could keep the computer without anyone raising a public fuss about it. Everyone knows it is a problem, but no one can raise it publicly.
Group agreement is difficult to achieve in these social structures. The normal mode of operation of groups in this "pre-urban" world, as the authors characterize it, is by group consensus. The authors point out that the "pre-urban" group function is actually a cultural thing, which survives even in an urban setting. In this type of group, majority voting is almost unthinkable. Disagreement is seen as threatening the very social fabric of the group, so it is to be avoided at all costs. Secret ballots would be even worse. Any difference of opinion is seen as dissension and disruption, not as a way to achieve agreement. This is especially true if the "elders" or leaders are not all in agreement. In that case there would be no hope for the group to reach a binding decision.
Any dissension is seen as distrust, not as a normal path to a democratic or majority agreement. The other side is also true - if there are personal animosities or history between individuals, these will be manifest as dissension in other areas. This type of social structure cannot easily separate their "public" self and their "private" views when it comes to making group decisions. The idea of a democratic process with majority rule does not have a strong underpinning in their social rules.
People of lower ranks, be it from age, or gender, or wealth and position, find it very difficult to speak their mind in group discussions. As a result, they may just pay lip service to the discussion, and not support it or actually work against it. The time and energy required to achieve group consensus is also an illuminating discussion. See page 15. When I am in a group discussion in Nicaragua, it always strikes me that it takes an enormous amount of time and energy to gain any agreement and common understanding. The group finds it painful to voice a disagreement, or to consider an opposing view as almost an insult.
The paper describes the difficulty of applying sanctions to group members who do not follow group rules. Exclusion from the group is very difficult and must be avoided at all costs. It is seen as a very serious thing which actually puts the group at risk. . Even serious malfeasance, such as embezzlement, may result in the person being removed from their position, but they will not be excluded from the group.
On page 16, the authors reflect a bit on how this type of group discussion is different in "modern" societies. In these "tribal" or "pre-urban" societies, the group is seen as a closed entity. Harmony is essential and discord is to be avoided at all costs. The "pre-urban" groups tend to place the entire emphasis on the personal relationships that must be maintained within the group in order to keep it alive and functioning. In "modern" societies, the group is open to the larger world, where there are abstract and impartial rules which can be brought to bear. Decisions can be made in these groups that are very difficult and delicate, but which do not threaten the group's very existence.
Quotes
Here are a few quotes that I thought you might enjoy:
---------------------------------
p. 17
By placing heavy emphasis on the virtues of highly personalized relationships, the economic theory of the community tends not only to overstress the effectiveness of decentralized group-based punishment mechanisms, but also to ignore the potentially perverse effects arising from invidious comparisons among community members. As a matter of fact, when people continuously interact in close proximity to each other, they have a spontaneous inclination to look at the situation of their neighbours or acquaintances to assess their own situation. When social and economic differentiation is low, such as is observed in tribal societies, constant comparisons, by thus arousing jealous and envious feelings, create a highly charged emotional climate that can easily lead to the implosion of the group. To counter this ominous threat, tribal societies have evolved egalitarian norms and standards of values that compel or induce enriched individuals to share their surplus with their brethren. This is done on the ground that solidarity is the cement which ties all the members of the community together and enables them to survive in the long run. As a rule, generosity and hospitality are highly praised behaviours in traditional rural communities and successful individuals therefore gain social prestige and esteem when they redistribute their surplus.
p. 18
Private wealth accumulation is actually perceived as an anti-social behaviour precisely because it is an attempt to break away from traditional solidarity networks. According to Guy Hunter, we are dealing with “levelling societies, in which attempts by equals to gain individual advantage are constantly suspected and bitterly resented”. At the root of this suspicious atmosphere is the “fear that the fundamental security of the village will slowly be lost if one individual after another can reach a platform of prosperity from which he might not need the help of the community and could therefore excuse himself from helping them”.
p. 21.
The picture of traditional lineage-based societies that emerges from the above discussion is bleaker than the one usually found in many popular accounts. Rather than idyllic ‘village democracies’ whose members interact in a free atmosphere of trustful cooperation based on well-accepted social norms, they appear as repressive societies where mutual control is constantly exercised, suspicions are continuously entertained about others’ intentions, inter-personal conflicts are pervasive, and a rigid rank-based hierarchical structure governs people’s life. This is what Bourdieu has called the ‘objective truth’ of these societies, one that is not allowed to come to the surface precisely because it could destabilize the village’s socio-political order.
------------------------------
There are many other insights and stories in the following pages (pp. 22 ff) that seem to me to be more limited to the African tribal mentality. I would encourage my friends with an interest in Africa to read those more closely.
There are also warning words (p. 30) about the rapid development of opportunist NGOs to take advantage of the funds newly available to these efforts, without necessarily engaging in the participatory development that would benefit the society.
Monday, December 26, 2011
Community Based Development - Participatory Development
I just finished reading this book: Culture and Public Action, edited by Vijayendra Rai and Michael Walton 2004. I was hoping it would give me some more concrete insights into this initiative for community based development in Nicaragua. Unfortunately, the book tends to be very scholarly, so that it is primarily an overview of many other publications. The actual information contained in it is pretty meager.
One chapter did stand out a bit: Chapter 10 talks about "participatory development" or "community based development". It was authored by Anita Abraham and Jean-Phillip Platteau. I managed to find a publication by this pair on the WWW which has about 90% of the same content. But the original PDF to which it refers is no longer available. You can read it if you look here: Google Doc on Participatory.
Google provides its stored view which you can also store as a Google Doc.
It is a similarly dense academic treatise, but it has a couple of very interesting points that I believe relate to our Nicaraguan experience.
Small Communities
On page 5 of the paper, the authors stress that this approach, community based development, almost requires a small community. There is often a strong tendency for some participants to cheat and appropriate resources for themselves. They see a small community as being able to control this problem by means of social pressure, which only works in a relatively small group.
“In the light of the above, the community institution can be defined as a group small enough to allow good circulation of information among its members who interact more or less continuously over infinite or indeterminate periods of time. In a repeated game, however, there exists “a profusion of equilibria” (David Kreps) and cooperation is just one possible outcome. Therefore, for a community to succeed in achieving cooperative outcomes, the expectations of its members must also converge on a cooperative strategy. This implies that they are willing to give cooperation a try in the initial stages of the interaction process, because they believe that fellow members are likely to be similarly predisposed. In short, trust must prevail among them. Then, if everyone is bent on punishing people who behave in a ‘nasty’ manner, and expects others to do likewise, an efficient equilibrium where all members cooperate continuously gets established.”
Tribal Structures Have Particular Problems
The authors glean a lot of information from some community based development projects in Africa. My friends in Africa might gain a lot from reading those sections, but they do not appear to be useful in rural Nicaragua. If anyone needs a copy of the original paper – I can send it. There are a number of stories in there which are very illustrative of the problem.
This Approach Requires Time and Patience
The other interesting thing I found was the judgment of the authors that this process tends to take a fair amount of time. One must build up the capacity of the group to the point where they can function well enough to make decisions. It takes a lot of resources to get these changes in place, and the funding agencies typically must show results in a shorter time frame. I think this is the case with our “initiative”.
I apologize for the long quote which follows – but I think the above is a brief restatement of the problem as the authors intended. I just want to provide this for documentation in case you cannot retrieve the full paper or the book.
“In a sense, that much is reckoned by the designers of the participatory approach: in so far as endogenous processes of rule and norm evolution are bound to be slow, capacity-building programs supported by external agencies have a pivotal role to play. What seems to be harder to admit, however, is that the changes required are of a revolutionary rather than evolutionary nature. Considerable resources must therefore be engaged if significant results are to be achieved and, in a number of important respects, the changes will necessarily be slow. This is because what is at stake is nothing less than a radical transformation of deep-rooted institutions, values, beliefs and practices that have the functioning of traditional rural communities entails increasing costs as economic opportunities expand (with the result that the value of time rises and new risk diversification possibilities become available), land scarcity increases, and education becomes more widespread. Therefore, if one wants to use them as partners in a participatory approach to rural development, it is necessary to ensure that they are duly adapted for the purpose. For example, new rules and practices, such as majority voting, secret balloting, or the use of anonymous inspection or evaluation procedures, must be put into operation so that enlarged and, perhaps, more heterogeneous groups become viable and thereby apt to exploit scale economies and risk diversification opportunities, benefit from skill complementarities between different categories of persons, manage funds in a more effective manner, etc.”
“Institutional support to rural communities and groups therefore appears as an essential condition for a successful participatory development program. The key problem here is that governments and big donor agencies need rapid and visible results to persuade their constituencies or supporters that the approach
works well. To achieve these results, they have sizeable financial resources at their command that they want to disburse within a short time period. The temptation is great to spread them widely so as to reach as large a number of village communities as possible. Yet, the scarce factor is not financial capital but a particular kind of extension personnel, namely institutional organizers (sometimes called human catalysts or facilitators) who are willing and able to assist rural communities and groups without taking initiative and leadership away from them. Unfortunately, capital and institutional organizers are not substitutable factors."
"Confronted with this hard dilemma, donor agencies have the tendency to maintain their ‘diluted’ approach, which implies that they downplay the task, and minimize the cost, of institutional support to target communities. It is revealing, for example, that lack of capacity-building, especially the building of organizational skills at community level, and lack of ‘ownership’ of the projects by the beneficiary groups, are among the main limitations of the World Bank’s social funds program. As a consequence, the program remains too much driven by a supply-led approach rather than being responsive to the needs of rural people as a participatory approach should be (Narayan and Ebbe, 1997). Underlying this situation lies the aforementioned dilemma. As pointed out by Tendler, indeed, enhancing ‘demand orientation’ and community participation in social funds’ programs would require a significant increase of the social funds’ agency presence in the countryside in terms of time, personnel, resources and effort. Such a change would nevertheless compromise some of the social funds’ “most acclaimed strengths their ‘leanness’ and low administrative costs” (Tendler, 2000: 16-17). Note, however, that a heavy presence in the countryside of the separate agency that administers social funds is unlikely to be the right solution to the problem of ‘ownership’ of projects and community participation."
"The method often used by donor agencies to circumvent the problem of scarcity of institutional organizers operating at the level of rural communities actually consists of asking these communities or specific groups within them to ‘elect’ leaders. For a reason well explained by Esman and Uphoff (1984), however, such a solution is bound to produce perverse results and to be self-defeating :
“The most prominent members are invariably selected and then given training and control over resources for the community, without any detailed and extended communication with the other members about objectives, rights, or duties. Creating the groups through these leaders, in effect, establishes a power relationship that is open to abuse. The agency has little or no communication with the community except through these leaders. The more training and resources they are given, the more distance is created between leaders and members. The shortcut of trying to mobilize rural people from outside through leaders, rather than taking the time to gain direct understanding and support from members, is likely to be unproductive or even counterproductive, entrenching a privileged minority and discrediting the idea of group action for self-improvement” (Esman and Uphoff, 1984 : 249).”
AMEN. Sorry about that. It seemed important at the time!
Friday, December 23, 2011
Latest Blog Entry - AND - Nicaraguan Elections
I started the most recent Blog entry on comparing projects quite some time ago, so when it was finally published - it ended up way down the line, and not here at the top of the queue! If you are trying to read them in order, you should go read this one now: Projects and Projects compared - it compares traditional "projects" and this new, more sustainable approach.
I didn't realize how Google's Blogspot would order these things.
Another Take On The Nicaraguan Election
But, while you are here, my friend Bill sent me a really nice piece on the recent elections in Nicaragua. You can find it here: Nica The Other Side.
Having been there during the election, and having talked to parties on all sides, I still found this article quite enlightening. It is very pro Ortega. It provides a balance I had not heard in the press there. For example, I did not realize that the Costa Rican constitution had a similar clause to the Nicaragua one - which that court also found was unconstitutional, so that the then sitting president of Costa Rica could run again.
I can only say that supporters of Ortega would not mind a bit if he stole the election, and the other side - the majority of the folk I was with - are quite certain that he did.
Everyone on both sides is also pretty well persuaded that Ortega is making a ton of money out of the Venezuelan gifts to Nicaragua. But there is no denying that he is doing a lot of stuff for the poor of the country. And he has been relatively positive for the business climate. He is clearly a populist - he will do almost anything to stay in power.
Both national newspapers treat him as a dictator in waiting. If the article cited above has any flaw, it does not point out any of the potential downside of this approach to government. I would not be so positive. Reader beware!
On the other hand - could I get a third hand here? - this post on the same web site seems to do an admirable job of critiquing El Commandante Ortega: The Many Political Faces of Daniel Ortega. The one cited above appears to be a response to this one.
It is pretty clear to the opposition that Ortega would do anything to hold on to power. And his supporters see nothing wrong with that. It's how things work there, after all.
It is one complicated world there as it is here. I also think that our own Florida and Ohio elections cited in the article were clearly suspect - see this detailed analysis in the Rolling Stone on Ohio: Ohio Election.
If you read all of that and you still want to talk with me - leave a comment here. Thanks.
Remember, "We're all in this together, and I'm pulling for you."
I didn't realize how Google's Blogspot would order these things.
Another Take On The Nicaraguan Election
But, while you are here, my friend Bill sent me a really nice piece on the recent elections in Nicaragua. You can find it here: Nica The Other Side.
Having been there during the election, and having talked to parties on all sides, I still found this article quite enlightening. It is very pro Ortega. It provides a balance I had not heard in the press there. For example, I did not realize that the Costa Rican constitution had a similar clause to the Nicaragua one - which that court also found was unconstitutional, so that the then sitting president of Costa Rica could run again.
I can only say that supporters of Ortega would not mind a bit if he stole the election, and the other side - the majority of the folk I was with - are quite certain that he did.
Everyone on both sides is also pretty well persuaded that Ortega is making a ton of money out of the Venezuelan gifts to Nicaragua. But there is no denying that he is doing a lot of stuff for the poor of the country. And he has been relatively positive for the business climate. He is clearly a populist - he will do almost anything to stay in power.
Both national newspapers treat him as a dictator in waiting. If the article cited above has any flaw, it does not point out any of the potential downside of this approach to government. I would not be so positive. Reader beware!
On the other hand - could I get a third hand here? - this post on the same web site seems to do an admirable job of critiquing El Commandante Ortega: The Many Political Faces of Daniel Ortega. The one cited above appears to be a response to this one.
It is pretty clear to the opposition that Ortega would do anything to hold on to power. And his supporters see nothing wrong with that. It's how things work there, after all.
It is one complicated world there as it is here. I also think that our own Florida and Ohio elections cited in the article were clearly suspect - see this detailed analysis in the Rolling Stone on Ohio: Ohio Election.
If you read all of that and you still want to talk with me - leave a comment here. Thanks.
Remember, "We're all in this together, and I'm pulling for you."
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Thanks, Rotary
Thanks
The Rotarians gave me an award the other day for my contributions - I am a "Paul Harris Fellow". He was the founder of the club. I am truly grateful for the recognition.
But . . . I thoroughly enjoyed what I was doing and I learned a tremendous amount. So we are, at least, even! Thank you, thank you very much.
Monday, December 12, 2011
I'm home, I'm home, I'm home!
What's that you say, he's easily excited? I'm very glad to be home.
I have this thing about travel - I've been traveling about on planes since 1964, and I still get hyper - really. I am always glad to walk down that last jetway and actually find my bag there! I thought I would fill you in on the return. My lovely wife is well experienced with my craziness, and when we are traveling together, she says as a kind of a mantra: "stay calm, this is not nuclear war", or words to that effect. I actually get the shakes sometimes. I have NO IDEA where that comes from. I get it when things look like they are tight or about to go awry!
NO PASSPORT!
First off, Saturday AM, I am checking in with our fearless leader (this is Elena, by the way), and I wanted to verify that my passport was somewhere within easy reach! She responded that she knew exactly where it was, and she would get it. Well, it wasn't there! She didn't tell me that right away - she proceeded to figure out where it was first - a very good idea. Seems they moved some of the furniture around, and the passport slipped out of a locked drawer, Luis picked it up and secured it elsewhere. But he did not inform Elena of this, the "elsewhere" was locked, and Elena did not have a key! She called Julietta, who had a key, who proceeded in our general direction, with a couple of people who also needed to be transported about. THEN Elena told me the travails of my passport! It did show up, I did get home!
A Rocking Chair
Jude had asked me to buy a rocking chair that we could raffle off to benefit the Sister Parish Community. The driver, a really big guy name of Melvin, and I went off to the market. He helped me pick one out - and the seller had one disassembled, ready to go. He gave me the price: C$1200. I do NOT do numbers. I kind of blanched - my brain was doing dollars or something. I pulled out my iPod and calculated it as about $55. He read that as a bargaining statement on my part, so he reduced it to C$1,100, or about $50. I should have kept fumbling, but instead agreed to the price. They are just beautiful chairs. This is one the "newer" kinds, with just solid wood, and none of the plastic latice work - all hardwood, etc. So, we agreed, and he set about wrapping it in a plastic sack for shipping by plane.
These days, there is only ONE free bag for international flights, and I did have a bag to check - after all, I spent 9 weeks in this place - I did bring along a few sets of underwear and socks! So I would have to pay another $40 for the chair. Elena had the bright idea of putting my modest bag inside of a larger, more sturdy one, and then taping the business together so I could avoid the second bag fee. We proceeded to do that. When we got the airport, at which point I am becoming a tad nervous about this whole business, we approached the ticket counter - and an acquantaince of hers is helping people We hoist this thing on the scale, and it's like 54 pounds - and the limit is 50. He suggests that we separate the two, since the overweight charge is $200, and the separate bag charge is $40! Good thinking. Then we take my bag out of the other bag, and weigh that with the chair - they are like 48 pounds! Home free. Just need to bind the two together. So, of we go to the plastic binding machine. $6.00 later, the two are as one - a bit bulky, but under the weight limit.
Back we go, and I am literally shaking a bit at this point, carrying a 48 pound piece of large stuff to the counter! They took it, slapped the routing code on it, and we are off to security. Piece of cake!
Flight to Houston
No problem on the flight to Houston. A nice lady in the airport made me up a grilled cheese sandwich for about 2 bucks, with an iced tea! I don't even trust bottled water there at this point. I retrieve the somewhat bulky package after I clear customs, and put in on a cart to check in again. And I am wondering what I do if they want to "open" this bound up piece of stuff. But, not to worry, they wave me to "oversize items" check-in, and the whole thing disappears somewhere to be put on the plane.
BUT - somehow my iPod got totally hosed up by the airport security scan. The only thing I can think is that one of the bits got turned off or on by the scanner. The display was on HUGE, or MAGNIFY the whole time, and I couldn't enter anything, or see anything. So I read my Spanish novel without the aid of a dictionary on the flight to MSP. That did work fairly well. I am down to one unknown word per page at this point - and that doesn't affect the story much. I really like the book - by a Brazilian author - same one that is for sale in all of the supermarkets in Managua - more on that later.
HUGS
Jude met me at the stairs as I came out of the secured area, for one HUGE hug. I do love that lady. She leaves to get the car, since I have this 48 lb monster to navigate with. And I go to the luggage carousel. No bag! I am beginning to panic, just a tad - when I remember the "oversize" tag - and see a guy walking out of a room at the back with what looks like a surf board in a bag! Sure enough, there is my bag and chair waiting there. I heft it up, we put it in the car - and it's currently in my basement. Any volunteers out there want to assemble this thing for the raffle? I do not want to do this again, thank you very much. Well, maybe for a modest fee!
TALK, TALK, TALK
So we drive home, we sit at the table, we have a drink, and we talk unti 1:00 AM. We get up early the next morning to go to Church with the grandkids, and we talk for 2 hours while having breakfast. I never got to even open the newspaper! We get two Sunday newspapers, and I have not opened them even as I am sitting here. I love to sit and read the paper. One would think we have not talked almost every day during the trip - but we did. Tom gave Jude an iPad, and I used my iPod, and we have a video chat almost every day, thanks for the wifi at the AKF Center. The speed there was about 1.2 G, more than adequate.
GrandKids
Have I told you yet that I have the MOST beautiful grandchildren on the planet - 5 of them? Well, I do. When I show people the pictures I carry around, they are always in agreement. But then they make comments when they see pictures of my daughters-in-law that now they understand how it is possible - it couldn't be me that these kids take after! We wait by the door at Church, and are greeted by the kids. Annalynn ran up and grabbed me around the knees for a big hug. Marcus and Quinn were a little more sedate. Quinn was his usual affectionate self in church. I do love these kids!
After Mass, we had a concert - Marcus and Annalynn. Here's the clip!
http://youtu.be/oBkX-Fe4hnc
Quiet
I am still waking up at 5:30, just as I did in Managua. It is light there at that time - it is NOT light here! But it is QUIET. In Managua, there are birds, whistles, cars, buses, horses - you name it - on the streets at that time. Here, it is so quiet I can hear the furnace fan when it turns on! It is rare that a car on the street can actually be heard in our bedroom. It is really quiet. Interesting. I never adverted to that before.
ToDo List
My todo list has 44 items on it. I've been ignoring them or adding to them while in Nicaragua! Gotta get busy, I guess. I have an online class in Feb / Mar - first priority to get that ready. Etc.
Newspaper
I love reading the newspaper. Jude and I have been talking so much, I now have 3 of them to work my way through! I read the paper most days in Managua - but it is mostly local news. Which you can read on line, if you want!
LAUNDRY
If I lived in Nicaragua, the very first thing I would get - after a refrigerator and stove - is a washing machine. I hate washing clothes with that soap and scrub board approach. It takes forever. I remember my mom with our first washing machine - and it had a wringer on it - where she regularly got her hand caught! So I came home with a bag full of stinky clothes. The socks are particularly bad - and that's not even on my todo list!
Mail
Jude managed most of the mail - but there was quite a pile to talk through and make decisions about. Not to mention the 400 or so emails that had stacked up. I actually read most of them before - she had nicely deleted the ones offering to enlarge certain body parts. Why do they think I am interested in that particular thing? I can think of lots of other spam I would rather get!
OK - that's about it - I'm home, back at "work" or whatever it is we do all day around here. I'm working on an "impressions" entry, and one about "projects". Stay tuned. This is the end of the travelogue for now.
I have this thing about travel - I've been traveling about on planes since 1964, and I still get hyper - really. I am always glad to walk down that last jetway and actually find my bag there! I thought I would fill you in on the return. My lovely wife is well experienced with my craziness, and when we are traveling together, she says as a kind of a mantra: "stay calm, this is not nuclear war", or words to that effect. I actually get the shakes sometimes. I have NO IDEA where that comes from. I get it when things look like they are tight or about to go awry!
NO PASSPORT!
First off, Saturday AM, I am checking in with our fearless leader (this is Elena, by the way), and I wanted to verify that my passport was somewhere within easy reach! She responded that she knew exactly where it was, and she would get it. Well, it wasn't there! She didn't tell me that right away - she proceeded to figure out where it was first - a very good idea. Seems they moved some of the furniture around, and the passport slipped out of a locked drawer, Luis picked it up and secured it elsewhere. But he did not inform Elena of this, the "elsewhere" was locked, and Elena did not have a key! She called Julietta, who had a key, who proceeded in our general direction, with a couple of people who also needed to be transported about. THEN Elena told me the travails of my passport! It did show up, I did get home!
A Rocking Chair
Jude had asked me to buy a rocking chair that we could raffle off to benefit the Sister Parish Community. The driver, a really big guy name of Melvin, and I went off to the market. He helped me pick one out - and the seller had one disassembled, ready to go. He gave me the price: C$1200. I do NOT do numbers. I kind of blanched - my brain was doing dollars or something. I pulled out my iPod and calculated it as about $55. He read that as a bargaining statement on my part, so he reduced it to C$1,100, or about $50. I should have kept fumbling, but instead agreed to the price. They are just beautiful chairs. This is one the "newer" kinds, with just solid wood, and none of the plastic latice work - all hardwood, etc. So, we agreed, and he set about wrapping it in a plastic sack for shipping by plane.
These days, there is only ONE free bag for international flights, and I did have a bag to check - after all, I spent 9 weeks in this place - I did bring along a few sets of underwear and socks! So I would have to pay another $40 for the chair. Elena had the bright idea of putting my modest bag inside of a larger, more sturdy one, and then taping the business together so I could avoid the second bag fee. We proceeded to do that. When we got the airport, at which point I am becoming a tad nervous about this whole business, we approached the ticket counter - and an acquantaince of hers is helping people We hoist this thing on the scale, and it's like 54 pounds - and the limit is 50. He suggests that we separate the two, since the overweight charge is $200, and the separate bag charge is $40! Good thinking. Then we take my bag out of the other bag, and weigh that with the chair - they are like 48 pounds! Home free. Just need to bind the two together. So, of we go to the plastic binding machine. $6.00 later, the two are as one - a bit bulky, but under the weight limit.
Back we go, and I am literally shaking a bit at this point, carrying a 48 pound piece of large stuff to the counter! They took it, slapped the routing code on it, and we are off to security. Piece of cake!
Flight to Houston
No problem on the flight to Houston. A nice lady in the airport made me up a grilled cheese sandwich for about 2 bucks, with an iced tea! I don't even trust bottled water there at this point. I retrieve the somewhat bulky package after I clear customs, and put in on a cart to check in again. And I am wondering what I do if they want to "open" this bound up piece of stuff. But, not to worry, they wave me to "oversize items" check-in, and the whole thing disappears somewhere to be put on the plane.
BUT - somehow my iPod got totally hosed up by the airport security scan. The only thing I can think is that one of the bits got turned off or on by the scanner. The display was on HUGE, or MAGNIFY the whole time, and I couldn't enter anything, or see anything. So I read my Spanish novel without the aid of a dictionary on the flight to MSP. That did work fairly well. I am down to one unknown word per page at this point - and that doesn't affect the story much. I really like the book - by a Brazilian author - same one that is for sale in all of the supermarkets in Managua - more on that later.
HUGS
Jude met me at the stairs as I came out of the secured area, for one HUGE hug. I do love that lady. She leaves to get the car, since I have this 48 lb monster to navigate with. And I go to the luggage carousel. No bag! I am beginning to panic, just a tad - when I remember the "oversize" tag - and see a guy walking out of a room at the back with what looks like a surf board in a bag! Sure enough, there is my bag and chair waiting there. I heft it up, we put it in the car - and it's currently in my basement. Any volunteers out there want to assemble this thing for the raffle? I do not want to do this again, thank you very much. Well, maybe for a modest fee!
TALK, TALK, TALK
So we drive home, we sit at the table, we have a drink, and we talk unti 1:00 AM. We get up early the next morning to go to Church with the grandkids, and we talk for 2 hours while having breakfast. I never got to even open the newspaper! We get two Sunday newspapers, and I have not opened them even as I am sitting here. I love to sit and read the paper. One would think we have not talked almost every day during the trip - but we did. Tom gave Jude an iPad, and I used my iPod, and we have a video chat almost every day, thanks for the wifi at the AKF Center. The speed there was about 1.2 G, more than adequate.
GrandKids
Have I told you yet that I have the MOST beautiful grandchildren on the planet - 5 of them? Well, I do. When I show people the pictures I carry around, they are always in agreement. But then they make comments when they see pictures of my daughters-in-law that now they understand how it is possible - it couldn't be me that these kids take after! We wait by the door at Church, and are greeted by the kids. Annalynn ran up and grabbed me around the knees for a big hug. Marcus and Quinn were a little more sedate. Quinn was his usual affectionate self in church. I do love these kids!
After Mass, we had a concert - Marcus and Annalynn. Here's the clip!
http://youtu.be/oBkX-Fe4hnc
Quiet
I am still waking up at 5:30, just as I did in Managua. It is light there at that time - it is NOT light here! But it is QUIET. In Managua, there are birds, whistles, cars, buses, horses - you name it - on the streets at that time. Here, it is so quiet I can hear the furnace fan when it turns on! It is rare that a car on the street can actually be heard in our bedroom. It is really quiet. Interesting. I never adverted to that before.
ToDo List
My todo list has 44 items on it. I've been ignoring them or adding to them while in Nicaragua! Gotta get busy, I guess. I have an online class in Feb / Mar - first priority to get that ready. Etc.
Newspaper
I love reading the newspaper. Jude and I have been talking so much, I now have 3 of them to work my way through! I read the paper most days in Managua - but it is mostly local news. Which you can read on line, if you want!
LAUNDRY
If I lived in Nicaragua, the very first thing I would get - after a refrigerator and stove - is a washing machine. I hate washing clothes with that soap and scrub board approach. It takes forever. I remember my mom with our first washing machine - and it had a wringer on it - where she regularly got her hand caught! So I came home with a bag full of stinky clothes. The socks are particularly bad - and that's not even on my todo list!
Jude managed most of the mail - but there was quite a pile to talk through and make decisions about. Not to mention the 400 or so emails that had stacked up. I actually read most of them before - she had nicely deleted the ones offering to enlarge certain body parts. Why do they think I am interested in that particular thing? I can think of lots of other spam I would rather get!
OK - that's about it - I'm home, back at "work" or whatever it is we do all day around here. I'm working on an "impressions" entry, and one about "projects". Stay tuned. This is the end of the travelogue for now.
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
AKF Communities Reunion - MORE
Well, the party was the last two days. I wish you had been here.
Overnight Guests
We (I helped run plates and clean up) served breakfast for 100 folk. I still can't believe about 100 people slept around here. A few from Dulce Nombre went with their friends from Catorze on the bus to spend the night in their homes, but the vast majority of folk bedded down here for the night. I asked some of them in the morning how that was, and they all seemed pleased! There were people in beds - as many as we have - people in hammocks in several spots, people on mats on the floor, and people in cots. Of course, having stayed with many of these folk, all of the above arrangements are fairly normal in their homes. And we have a working bathroom available, while most of them do not.
We had music and dancing until about 9:30 - not too late. But some of these folk had gotten up at 3:00 AM to travel here, and they are normally early to bed folks!
Breakfast was rice and beans and eggs and tortilla. coffee and juice. The tortilla is an essential part of breakfast. You can substitute bread for the other meals, but not breakfast. And coffee ALWAYS has an abundance of sugar in it.
Community Presentations
In the morning, another 120 or so showed up for the day's festivities. AKF arranged for or helped with all of the transportation. Each Community is asked to help arrange or pay for a portion of their transportation - whatever they think is fair. And they all do, in one manner or other. In the morning, every community made a brief presentation - notes on the flip chart paper, and explanations - followed by comments and questions. They each covered the following areas:
1. Accomplishments of the past year.
2. Problems facing the community.
3. Their plans for next year.
The presentations ran the gamut. I'll just give a list here. I am sure that the contents of the flip charts can be retrieved, but everything was in Spanish!
Topics presented included:
One of the men from a neighboring community commented on their organization, and how these women have worked so hard at building up their business. He was upbraiding the men of the communities for being lazy! Of course, most of them work in the fields and agriculture - but he is right. They have a lot of spare time between things.
Treasure Chests
Last year, at this reunion, AKF distributed "treasure chests" to each of the communities. The community was asked to establish a fund raising goal and a date. The chest is like a savings box, with a slot in the top, and a lock and key. The key was held by the AKF administrator, Helen. If they achieved their goal, AKF promised to match their funds, up to 3,000 cordoba (C$). Dulce Nombre's dream is a new church. They have the plans and the labor committed - they just need the funds to proceed. They set a goal of C$ 3,000 and they collected over C$4,000! (That's about $175 at 22.5 to 1.)
Teustepe
Teustepe had set a goal of C$2,000, and they collected C$2,300. Their goal is a new community center. The other communities had established different time frames for their savings. This "treasure chest" is an ingenious "small step". It is done in a public forum, and creates an incentive to save, to change the normal mode of operation. They realize now that they have some funds themselves which they can invest in their own dreams and plans.
Part of Teustepe's plan for next year is to become a legal entity that can purchase the land they need for their center. They also talked about the worm project, and their loan program. Teustepe also described their "magic sack" which they circulate at each meeting and which is accumulating some funds. Several other communities commented on that idea.
Problems
Every community has some problems. Dulce Nombre lost virtually all of their corn crop because of the unusually heavy and prolonged rains. Other communities are having some organizational issues, etc. AKF promised to prepare an assessment of the difficulties of Dulce Nombre, and promised to suggest to them a way that they might get some assistance.
Summary of the Morning
At the end of the morning, we were asked to talk among ourselves, and summarize the most important things we learned. All of the communities commented on what they learned, and how much they appreciated knowing the other communities, and learning from them. The two new communities made very formal speeches about their potential involvement in the work of the AKF communities. Of course, as Elena pointed out to me, this is only a few of the key families in the larger community - but it does look very positive. They could not have set up a better marketing plan than this, although that was not the primary focus.
Entertainment
The afternoon was dedicated to entertainment. Each community had prepared something to share with the other communities. We had young people doing a variety of dances, from folkloric to a kind of French disco thing. But the hit of the afternoon was Teustepe. Rosario did her usual shtick of lip syncing with an outlandish costume. Here's one photo.
But the surprise was CORA! When she was visiting with us at Guardian Angels, she commented on how pleased she was to be able to perform the folkloric dance for an audience. For those of you who do not know her, Cora is a very quiet, capable, serious older woman! She has another side to her:
Overnight Guests
We (I helped run plates and clean up) served breakfast for 100 folk. I still can't believe about 100 people slept around here. A few from Dulce Nombre went with their friends from Catorze on the bus to spend the night in their homes, but the vast majority of folk bedded down here for the night. I asked some of them in the morning how that was, and they all seemed pleased! There were people in beds - as many as we have - people in hammocks in several spots, people on mats on the floor, and people in cots. Of course, having stayed with many of these folk, all of the above arrangements are fairly normal in their homes. And we have a working bathroom available, while most of them do not.
We had music and dancing until about 9:30 - not too late. But some of these folk had gotten up at 3:00 AM to travel here, and they are normally early to bed folks!
Breakfast was rice and beans and eggs and tortilla. coffee and juice. The tortilla is an essential part of breakfast. You can substitute bread for the other meals, but not breakfast. And coffee ALWAYS has an abundance of sugar in it.
Community Presentations
In the morning, another 120 or so showed up for the day's festivities. AKF arranged for or helped with all of the transportation. Each Community is asked to help arrange or pay for a portion of their transportation - whatever they think is fair. And they all do, in one manner or other. In the morning, every community made a brief presentation - notes on the flip chart paper, and explanations - followed by comments and questions. They each covered the following areas:
1. Accomplishments of the past year.
2. Problems facing the community.
3. Their plans for next year.
The presentations ran the gamut. I'll just give a list here. I am sure that the contents of the flip charts can be retrieved, but everything was in Spanish!
Topics presented included:
- Loan Programs. There are a number of different loan programs, some charging up to 2% interest in order to keep pace with the value of the money. I did not exactly catch all of the numbers, but I know at least one of them has $10,000 in circulation in the community. If you know anything about small loan programs, these interest rates are very low. The reason is that they have structured their programs very well, and they have an extraordinarily high repayment rate. The key is membership in the group, with significant peer pressure to keep the program alive..
- School. One community is running a private school, which receives state funding.
- Relationships. One community has a very strong, long standing relationship with another community. They talked about expanding that type of relationship between the other communities. It provides them mutual aid and support.
- Key To The City. One community present a "key to city" to each of the other communities - assuring them that they will always be welcome in their homes.
- Civic Engagement. Many communities are involved in local civic organizations in their communities.
- Punctuality. One community has begun a program to improve punctuality at community meetings! That's a first.
- Youth. A 15 year old from one community presented their plans to engage more of their youth.
- Jobs. Another 15 year old presented a new program to help with employment. I am continually amazed by how many young people are involved here, and how capable they are. I sat next to another 15 year old young man when we were discussing what we learned. He was very vocal and very engaged. They are an absolute treasure.
El Ojoche
The potters group if El Ojoche is a bit unusual, as it is not a faith community. This is the community with the anti-litter campaign! They are always introduced as "the women with the magical hands". They built a new kiln this year for their work on a piece of land which they purchased as a legal city organization. They want to buy a house so that they can store their tools and common property. They talked about expanding their market and starting a common fund for emergency loans. Many times, a small emergency, such as a medical problem, can totally destroy a family's finances. If they all save a small fund, it can be loaned in those types of cases and paid back at modest interest.
They brought some of their work for the meeting, and it was for sale on the second day. Here's a picture. I purchased one - how could I not! Julieta is helping them put prices on the items.
Another community offered to help them set up sales in their location. That is exactly how this stuff works - they all have relationships through the other communities to resources and ideas they would not have otherwise.
One of the men from a neighboring community commented on their organization, and how these women have worked so hard at building up their business. He was upbraiding the men of the communities for being lazy! Of course, most of them work in the fields and agriculture - but he is right. They have a lot of spare time between things.
Treasure Chests
Last year, at this reunion, AKF distributed "treasure chests" to each of the communities. The community was asked to establish a fund raising goal and a date. The chest is like a savings box, with a slot in the top, and a lock and key. The key was held by the AKF administrator, Helen. If they achieved their goal, AKF promised to match their funds, up to 3,000 cordoba (C$). Dulce Nombre's dream is a new church. They have the plans and the labor committed - they just need the funds to proceed. They set a goal of C$ 3,000 and they collected over C$4,000! (That's about $175 at 22.5 to 1.)
Teustepe
Teustepe had set a goal of C$2,000, and they collected C$2,300. Their goal is a new community center. The other communities had established different time frames for their savings. This "treasure chest" is an ingenious "small step". It is done in a public forum, and creates an incentive to save, to change the normal mode of operation. They realize now that they have some funds themselves which they can invest in their own dreams and plans.
Part of Teustepe's plan for next year is to become a legal entity that can purchase the land they need for their center. They also talked about the worm project, and their loan program. Teustepe also described their "magic sack" which they circulate at each meeting and which is accumulating some funds. Several other communities commented on that idea.
Problems
Every community has some problems. Dulce Nombre lost virtually all of their corn crop because of the unusually heavy and prolonged rains. Other communities are having some organizational issues, etc. AKF promised to prepare an assessment of the difficulties of Dulce Nombre, and promised to suggest to them a way that they might get some assistance.
Summary of the Morning
At the end of the morning, we were asked to talk among ourselves, and summarize the most important things we learned. All of the communities commented on what they learned, and how much they appreciated knowing the other communities, and learning from them. The two new communities made very formal speeches about their potential involvement in the work of the AKF communities. Of course, as Elena pointed out to me, this is only a few of the key families in the larger community - but it does look very positive. They could not have set up a better marketing plan than this, although that was not the primary focus.
Entertainment
The afternoon was dedicated to entertainment. Each community had prepared something to share with the other communities. We had young people doing a variety of dances, from folkloric to a kind of French disco thing. But the hit of the afternoon was Teustepe. Rosario did her usual shtick of lip syncing with an outlandish costume. Here's one photo.
And another:
But the surprise was CORA! When she was visiting with us at Guardian Angels, she commented on how pleased she was to be able to perform the folkloric dance for an audience. For those of you who do not know her, Cora is a very quiet, capable, serious older woman! She has another side to her:
She specifically asked if I had gotten some pictures of her - and if I would send them to her. I assured her that I would do that. I did NOT tell her that she would be all over the WWW! So don't let her know, OK?
Conclusion
Well, that was fun - a lot of work, mind you, but a lot of fun. The preparation is incredible. AKF has to locate chairs and tables, cots, mattresses, places to stay, vehicles, public transport, food, cooks, etc. And then to make it all happen - serving 200 people dinner was a sight to behold. They were at tables and chairs all over the place. And then the clean up! Elena managed to "persuade" (she had them signing up for a game") two groups of young people to do the dishes for dinner and breakfast. But then the team did the rest of the clean up on Monday evening. They even rented some glasses and plates! We could have used a bit more silverware - some folks ate with spoons. The dinner was a chicken stew with a bread stuffing, rice, the beet salad, and bread. First class!
Recommendation
I would highly recommend that Rotary and the Northern Communities consider sending representatives to this each year. They will enjoy it, and they can present what they are doing as parts of this Family. It is a great learning experience, and I think their participation could potentially change the dynamic a bit! The challenge will be how to accommodate their translation needs during the event, and how to coordinate their schedules. Most people would not travel all the way here just for a 2 day event! We could possibly do a "joint" international encounter the week before somehow, and then conclude with this celebration. But that will impose some serious work on AKF. We should be ready to contribute funds and help to make that possible.
How about if we put this on our next agenda for Sister Parish? John?
Monday, December 5, 2011
AKF Communities Reunion
Good morning. It is morning here again - the light starts up at 5:20 or so, and it is now almost 7:00.
We had a party here at the AKF center last night - with dinner and dancing! Here's a small video of the events:
And here is another of one of our team members participating energetically!
The band in this group has one of the team members as the lead guitarist and singer.
I have longer and better ones in my camera which I am keeping for blackmail! Actually, they are all good dancers. There was one of the community members, though, that looked like he was made of rubber. His hips could and did go anywhere! I have to edit that a bit, but I'll post it on YouTube when I get a chance, and send a pointer to it.
Every year, AKF invites ALL of the members of ALL of the communities here to the Center for a reunion. The intent is to let them meet the other communities, to share experiences, and to, generally, have a good time. About 100 people were here yesterday, and spent the night - sleeping everywhere! There are beds, cots, mattresses, hammocks - you name it! A few went with community members from another community. Another 100 or more people will arrive this morning.
The logistics of this are considerable. These folks come from 6 different places, via a variety of transport - most arranged by AKF. They get 3 meals - dinner and breakfast for the overnight guests, and then a splendid noon meal for everyone. I have had a chance to help shop, chop, wash, cut, peel and serve things to this point. I watched with awe as Elena figured out where to have people sleep - the 100 overnight guests included a few children, etc. She has them all in her brain, and she figures out the best accommodation for the person and the community. I have a private room - very cool.
But then I am special! I still have problems understanding them when they speak "normally", but I spent time talking to a variety of folk.
More on this later. I have to go see how breakfast is done!
We had a party here at the AKF center last night - with dinner and dancing! Here's a small video of the events:
And here is another of one of our team members participating energetically!
The band in this group has one of the team members as the lead guitarist and singer.
I have longer and better ones in my camera which I am keeping for blackmail! Actually, they are all good dancers. There was one of the community members, though, that looked like he was made of rubber. His hips could and did go anywhere! I have to edit that a bit, but I'll post it on YouTube when I get a chance, and send a pointer to it.
Every year, AKF invites ALL of the members of ALL of the communities here to the Center for a reunion. The intent is to let them meet the other communities, to share experiences, and to, generally, have a good time. About 100 people were here yesterday, and spent the night - sleeping everywhere! There are beds, cots, mattresses, hammocks - you name it! A few went with community members from another community. Another 100 or more people will arrive this morning.
The logistics of this are considerable. These folks come from 6 different places, via a variety of transport - most arranged by AKF. They get 3 meals - dinner and breakfast for the overnight guests, and then a splendid noon meal for everyone. I have had a chance to help shop, chop, wash, cut, peel and serve things to this point. I watched with awe as Elena figured out where to have people sleep - the 100 overnight guests included a few children, etc. She has them all in her brain, and she figures out the best accommodation for the person and the community. I have a private room - very cool.
But then I am special! I still have problems understanding them when they speak "normally", but I spent time talking to a variety of folk.
More on this later. I have to go see how breakfast is done!
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Preparation is 90% of the Effort - the travelogue continues
When I teach a class, I know that a new subject will take me 4 hours of work for each hour of class. You have to read the text, prepare class discussions, learning exercises, assignments. You have to grade and return the assignments. Well, I just learned that doing an "encuentro" - a meeting - takes about an hour for every hour of the meeting!
I have spent virtually all of the last 2 days with the team preparing for the Rotarian encounter next week - and this has nothing to do with the logistics. That is all done by someone else in some other place! This is just what we want to accomplish, and why, and how. We actually started the topics a few weeks ago, so it takes just a tad longer than one hour for every hour.
I like the product so far - I am anxious to see how it all works out in practice. There will be about 30 people running around here for the biggest day of this - that should be interesting! The very next day after this one, there will be over 200 people here for the annual gathering of all of the communities!
The logistics are another small nightmare. I have been exposed to just a bit of that. Some of the participants are coming from Minnesota, some from Masaya, some from towns near Somitillo - 4 hours north - some from Teustepe, some from the new communities, etc. Just the process of inviting people is pretty amazing when it is done primarily by face to face meetings and follow up contacts. Expecially in the new communities. They do not have a real community yet, with an established meeting - it is all done by walking around, sitting and talking with people and inviting them, one by one!
Then there is getting agreement from participants on where to meet, where to stay, what to eat and when - and then all of the buses and trucks, etc, to get them all there on time - more or less - it is just amazing. One small example, there is going to be a crowd of 30 or so in a small town south of here - near the new communities. Where do we eat? What do we eat? What can we eat! We northerners are a little sensitive to the water, etc. When I am walking around in the community with Luis, he only lets me take something where he knows they are using purified water. For the others, he tells them that this poor chele can't have anything because of his health. And he's right! But I have not had a single problem on this trip as yet.
With the travelogue, we are going to Esteli this weekend for a retreat with two of the communities. Should be interesting. AKF is leading the retreat, and they have spent a few hours working on that as well. I am curious to see the schedule, because a few people have asked me to talk to people in town. I'll have to see where we are situated and what the schedule is like.
Well, the novelty has certainly worn off. I could go home tomorrow. I am hearing Spanish much better - my brain doesn't freeze up quite as much. But the other night, coming back from Teustepe, the driver and one of the passengers talked for an hour or so and I could not catch more than a few words. I figured out they were talking about motorcycles, and that was it. I am sure I know all the words they are using. They just do not pronounce them the way I am used to hearing them - it's a regional thing, I guess. I don't know how to work up to it either!
I'm not speaking it much better - I am still thinking in English (or Italian) and fishing for words. Instead of just saying something, I am still translating. And I think my accent has gone to heck. They keep catching me using the Z sound, and actually pronouncing a V sound. Bad form. I help one of the guards here at night night with his English assignment. He has a heck of a time getting the V sound out. It's worse that an English speaker trying to learn to trill the R. You say "little ladder" a few times - that's where the tongue should be. What do I do with his V?
OK - I'm going to quit for now and look for something to eat here! Take care.
I have spent virtually all of the last 2 days with the team preparing for the Rotarian encounter next week - and this has nothing to do with the logistics. That is all done by someone else in some other place! This is just what we want to accomplish, and why, and how. We actually started the topics a few weeks ago, so it takes just a tad longer than one hour for every hour.
I like the product so far - I am anxious to see how it all works out in practice. There will be about 30 people running around here for the biggest day of this - that should be interesting! The very next day after this one, there will be over 200 people here for the annual gathering of all of the communities!
The logistics are another small nightmare. I have been exposed to just a bit of that. Some of the participants are coming from Minnesota, some from Masaya, some from towns near Somitillo - 4 hours north - some from Teustepe, some from the new communities, etc. Just the process of inviting people is pretty amazing when it is done primarily by face to face meetings and follow up contacts. Expecially in the new communities. They do not have a real community yet, with an established meeting - it is all done by walking around, sitting and talking with people and inviting them, one by one!
Then there is getting agreement from participants on where to meet, where to stay, what to eat and when - and then all of the buses and trucks, etc, to get them all there on time - more or less - it is just amazing. One small example, there is going to be a crowd of 30 or so in a small town south of here - near the new communities. Where do we eat? What do we eat? What can we eat! We northerners are a little sensitive to the water, etc. When I am walking around in the community with Luis, he only lets me take something where he knows they are using purified water. For the others, he tells them that this poor chele can't have anything because of his health. And he's right! But I have not had a single problem on this trip as yet.
With the travelogue, we are going to Esteli this weekend for a retreat with two of the communities. Should be interesting. AKF is leading the retreat, and they have spent a few hours working on that as well. I am curious to see the schedule, because a few people have asked me to talk to people in town. I'll have to see where we are situated and what the schedule is like.
Well, the novelty has certainly worn off. I could go home tomorrow. I am hearing Spanish much better - my brain doesn't freeze up quite as much. But the other night, coming back from Teustepe, the driver and one of the passengers talked for an hour or so and I could not catch more than a few words. I figured out they were talking about motorcycles, and that was it. I am sure I know all the words they are using. They just do not pronounce them the way I am used to hearing them - it's a regional thing, I guess. I don't know how to work up to it either!
I'm not speaking it much better - I am still thinking in English (or Italian) and fishing for words. Instead of just saying something, I am still translating. And I think my accent has gone to heck. They keep catching me using the Z sound, and actually pronouncing a V sound. Bad form. I help one of the guards here at night night with his English assignment. He has a heck of a time getting the V sound out. It's worse that an English speaker trying to learn to trill the R. You say "little ladder" a few times - that's where the tongue should be. What do I do with his V?
OK - I'm going to quit for now and look for something to eat here! Take care.
Thursday, November 17, 2011
Travelogue - Dulce Nombre de Jesus and El Ojoche
Back to the travelogue. I had the opportunity to travel with the team to the far Northern part of Nicaragua to visit these two towns: Dulce Nombre de Jesus and El Ojoche. Since many of you may not have had the opportunity to spend a night in a small town in Nicaragua, this may give you a feel for it.
Roads in Nicaragua
I figure every day I learn something new is a day well spent. Well, this one was a good one. To see where these places are, go to Leon, and keep on going to Somitillo, and hang a right for another 45 minutes or so. The border with Honduras is a few miles further north. It took 4 and one half hours to drive from Managua, so the trips are always overnight. The good thing is that the road to Leon is almost brand new, and one can drive along without worrying about potholes. The Spanish for pothole is "pothole". Actually it is "hoyo" hole, or "bache" bump, rut, etc. Neither of which I can ever remember - but the paper this week used the word "pothole". After Leon, there are some potholes, so there is considerable weaving and swerving about. The gravel road out of Somotillo is actually quite nice. The communities up there persuaded the local government to repair it. It only has a few spots where you need to go a bit more slowly.
The road to some of the other communities is unbelievably bad. I posted a video to YouTube on the one to El Corozo - you can find it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rh9n5Qxq6a4&feature=feedu. It's about 15 kilometers of bumping and jostling along at 5 mph. The curious thing is that as you are going along on this wretched track, all of a sudden, there's a paved section. I'm thinking - yes - they fixed the road. But it only lasts for 100 feet or so, and back to the ruts. Then another paved section, and so on. Turns out, that section of the road was so bad that no one could get through, so they paved it with the standard paving blocks! Bit by bit, I guess.
I am pretty sure that they could save millions of dollars in gasoline here if they really fixed all the roads. Even anywhere in Managua, people are always swerving, or stopping, or crawling along because of the holes in the road. Woodbury even times its traffic lights just to save gas and air pollution.
El Ojoche
We drove over to El Ojoche to hold a brief meeting with the women's pottery group. There were two amazing things about this little town: 1 - there was NO LITTER. None, none whatsoever. You would have thought someone swept the central square and every piece of road, and the yards. I couldn't believe it. Every developing country I have been in, and some areas of developed ones, have lots of litter - plastic bags, trash, etc. It always bothers me, but I figure it takes a certain level of development before you start to worry about trash like that, or turn it into an industry! Our "fearless leader" explained that they had a couple of deaths in the community, and all of a sudden all those words about health and cleaning things up hit home. The disease was Leptosprisosos, spread by the urine of animals like rats, which humans come in contact with through an open wound. I had an ear of corn there, and I could not find a place to put the cob. Our host suggested I feed it to her pig - who obligingly took care of it! Wayne - this is NOT sweet corn, but it tasted pretty good - bit chewy by your standards.
The other thing was that there was a crew of men and boys working on the road! They were putting in rocks and covering them with dirt to take care of a rough downhill section. That's the first time I've seen anyone working on their own road! You pass crews every once in a while - but to have the neighbors pitch in and fix it, that was new. Elena says that this community is really well put together. They do not accompany the community any more - they have reduced the group to just the women's pottery group. That group has raised funds and constructed their own kiln, and seem to be doing pretty well.
What came to me during this visit is that our "project", if you will, is actually about building up the community, helping them establish relationships, build a network, and work together to accomplish whatever they want. If that turns out to be a road or a school or something tangible - that is clearly secondary. That they become a community capable of doing that is the whole goal!
Dulce Nombre de Jesús
I stayed overnight in this community, primarily because they have a well, and most homes have an outhouse. An outhouse I can handle. No outhouse - I am not quite sure what one does. I sat and talked with my host mother and the two children. She made me dinner, and they left me alone with it! That is the culture - they do not eat together - I have never seen it, except on special occasions. I persuaded the 11 year old daughter to visit with me a bit, and the three year old thought my iPod was interesting. I showed them a picture of the other 3 year old in my life - Annalynn. They agreed that I had the most beautiful grandchildren in the whole world! But I had to take their pictures as well. I'll put them here when I get my pictures on the PC.
Dinner was a delightful warm hard boiled egg, some rice and beans. I think the chickens running around there had something to do with it. I had the same dish for breakfast, except the rice and beans were put together to make gallo pinto - the national dish, I swear.
They showed me to the latrine, and my bed. I got the oldest daughter's room - and I thanked her profusely. They also gave me a small fan - it helps with the heat and the mosquitoes! I greatly appreciated that. Of course, there was actually no outlet in my room to charge my iPod, but that's not a big deal. The fan ran in from the other room, and it was just fine.
Housing
I had commented on the house earlier to my host, and she assured me that her husband had constructed it about 6 years ago. It is very solid - masonry, etc. The windows are small - easier to be secured, etc. The roof is mostly tin - there are a few tiles up there. The tiles are much better in the heat. The tin tends to radiate the heat of the sun inside, while the red tiles absorb it a bit. Of course, the floor is a dirt floor - which takes a bit for me to get used to.
Housing all over the developing world is frequently a work in progress. There is no real way to put money aside, other than through informal mechanisms. There are no banks in most towns, and it costs a significant amount to get an account, which comes with withdrawal fees. Most people build their own houses, and they do it brick by brick, board by board, as they have funds available. There is a new one going up right next to where I stayed, which looks a bit unusual. It is cement blocks, it has huge windows and the roof supports are metal framing! I've never seen one with metal frames. The guy welding the metal together had climbed up and tapped two wires directly into the overhead feed and he was using that juice for arc welding!
Beds
Beds here are interesting. Here at the center I have a mattress and a box spring. When I got up in the middle of the night to use the outhouse, I saw that the man of the house was sleeping on a kind of cot in the living room. His daughter was probably in with mom. I have slept on those in the past - in the living room. That is where I would put a guest like me. The cot has a thin piece of canvas or plastic stretched over a wooden frame - no mattress. And, on investigation, my bed was the same construction - a woven piece of material stretched from end to end, with a blanket on top. It's a bit stiff, but it works.
The Well
Now comes the embarrassing part. When I got up in the morning, everyone else was already out and about. I brought my towel out and asked where I should wash. The young lady took me three doors down to the well! It's a rope well, and there was a kind of pond structure with a stopper in it, and a 4 sided bit of fabric where you stand to wash with some privacy! She showed me how to pull the stopper out, so I had a bit of running water - but then the thing ran out - meaning I would have to go back out, run the pump to fill up the reservoir, and go back inside, etc. I was trying to figure out how I could shave and wash the rest of me in that arrangement, finding a place to mount my mirror, put my soup, rest my glasses and my shorts, etc. Normally there is a container of some kind that you actually use to wash, so you don't contaminate the source of the water with soap, etc. None was in evidence. And I couldn't figure out even how to get the stopper back in the pipe in my discreet enclosure. I quickly decided this was just not going to work! So I am sitting back here in Managua, unshaven, and stinky - with the exception of the bit of water I splashed on my head and face! Next time, I'll have to be better trained!!
Spear Fishing
As I was eating my breakfast, the young man of the house - 14 or 15 I would guess, was assembling a spear fishing weapon! This was carved out of wood, with a bit of the shape of a gun. The end was round with a hole in it, and there was a place to mount two tightly wound pieces of elastic hose. The whole thing was maybe 12 inches long. He fussed with this thing for over an hour. He had a long piece of metal as the spear, with a string tied to it. He had an old piece of plastic in the rear to hold the spear straight. He had filed or cut notches in the spear so that a trigger mechanism would hold it. And the twin pieces of elastic were connected to a metal gadget that slipped into another slot carved into the spear. After many failed attempts, and new refinements, he had it working. Then he proceeded to put additional elastic stuff around a swimming visor so he could go into the water and see the fish!
By the time he was done, he must have used 8 different tools - a hammer, knife, pliers, file, scissors, etc. In my world, a bit of epoxy would have solved a lot of his problems. More likely, I would have found one on the Internet somewhere!
He said he was going down to the river this morning to get some fish. I wonder what the local game warden thinks about that?! I hope he was successful! When I have been swimming in a lake, it is pretty rare that you actually see a fish!
Well Project
Here is a bit on the "project" which installed the well which I was having problems with:
Well project: http://blueplanetnetwork.org/projects/nicaragua05.
This is clearly appropriate technology, but I am not sure who owns it and maintains it. I note that they have had some maintenance problems. But I am thankful these folks came by and put this thing in. One that is drilled, with a pump would be nice next time!!
Meeting
We spent virtually the entire morning in a community gathering. This group and an urban one are doing a joint retreat next week, up in Esteli - one of my favorite towns. They had to work on the details of that. And this community has had some dissension recently. Some of the community funds were loaned out, without consulting the entire community. There is always tension around funds, and this was a particularly egregious thing to do. They are working on how to resolve that, without destroying the community. Funds in general are a tough subject in this culture, and any kind of direct "confrontation" is almost impossible. One of the team members described a process that his group uses. The rules are that you first have to complement the person positively on something they do well, and then you can state your perception of something that is bugging you. It's not an accusation - it is YOUR perception, your feeling about it. That's a kind of simple minded Covey thing. First you build up a bit of a positive bank account, putting some trust in the relationship. And then you describe your feelings, not the other person's failure or issue, but how it strikes you. Pretty good for a 1 minute 7 Habits Exercise.
Conclusion
OH - this community did not get any corn this year. The rains were so frequent that the corn never got a chance to fertilize - they have virtually nothing in their crop. They are currently harvesting sesame - but the rain has continued. They need it to be dry, or the sesame will literally rot. We have had 3 days of unusual rain - AFTER the rainy season is supposed to be over.
There is also some kind of virus killing off their hens! If it isn't one thing, it's another. When things are this close to the bone, it doesn't take much to upset the whole program.
OK, Jude - how did I do? Does that work? Until next time!
Roads in Nicaragua
I figure every day I learn something new is a day well spent. Well, this one was a good one. To see where these places are, go to Leon, and keep on going to Somitillo, and hang a right for another 45 minutes or so. The border with Honduras is a few miles further north. It took 4 and one half hours to drive from Managua, so the trips are always overnight. The good thing is that the road to Leon is almost brand new, and one can drive along without worrying about potholes. The Spanish for pothole is "pothole". Actually it is "hoyo" hole, or "bache" bump, rut, etc. Neither of which I can ever remember - but the paper this week used the word "pothole". After Leon, there are some potholes, so there is considerable weaving and swerving about. The gravel road out of Somotillo is actually quite nice. The communities up there persuaded the local government to repair it. It only has a few spots where you need to go a bit more slowly.
The road to some of the other communities is unbelievably bad. I posted a video to YouTube on the one to El Corozo - you can find it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rh9n5Qxq6a4&feature=feedu. It's about 15 kilometers of bumping and jostling along at 5 mph. The curious thing is that as you are going along on this wretched track, all of a sudden, there's a paved section. I'm thinking - yes - they fixed the road. But it only lasts for 100 feet or so, and back to the ruts. Then another paved section, and so on. Turns out, that section of the road was so bad that no one could get through, so they paved it with the standard paving blocks! Bit by bit, I guess.
I am pretty sure that they could save millions of dollars in gasoline here if they really fixed all the roads. Even anywhere in Managua, people are always swerving, or stopping, or crawling along because of the holes in the road. Woodbury even times its traffic lights just to save gas and air pollution.
El Ojoche
We drove over to El Ojoche to hold a brief meeting with the women's pottery group. There were two amazing things about this little town: 1 - there was NO LITTER. None, none whatsoever. You would have thought someone swept the central square and every piece of road, and the yards. I couldn't believe it. Every developing country I have been in, and some areas of developed ones, have lots of litter - plastic bags, trash, etc. It always bothers me, but I figure it takes a certain level of development before you start to worry about trash like that, or turn it into an industry! Our "fearless leader" explained that they had a couple of deaths in the community, and all of a sudden all those words about health and cleaning things up hit home. The disease was Leptosprisosos, spread by the urine of animals like rats, which humans come in contact with through an open wound. I had an ear of corn there, and I could not find a place to put the cob. Our host suggested I feed it to her pig - who obligingly took care of it! Wayne - this is NOT sweet corn, but it tasted pretty good - bit chewy by your standards.
The other thing was that there was a crew of men and boys working on the road! They were putting in rocks and covering them with dirt to take care of a rough downhill section. That's the first time I've seen anyone working on their own road! You pass crews every once in a while - but to have the neighbors pitch in and fix it, that was new. Elena says that this community is really well put together. They do not accompany the community any more - they have reduced the group to just the women's pottery group. That group has raised funds and constructed their own kiln, and seem to be doing pretty well.
What came to me during this visit is that our "project", if you will, is actually about building up the community, helping them establish relationships, build a network, and work together to accomplish whatever they want. If that turns out to be a road or a school or something tangible - that is clearly secondary. That they become a community capable of doing that is the whole goal!
Dulce Nombre de Jesús
I stayed overnight in this community, primarily because they have a well, and most homes have an outhouse. An outhouse I can handle. No outhouse - I am not quite sure what one does. I sat and talked with my host mother and the two children. She made me dinner, and they left me alone with it! That is the culture - they do not eat together - I have never seen it, except on special occasions. I persuaded the 11 year old daughter to visit with me a bit, and the three year old thought my iPod was interesting. I showed them a picture of the other 3 year old in my life - Annalynn. They agreed that I had the most beautiful grandchildren in the whole world! But I had to take their pictures as well. I'll put them here when I get my pictures on the PC.
Dinner was a delightful warm hard boiled egg, some rice and beans. I think the chickens running around there had something to do with it. I had the same dish for breakfast, except the rice and beans were put together to make gallo pinto - the national dish, I swear.
They showed me to the latrine, and my bed. I got the oldest daughter's room - and I thanked her profusely. They also gave me a small fan - it helps with the heat and the mosquitoes! I greatly appreciated that. Of course, there was actually no outlet in my room to charge my iPod, but that's not a big deal. The fan ran in from the other room, and it was just fine.
Housing
I had commented on the house earlier to my host, and she assured me that her husband had constructed it about 6 years ago. It is very solid - masonry, etc. The windows are small - easier to be secured, etc. The roof is mostly tin - there are a few tiles up there. The tiles are much better in the heat. The tin tends to radiate the heat of the sun inside, while the red tiles absorb it a bit. Of course, the floor is a dirt floor - which takes a bit for me to get used to.
Housing all over the developing world is frequently a work in progress. There is no real way to put money aside, other than through informal mechanisms. There are no banks in most towns, and it costs a significant amount to get an account, which comes with withdrawal fees. Most people build their own houses, and they do it brick by brick, board by board, as they have funds available. There is a new one going up right next to where I stayed, which looks a bit unusual. It is cement blocks, it has huge windows and the roof supports are metal framing! I've never seen one with metal frames. The guy welding the metal together had climbed up and tapped two wires directly into the overhead feed and he was using that juice for arc welding!
Beds
Beds here are interesting. Here at the center I have a mattress and a box spring. When I got up in the middle of the night to use the outhouse, I saw that the man of the house was sleeping on a kind of cot in the living room. His daughter was probably in with mom. I have slept on those in the past - in the living room. That is where I would put a guest like me. The cot has a thin piece of canvas or plastic stretched over a wooden frame - no mattress. And, on investigation, my bed was the same construction - a woven piece of material stretched from end to end, with a blanket on top. It's a bit stiff, but it works.
The Well
Now comes the embarrassing part. When I got up in the morning, everyone else was already out and about. I brought my towel out and asked where I should wash. The young lady took me three doors down to the well! It's a rope well, and there was a kind of pond structure with a stopper in it, and a 4 sided bit of fabric where you stand to wash with some privacy! She showed me how to pull the stopper out, so I had a bit of running water - but then the thing ran out - meaning I would have to go back out, run the pump to fill up the reservoir, and go back inside, etc. I was trying to figure out how I could shave and wash the rest of me in that arrangement, finding a place to mount my mirror, put my soup, rest my glasses and my shorts, etc. Normally there is a container of some kind that you actually use to wash, so you don't contaminate the source of the water with soap, etc. None was in evidence. And I couldn't figure out even how to get the stopper back in the pipe in my discreet enclosure. I quickly decided this was just not going to work! So I am sitting back here in Managua, unshaven, and stinky - with the exception of the bit of water I splashed on my head and face! Next time, I'll have to be better trained!!
Spear Fishing
As I was eating my breakfast, the young man of the house - 14 or 15 I would guess, was assembling a spear fishing weapon! This was carved out of wood, with a bit of the shape of a gun. The end was round with a hole in it, and there was a place to mount two tightly wound pieces of elastic hose. The whole thing was maybe 12 inches long. He fussed with this thing for over an hour. He had a long piece of metal as the spear, with a string tied to it. He had an old piece of plastic in the rear to hold the spear straight. He had filed or cut notches in the spear so that a trigger mechanism would hold it. And the twin pieces of elastic were connected to a metal gadget that slipped into another slot carved into the spear. After many failed attempts, and new refinements, he had it working. Then he proceeded to put additional elastic stuff around a swimming visor so he could go into the water and see the fish!
By the time he was done, he must have used 8 different tools - a hammer, knife, pliers, file, scissors, etc. In my world, a bit of epoxy would have solved a lot of his problems. More likely, I would have found one on the Internet somewhere!
He said he was going down to the river this morning to get some fish. I wonder what the local game warden thinks about that?! I hope he was successful! When I have been swimming in a lake, it is pretty rare that you actually see a fish!
Well Project
Here is a bit on the "project" which installed the well which I was having problems with:
Well project: http://blueplanetnetwork.org/projects/nicaragua05.
This is clearly appropriate technology, but I am not sure who owns it and maintains it. I note that they have had some maintenance problems. But I am thankful these folks came by and put this thing in. One that is drilled, with a pump would be nice next time!!
Meeting
We spent virtually the entire morning in a community gathering. This group and an urban one are doing a joint retreat next week, up in Esteli - one of my favorite towns. They had to work on the details of that. And this community has had some dissension recently. Some of the community funds were loaned out, without consulting the entire community. There is always tension around funds, and this was a particularly egregious thing to do. They are working on how to resolve that, without destroying the community. Funds in general are a tough subject in this culture, and any kind of direct "confrontation" is almost impossible. One of the team members described a process that his group uses. The rules are that you first have to complement the person positively on something they do well, and then you can state your perception of something that is bugging you. It's not an accusation - it is YOUR perception, your feeling about it. That's a kind of simple minded Covey thing. First you build up a bit of a positive bank account, putting some trust in the relationship. And then you describe your feelings, not the other person's failure or issue, but how it strikes you. Pretty good for a 1 minute 7 Habits Exercise.
Conclusion
OH - this community did not get any corn this year. The rains were so frequent that the corn never got a chance to fertilize - they have virtually nothing in their crop. They are currently harvesting sesame - but the rain has continued. They need it to be dry, or the sesame will literally rot. We have had 3 days of unusual rain - AFTER the rainy season is supposed to be over.
There is also some kind of virus killing off their hens! If it isn't one thing, it's another. When things are this close to the bone, it doesn't take much to upset the whole program.
OK, Jude - how did I do? Does that work? Until next time!
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Bean Production - Popular Education
Judy says, "Enough with the development stuff - get back to the stories and travelogue!" Well, maybe next time, Love.
Bean Production
I saw a piece in today's paper - El Nuevo Diario - that peaked my interest. If you want to read it in the original, it is here: Bean Production Nicaragua. (If your Spanish isn't that good, Google will translate it for you, or I can send you a Word document with both versions.) This caught my attention because the new communities we are working with are basically agricultural. On our last visit, we spent quite a bit of time walking through some bean and coffee fields with the owners of these plots. I am not sure how they determine where theirs starts and another stops, but it does seem to work. AKF has a lot of ideas about how to help farmers, and we have, in the past, visited two "farm schools" that use organic, sustainable technologies to assist farmers.
This article also describes a coordinated effort between a whole bunch of different funding and education and technical resources. I am sitting here in the middle of things, and it is very clear to me that there are lots of people here working on lots of things in very effective ways. There is great energy and hope in all of this. So I thought I would explore this one a bit to see what we can learn.
Participants
Here are the major players in this bean harvest improvement:
Who Did the Hard Work?
But how on earth did this actually come to be? Who engaged the farmers, and got them working together and interested in this kind of thing? Who found the funding, got the trainers there, coordinated the technical assistance, the business vision, etc.?
Here is another TechnoServe project with coffee and cocoa production: TechnoServe cocoa in Nicaragua. I like the way these things work - but how do they ever get off the ground? They seem to already have a cooperating group of farmers - a collective or cooperative of some kind. But that very work is the genius of this whole thing. Coops are relatively recent here - and the whole idea of cooperatively owning things is a very scary proposition for this culture. Trust with communal funds is one of those cultural factors that typically impedes development. There are other good examples of coops here that are doing very well. How did they actually get started? I really need to see a study of that process.
Maybe some of my readers (all 4 of you!) can point me to more details on how this works. At the moment, I have to assume that they all began in some way with the process that AKF is using for these communities. First you establish a relationship of trust, get to know the leaders, help them identify their problems, help them organize to solve them. There is a whole body of literature on this to which I am not privy. Ah, more reading. It's really about building up social capital - see Robert Putnam - Bowling Alone. http://www.infed.org/thinkers/putnam.htm.
Here are a couple of other resources I intend to pursue:
An "Ideal" Sustainable? Project
In looking for more "community development" sources, I found this one that looks like an "ideal" project that our Rotarians would just love to be part of. It is a video of a "sustainable project" in Nicaragua:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Y0AvDmLCH0. Expand the text on the bottom to read a bit more about it.
Doesn't that just make you want to get down there and join in? There is a bit more here on the history of this: http://www.soltranslators.com/lacd.html.
It looks like a wonderful undertaking, but, and I almost hesitate to say this - this is NOT a sustainable development. This clinic they built depends heavily on North American aid and resources and likely will be that way forever. It will do really good work, and help a lot of people - but the people are not doing it themselves. It is saving babies - and it feels good, looks good, etc. But it's not keeping them from being tossed in the river. It is very hard to swim upstream! Everything in us wants to just get in there and help.
The sewing coops the article cites may be an exception - but, long term, textile manufacturing is not a great idea. There is a huge factory right here in Ciudad Sandino that has been sitting idle for years because the company that built it, with an IMF loan, found it was cheaper to move textile manufacturing to China! Everything I read says that textile manufacturing will soon be so automated that it can be done anywhere - independent of the labor costs. Then what? My guess is you make it near where you want to sell it. It is usually chaper to ship the raw materials than the finished product.
Lots of thunder and lightening here. Another "unusual" November rainstorm. It's actually called "global wierding" for the weather patterns.
Bean Production
I saw a piece in today's paper - El Nuevo Diario - that peaked my interest. If you want to read it in the original, it is here: Bean Production Nicaragua. (If your Spanish isn't that good, Google will translate it for you, or I can send you a Word document with both versions.) This caught my attention because the new communities we are working with are basically agricultural. On our last visit, we spent quite a bit of time walking through some bean and coffee fields with the owners of these plots. I am not sure how they determine where theirs starts and another stops, but it does seem to work. AKF has a lot of ideas about how to help farmers, and we have, in the past, visited two "farm schools" that use organic, sustainable technologies to assist farmers.
This article also describes a coordinated effort between a whole bunch of different funding and education and technical resources. I am sitting here in the middle of things, and it is very clear to me that there are lots of people here working on lots of things in very effective ways. There is great energy and hope in all of this. So I thought I would explore this one a bit to see what we can learn.
Participants
Here are the major players in this bean harvest improvement:
- CRS - seems to have had the lead role, since it says that AID was working under their coordination. They appear to be all over the place. A very good friend of mine worked in their headquarters for many years as their strategic planning resource.
- US AID - seems to have provided the funding and some oversight. US tax dollars at work - creatively. This one was a modest investment of $30,000, and it increased the local farm production of beans 100% - not bad. I guess I should not be surprised that this entity appears so frequently - the author of Culture Matters ran this enterprise for 15 years - he seems to have given it a good long term focus.
- TehcnoServe - an organization focused on economic development through business methods. They have a web site, and a small collection of success stories in Nicaragua. See: http://www.technoserve.org/. They seem to be the glue, and the facilitators of this whole thing.
- Escuelas de Campo de Agricultores, ECA - no website that I can find, and I am not sure if it is an organization or a methodology. But there are lots of publications out there that cite this group or method with success stories. The methodology is a way of teaching farmers how to use local technology to increase yields. They seem to do it in a very communitarian manner. The school is the field, there is no teacher, but rather a facilitator, the goal is to achieve consensus in the community about how to proceed, etc. They use words like: "This philosophy is carried out according to the following principles: utility, reality, ownership, equity, respectful solidarity, and environmental sustainability." Works for me!
- The Farmers. In this case, 38 farmers worked with the school on their farming methods. Now, with the help of TechnoServe, they are going to build a processing plant, and sell their services on how to do this to the other 200 farmers in town. This certainly sounds like sustainable development.
Who Did the Hard Work?
But how on earth did this actually come to be? Who engaged the farmers, and got them working together and interested in this kind of thing? Who found the funding, got the trainers there, coordinated the technical assistance, the business vision, etc.?
Here is another TechnoServe project with coffee and cocoa production: TechnoServe cocoa in Nicaragua. I like the way these things work - but how do they ever get off the ground? They seem to already have a cooperating group of farmers - a collective or cooperative of some kind. But that very work is the genius of this whole thing. Coops are relatively recent here - and the whole idea of cooperatively owning things is a very scary proposition for this culture. Trust with communal funds is one of those cultural factors that typically impedes development. There are other good examples of coops here that are doing very well. How did they actually get started? I really need to see a study of that process.
Maybe some of my readers (all 4 of you!) can point me to more details on how this works. At the moment, I have to assume that they all began in some way with the process that AKF is using for these communities. First you establish a relationship of trust, get to know the leaders, help them identify their problems, help them organize to solve them. There is a whole body of literature on this to which I am not privy. Ah, more reading. It's really about building up social capital - see Robert Putnam - Bowling Alone. http://www.infed.org/thinkers/putnam.htm.
Here are a couple of other resources I intend to pursue:
- Popular Education and Social Change in Latin America by Liam Kane - looks like one I will be reading.
- Development in Practice, a journal on the topic. Development in Practice. It looks like it provides free access to faculty - I should qualify.
- http://www.infed.org/community/b-comdv.htm - A nice overview of the topic, with an extensive bibliography, but it seems to be mostly focused on North America and Europe.
- http://www.infed.org/community/b-compar.htm This one talks a bit about Saul Alinsky - an old friend in this literature. Many other sources cited here, such as this one:
- Burkey, S. (1993) People First. A guide to self-reliant, participatory rural development, London: Zed Books. 243 + xix pages. Just what the sub-title says - a compilation of practice wisdom plus some framing. Chapters on understanding poverty; development; self-reliant participatory development; agents of change; the training and support of change agents; getting started; working with people; external relationships; savings, credits and inputs; objectives and principles.
An "Ideal" Sustainable? Project
In looking for more "community development" sources, I found this one that looks like an "ideal" project that our Rotarians would just love to be part of. It is a video of a "sustainable project" in Nicaragua:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Y0AvDmLCH0. Expand the text on the bottom to read a bit more about it.
Doesn't that just make you want to get down there and join in? There is a bit more here on the history of this: http://www.soltranslators.com/lacd.html.
It looks like a wonderful undertaking, but, and I almost hesitate to say this - this is NOT a sustainable development. This clinic they built depends heavily on North American aid and resources and likely will be that way forever. It will do really good work, and help a lot of people - but the people are not doing it themselves. It is saving babies - and it feels good, looks good, etc. But it's not keeping them from being tossed in the river. It is very hard to swim upstream! Everything in us wants to just get in there and help.
The sewing coops the article cites may be an exception - but, long term, textile manufacturing is not a great idea. There is a huge factory right here in Ciudad Sandino that has been sitting idle for years because the company that built it, with an IMF loan, found it was cheaper to move textile manufacturing to China! Everything I read says that textile manufacturing will soon be so automated that it can be done anywhere - independent of the labor costs. Then what? My guess is you make it near where you want to sell it. It is usually chaper to ship the raw materials than the finished product.
Lots of thunder and lightening here. Another "unusual" November rainstorm. It's actually called "global wierding" for the weather patterns.
"Projects" and Sustainable Development and Community Building
Introduction
If you have been following along here at all, you realize that I went to Nicaragua trying to help a Rotary "initiative". They call it an "initiative" to distinguish it from a "project". And you say, "Who cares what you call it. They are just trying to help out."
Well, yes, but in a very different fashion from the normal "development project". But we have a small problem here. The vision of this in the heads of the participants, on both sides of the coin, is probably ultimately a PROJECT. Both my Rotarian friends, as well as the communities here, want to know when the REAL WORK starts. When do WE or YOU build something, deliver something, make something? And the only answer we can give right now - I dunno - maybe never.
NO PROJECTS
IMHO, I do not think that any flavor of "project" is our goal here. What we are about is building capable communities that are self sustaining, and are able to undertake projects, if they so choose. If there are projects, they are theirs, they own them, they complete them, they fund them, they find the resources to make them work - and they say, at the end, "we did it ourselves". We want to help, but not take the ownership away from them. With that result, we have truly sustainable development - empowered, capable human beings who are full partners in this enterprise we call life.
Why can't they do that without any help? I am sure they would eventually come to that, but it might take a long time. Their history, their climate, the influence of centuries of other ways of thinking, has disabled them, removed some of their sense of power and ability. They have the ability - they just don't see it at the moment. That's another way of saying, "their culture does not support development well". See my prior notes on culture.
Or, they have a "cultural disability". A new phrase! Jude always tells me that I should not say bad things about a people's culture. I always reply, I am just criticizing little parts of it. If I say "differently abled" or "cultural disability" - does that work better? I marvel at the culture of Rome. They conquered the known world, built roads, aqueducts, etc. But their concept of mathematics really sucks! Who would choose that over Arabic numerals? I also like the British concept of government much more than the Roman one. And I like the Enlightenment much more than Feudal society. Who can argue with that? And the dominant U.S. culture is that we are in charge of the world - for good or ill. We can fix anything - even an entire country.
Sustainable Development
Rotary started down this path looking to emulate the UN project to end poverty through "sustainable development" - from Jeffrey Sach's book, The End of Poverty. He is on to something. The wealthier countries have literally poured billions of dollars into developing economies to help them move forward, with very little to show for it. What's the problem? Sachs is of the mind that it is primarily a resource shortage that locks people into a cycle of poverty. He is persuaded that once you help them above the edge of that scarcity cycle, they can develop on their own. Rotary started off in Nicaragua looking for a way to take part in truly "sustainable development".
The UN projects have many millions of dollars behind them, and a 5 year time frame. The first trials are nearing their completion. I would say the UN results so far are pretty mixed. The efforts to date look a lot like projects to me, but they do have sustainable parts to them. There are some decent commentaries on the WWW. The Wikipedia entry on this is pretty good: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_development.
Look especially at the portions that talk abut "sustainability" and "capacity building". For criticisms, see: Criticism Basis and Criticism Results.
I am persuaded that there is a better way - that is to build communities, not buildings, not cooperatives. The goal is to empower the people, build their capacity to run their own lives It is a lot harder to accomplish, but the results are much more permanent and long lasting. And, the people know that the product is theirs.
Concrete Examples
Instead of trying to describe the differences between "projects" and "sustainable development" or "community building initiatives" abstractly, this article presents a list of examples of the two types of undertakings. I am telling stories. People love stories - it is what we did for thousands of years around camp fires.
Bean Production in Nicaragua
This is from the newspaper of mid November, El Nuevo Diario. If you want to read it in the original, it is here: Bean Production Nicaragua. ( If your Spanish isn't that good, Google will translate it for you, or I can send you a Word document with both versions in it.)
This article describes a coordinated effort between a group of different funding and education and technical resources to increase agricultural production. The results were:
There are some holes in this narrative - just how did this get started? Who engaged the farmers, and got them working together and interested in this kind of thing? Who found the funding, got the trainers there, coordinated the technical assistance, the business vision, etc.?
Is this sustainable? What happens when these agencies go elsewhere?
Cocoa Production Cooperative
This is another TechnoServe project with coffee and cocoa production: TechnoServe cocoa in Nicaragua. This one seems to already have a cooperating group of farmers in place - a collective or cooperative of some kind. But that very work is the genius of this whole thing. It does not describe how they actually got started, but what do you think? Is this sustainable? One of the interesting things here is that these farmers were part of the "contras" during the civil war.
Here is a video describing the work of Technoserve: TehnoServe on YouTube. They listen first, help explore opportunities, etc. They are clearly leaving things behind that will thrive. It may not be perfect, but I like it. What do you think?
Medical Clinic in Nicaragua
Here is a video describing the construction and staffing of a medical clinic in Nicaragua.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Y0AvDmLCH0.
The background and history of this is here: http://www.soltranslators.com/lacd.html. They include a long list of accomplishments:
This appears to be a fine result, lots of fine results.. We have a fine, permanent building, a medical clinic which is clearly needed here. It is staffed by volunteer medical professionals from the North, who bring or send supplies on a regular basis. We have new roofs, water, sewing machines, etc. There appears to be a mechanism for continuing contributions from outside to sustain all of this.
Is it sustainable? Is there any word on how the community participated in this, or what they think about it, or their part in it? Does the community think this is the result of their efforts in any way? What is your guess as to the answer to those things?
Could it have been done in a different manner? What would that result look like? My ultimate test - what happens when the givers get tired, and the organizers move on to something else. How much of this will continue to operate? Who thinks they own the result?
El Ojoche, Chinendega, Nicaragua
There is a lot of litter in the developing world. I've seen it in Nicaragua and in Africa. Heck, there is a lot of litter in Rome! They sweep the streets every day because they have to! When you first arrive in El Ojoche, the first thing you notice is that there is NO LITTER. There is not a scrap of paper, not a piece of trash, not a plastic bag anywhere. And this is not the result of any commercial recycling - this is the result of an empowered community. This community has been accompanied by the AKF organization for over 10 years. They started as a church sister parish relationship, and now the formal accompaniment is down to a women's ceramic cooperative. The rest of the town decided they don't need help any more!
The clean streets program started when two members of the community contracted a strange illness and died. It was leptospirosis, a bacterial disease spread through animal urine that contaminates the water supply. The AKF team had been training them on health and wellness issues, and the community one day decided that the trash had to go - and it went. A clean town has other incidental effects. There is something called the "clean windows syndrome". Or the "broken windows syndrome". If you keep the environment looking good, people tend to respond to that. They do the same things in their yards, and in their homes. They take more pride in what they own, and in who they are. The mayor of New York understood that when he set out to eliminate litter in New York City, and to clean up the subways. Others get the message - people here care about this place, and we don't want you messing it up either.
When I first arrived in the community, there was a team of men and boys repairing the road. They were digging in it, positioning rocks for a solid foundation, and bringing in wheelbarrows of dirt and fill. They plan to extend the usable road all the way through town. Some of the roads in Nicaragua are really in bad shape - but I have yet to see a crew of neighbors working on it! That also comes from an empowered community.
The women's ceramic cooperative in this town recently raised money to construct their own kiln. They sell goods through Esperanza in Accion, out of Managua. That group helped them raise the quality of their goods, and taught them how to value the effort they put into their products. See this piece on this group, complete with pictures of their work: Women's Pottery Coop.
This community also administers a small loan program, with AKF as the banking agent. It has been very successful, and they charge 1.5% annual interest on the loans. It is much less than any other source of funds, and it will help ensure that the fund will continue.
There is also a water project in town, funded by the Rotary club of Leon, and the Albina Rotary club, in cooperation with Nuevas Esperanzas and Food for the Hungry. It started with a single storage tank, and has expanded to large tanks to hold rainwater for use during the dry season. They have a local water committee which is responsible for the water system and are very involved in just how this system was installed and is operated. You can read more about it here: http://www.nuevasesperanzas.org/ElOjochespring.html, and here: http://www.matchinggrants.org/pdf/info1414.pdf. Interesting - this last site is a Rotary effort to publicize their matching grants program: http://www.matchinggrants.org/.
So, ten years to get a clean environment, a road repair project, a small loan program managed by the community, a potter's kiln for goods sent to market, and a water storage system - not too bad. Is it sustainable? What do you think? If AKF and the other contributors were to go away tomorrow, what would happen to this community? Who thinks they own these results? Are there more things they can do - I would hope so. I expect that this is only the beginning.
Nueva Esperanza Projects
The El Ojoche water storage is a Nueva Esperanza project. And they have many others on their web site that look very interesting. http://www.nuevasesperanzas.org/index.html This one is a roadworks project undertaken by the communities involved: http://www.nuevasesperanzas.org/Roadworks.html. There is not enough background on these to really understand how they are accomplishing this - but it appears to be a community based effort for the most part. It would be amazing to introduce the people of El Corozo to the people from San Jacinto and El Ojochal del Listón. El Corozo sorely needs a better road.
Sustainable?
Teustepe Worm Fertilizer Project
Teustepe is a little unusual in that the community there is really a small community within a larger urban setting. This group of individuals and families has had a sister relationship with a church from Minnesota for over 25 years. The relationship started with projects. The Northerners sent down funds to buy a herd of cows to provide mik for the children. They sent funds to put a roof on the baseball stadium. You know of course, that baseball is the national sport! They collected used typewriters and sent them down so they could start a commercial school to teach people to type - that was before computers!
The Northerners visited them, and they came to visit up North. Over the years, this relationship moved from projects to accompaniment. Now the two communities are family to each other, and they support each other. AKF became a partner and facilitator in all of this about 15 years ago. They provide community based education to the community - about leadership, organization, women's rights, etc. They also facilitate the community's discussions and decisions A few years ago, AKF pushed his relationship to set off on a new course. From that point on, Teustepe is expected to contribute to each gathering, to each delegation, to each enterprise. They pay some portion of the cost, they provide some portion of the food, etc. They are responsible partners in this enterprise.
The town has always had a water problem. Some of the leaders of this group became participants in a town wide effort to persuade the mayor and the legislature that they should have a new water facility. Thanks to their hard work, it became a reality. It is currently suffering some problems, but they are working on that.
They also set about a year long project to create a dream - what do they really need and want to do. They decided that they need a community center. They have been meeting for years in the old church, but access to it is not guaranteed, and it does not really have any facilities - kitchen or otherwise. Just deciding to develop a center brought a lot of other decisions to the fore - such as forming a legal entity which could own land and construct a building. That whole discussion has caused them to grow and mature. They also started their own fund raising to raise funds for the building. They are slowly gathering funds from their own members.
A year or so ago, one of the Northerners, a Rotarian, pitched the idea of a worm fertilizer project to the community that would be funded by Rotary. He also contacted a local government agency, AMUB, which is funded by the area municipalities to foster development. AMUB put together a plan, which basically had these features:
Sustainable? We should see some organizc farming enhancement, some additional wealth created, and we have a community who understands that this is THEIR program, done their way. I honestly thought this would never get to this point, but it did!
Teustepe Small Loan Program
This same community has a small loan program, with a 93% repayment rate - a phenomenal success in this type of finance. Most of these programs have to charge from 25% to 100% interest to just cover their losses. Why does this one succeed? Here are the characteristics:
This works because this is a responsible community, and they have created the mechanism and the structure to enable this program to succeed. They own this financing agency that they have created.
Sustainable?
El Carmen Matiguas Water Project
See this reference: El Carmen Matiguas Water Project. This outfit does this kind of project all the time. This one provided a water system from mountain streams to a town of 612 people. Their only prior water source before this were some extremely polluted streams.
A major part of the project is the capacity building in the community before any work is started. There has to be a community organization, which is committed to doing the work, and maintaining the system. The municipality has to support the project. The labor contribution of the community amounted to $25,000 or so of the total $100,000 cost. Other funding sources were used, and the city also made a small contribution. Annual maintenance costs are estimated at $800, which the community has committed to do.
The Word document on the page is in Spanish, but it describes the organization of the community, and the fact that they became a legal entity that is responsible for this project and its continued maintenance. The responsible agency here - PWX - seems to understand how to do this. If we have a water project at any point, they would be a good contact.
Sustainable?
Cristo Rey - New Life Nicaragua
This work is by a mission family from the US who first came to Nicaragua to help the people living in the dump of Managua. And they do amazing things. On their home page there is a 10 minute video about their work There is an orphanage, feeding program, housing program, etc.
http://www.newlifenicaragua.org/
There are three other videos on their work here.
http://vimeo.com/newlifenicaragua
Watch the first one about the orphanage and the re-nutrition center. Talk about saving babies in the stream! These people have clearly done it.
If you have watched these videos, you will understand why I do not want to say anything bad about this work. These kids would likely not survive, and would certainly not grow to be healthy, capable adults. The new homes are replacing pieces of wood and plastic - which is a fairly common home in somany me parts of Managua. It is hard to watch this and not want to help.
There is very little information on how they do this, other than these videos. Based on the films, like the one where they are doing a census in Tipitapa, it looks like an external effort, funded by donations from the US, which gives food and homes to poor Nicaraguans. They are running a farm, and they use the food for the children. They have a medical clinic, staffed by a US doctor. They talk about using the facility to train local people in the technology.
There is also a blog, which has some additional information: http://www.newlifenicaragua.org/blog/tag/adoption. They feed 175 kids a day, and have built 43 homes. Kids that are not adopted are in foster care - mostly with US missionary families. They host medical missions which provide the care in the clinic. They have had some personal health problems etc. It is worth reading the blog to get a bit of perspective on how this all works.
Is it sustainable? What happens when the funding stops? Clearly there are some long term benefits - some capable, healthy people will grow to be mature adults. Those adults, however, may be laboring under the impression that all that is good and rich comes from the North, and not from themselves. That's the only negative comment I can manage.
Water Wells
Water wells are a classic type of project. Let's face it, getting water is one of the basic essentials of life. And isntalling a well should be a nobrainer. Once it is in, it works and provides water, right? Well, what about parts and repairs? Even if the parts are available, the knowledge to repair it is essential; and even if that is present, there is the small matter of the cost. In my few trips to Africa, there are many abandoned water works all over the place. It is very hard for a really poor community to maintain a water well. The truly sustainable approach also makes sure that repair and replacement is in place. See this reference for more details on that.
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/12/13/to-maintain-water-pumps-it-takes-more-than-a-village/
Conclusion
This is way too long already. But do you notice any common thread? Are the sustainable efforts any less beneficial? Do they take longer? Is there some way the other ones could be transformed into sustainable ones at this point? Why might that be difficult? And . . . just how are you going to help here?
It is snowing as I write this - good old Minnesota. It is good to be home!
If you have been following along here at all, you realize that I went to Nicaragua trying to help a Rotary "initiative". They call it an "initiative" to distinguish it from a "project". And you say, "Who cares what you call it. They are just trying to help out."
Well, yes, but in a very different fashion from the normal "development project". But we have a small problem here. The vision of this in the heads of the participants, on both sides of the coin, is probably ultimately a PROJECT. Both my Rotarian friends, as well as the communities here, want to know when the REAL WORK starts. When do WE or YOU build something, deliver something, make something? And the only answer we can give right now - I dunno - maybe never.
NO PROJECTS
IMHO, I do not think that any flavor of "project" is our goal here. What we are about is building capable communities that are self sustaining, and are able to undertake projects, if they so choose. If there are projects, they are theirs, they own them, they complete them, they fund them, they find the resources to make them work - and they say, at the end, "we did it ourselves". We want to help, but not take the ownership away from them. With that result, we have truly sustainable development - empowered, capable human beings who are full partners in this enterprise we call life.
Why can't they do that without any help? I am sure they would eventually come to that, but it might take a long time. Their history, their climate, the influence of centuries of other ways of thinking, has disabled them, removed some of their sense of power and ability. They have the ability - they just don't see it at the moment. That's another way of saying, "their culture does not support development well". See my prior notes on culture.
Or, they have a "cultural disability". A new phrase! Jude always tells me that I should not say bad things about a people's culture. I always reply, I am just criticizing little parts of it. If I say "differently abled" or "cultural disability" - does that work better? I marvel at the culture of Rome. They conquered the known world, built roads, aqueducts, etc. But their concept of mathematics really sucks! Who would choose that over Arabic numerals? I also like the British concept of government much more than the Roman one. And I like the Enlightenment much more than Feudal society. Who can argue with that? And the dominant U.S. culture is that we are in charge of the world - for good or ill. We can fix anything - even an entire country.
Sustainable Development
Rotary started down this path looking to emulate the UN project to end poverty through "sustainable development" - from Jeffrey Sach's book, The End of Poverty. He is on to something. The wealthier countries have literally poured billions of dollars into developing economies to help them move forward, with very little to show for it. What's the problem? Sachs is of the mind that it is primarily a resource shortage that locks people into a cycle of poverty. He is persuaded that once you help them above the edge of that scarcity cycle, they can develop on their own. Rotary started off in Nicaragua looking for a way to take part in truly "sustainable development".
The UN projects have many millions of dollars behind them, and a 5 year time frame. The first trials are nearing their completion. I would say the UN results so far are pretty mixed. The efforts to date look a lot like projects to me, but they do have sustainable parts to them. There are some decent commentaries on the WWW. The Wikipedia entry on this is pretty good: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_development.
Look especially at the portions that talk abut "sustainability" and "capacity building". For criticisms, see: Criticism Basis and Criticism Results.
I am persuaded that there is a better way - that is to build communities, not buildings, not cooperatives. The goal is to empower the people, build their capacity to run their own lives It is a lot harder to accomplish, but the results are much more permanent and long lasting. And, the people know that the product is theirs.
Concrete Examples
Instead of trying to describe the differences between "projects" and "sustainable development" or "community building initiatives" abstractly, this article presents a list of examples of the two types of undertakings. I am telling stories. People love stories - it is what we did for thousands of years around camp fires.
Bean Production in Nicaragua
This is from the newspaper of mid November, El Nuevo Diario. If you want to read it in the original, it is here: Bean Production Nicaragua. ( If your Spanish isn't that good, Google will translate it for you, or I can send you a Word document with both versions in it.)
This article describes a coordinated effort between a group of different funding and education and technical resources to increase agricultural production. The results were:
- 100% increased bean production for a small group of farmers.
- The start of an enterprise to assist another 200 farmers in this area to do the same thing.
- CRS - seems to have had the lead role, since it says that AID was working under their coordination.
- US AID - AID provided the funding and some sense of oversight.
- TehcnoServe - an organization focused on economic development through business methods. They have a web site, and a small collection of success stories in Nicaragua. See: http://www.technoserve.org/. They seem to be the glue, and the facilitators of this whole thing.
- Escuelas de Campo de Agricultores, ECA. There are lots of publications on the web that cite this group or method and their stories. The methodology is a way of teaching farmers how to use local technology to increase yields. They seem to do it in a very communitarian manner. The school is the field, there is no teacher but rather a facilitator, the goal is to achieve consensus in the community about how to proceed, etc. They use words like: "This philosophy is carried out according to the following principles: utility, reality, ownership, equity, respectful solidarity, and environmental sustainability."
- The Farmers. In this case, 38 farmers worked with the school on their production, and with the help of TechnoServe, they plan to build a processing plant, and sell their services on how to do this to the other 200 farmers in town.
There are some holes in this narrative - just how did this get started? Who engaged the farmers, and got them working together and interested in this kind of thing? Who found the funding, got the trainers there, coordinated the technical assistance, the business vision, etc.?
Is this sustainable? What happens when these agencies go elsewhere?
Cocoa Production Cooperative
This is another TechnoServe project with coffee and cocoa production: TechnoServe cocoa in Nicaragua. This one seems to already have a cooperating group of farmers in place - a collective or cooperative of some kind. But that very work is the genius of this whole thing. It does not describe how they actually got started, but what do you think? Is this sustainable? One of the interesting things here is that these farmers were part of the "contras" during the civil war.
Here is a video describing the work of Technoserve: TehnoServe on YouTube. They listen first, help explore opportunities, etc. They are clearly leaving things behind that will thrive. It may not be perfect, but I like it. What do you think?
Medical Clinic in Nicaragua
Here is a video describing the construction and staffing of a medical clinic in Nicaragua.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Y0AvDmLCH0.
The background and history of this is here: http://www.soltranslators.com/lacd.html. They include a long list of accomplishments:
- Water tank for clean drinking water in Potrilleros
- Computer classes for teachers
- Refurbished computers to schools
- Swing set for school
- Electricity for school
- Books/encyclopedias
- Medical visits & dental visits
- Roofs on homes in Calishuate
- School supplies for students and teachers
- Medical clinic built in Calishuate
- Medical equipment to 2 hospitals and three clinics
- Sewing/embroidery machines and supplies to begin co-op
- Nursing school for Nicaraguan coordinator
- Iron bars around windows and locks on doors for school security
Goals
- To supply tin roofs to families with inadequate shelter
- To assist the committee in Latin America with their most pressing needs whether it be building medical clinics and cultural centers, supplying school supplies and books, teacher training, fertilizer for crops, sports equipment, computers and software, or assistance in developing sewing co-ops or pottery/art groups.
Programs
- Sewing co-ops in Calishuate and Potrilleros Nicaragua
- Cultural groups (teaching art and dance)
- Mentoring program
- Sports clubs in various towns
- Scholarships for students interested in community development
- Team trips to build unity and learn from each other
This appears to be a fine result, lots of fine results.. We have a fine, permanent building, a medical clinic which is clearly needed here. It is staffed by volunteer medical professionals from the North, who bring or send supplies on a regular basis. We have new roofs, water, sewing machines, etc. There appears to be a mechanism for continuing contributions from outside to sustain all of this.
Is it sustainable? Is there any word on how the community participated in this, or what they think about it, or their part in it? Does the community think this is the result of their efforts in any way? What is your guess as to the answer to those things?
Could it have been done in a different manner? What would that result look like? My ultimate test - what happens when the givers get tired, and the organizers move on to something else. How much of this will continue to operate? Who thinks they own the result?
El Ojoche, Chinendega, Nicaragua
There is a lot of litter in the developing world. I've seen it in Nicaragua and in Africa. Heck, there is a lot of litter in Rome! They sweep the streets every day because they have to! When you first arrive in El Ojoche, the first thing you notice is that there is NO LITTER. There is not a scrap of paper, not a piece of trash, not a plastic bag anywhere. And this is not the result of any commercial recycling - this is the result of an empowered community. This community has been accompanied by the AKF organization for over 10 years. They started as a church sister parish relationship, and now the formal accompaniment is down to a women's ceramic cooperative. The rest of the town decided they don't need help any more!
The clean streets program started when two members of the community contracted a strange illness and died. It was leptospirosis, a bacterial disease spread through animal urine that contaminates the water supply. The AKF team had been training them on health and wellness issues, and the community one day decided that the trash had to go - and it went. A clean town has other incidental effects. There is something called the "clean windows syndrome". Or the "broken windows syndrome". If you keep the environment looking good, people tend to respond to that. They do the same things in their yards, and in their homes. They take more pride in what they own, and in who they are. The mayor of New York understood that when he set out to eliminate litter in New York City, and to clean up the subways. Others get the message - people here care about this place, and we don't want you messing it up either.
When I first arrived in the community, there was a team of men and boys repairing the road. They were digging in it, positioning rocks for a solid foundation, and bringing in wheelbarrows of dirt and fill. They plan to extend the usable road all the way through town. Some of the roads in Nicaragua are really in bad shape - but I have yet to see a crew of neighbors working on it! That also comes from an empowered community.
The women's ceramic cooperative in this town recently raised money to construct their own kiln. They sell goods through Esperanza in Accion, out of Managua. That group helped them raise the quality of their goods, and taught them how to value the effort they put into their products. See this piece on this group, complete with pictures of their work: Women's Pottery Coop.
This community also administers a small loan program, with AKF as the banking agent. It has been very successful, and they charge 1.5% annual interest on the loans. It is much less than any other source of funds, and it will help ensure that the fund will continue.
There is also a water project in town, funded by the Rotary club of Leon, and the Albina Rotary club, in cooperation with Nuevas Esperanzas and Food for the Hungry. It started with a single storage tank, and has expanded to large tanks to hold rainwater for use during the dry season. They have a local water committee which is responsible for the water system and are very involved in just how this system was installed and is operated. You can read more about it here: http://www.nuevasesperanzas.org/ElOjochespring.html, and here: http://www.matchinggrants.org/pdf/info1414.pdf. Interesting - this last site is a Rotary effort to publicize their matching grants program: http://www.matchinggrants.org/.
So, ten years to get a clean environment, a road repair project, a small loan program managed by the community, a potter's kiln for goods sent to market, and a water storage system - not too bad. Is it sustainable? What do you think? If AKF and the other contributors were to go away tomorrow, what would happen to this community? Who thinks they own these results? Are there more things they can do - I would hope so. I expect that this is only the beginning.
Nueva Esperanza Projects
The El Ojoche water storage is a Nueva Esperanza project. And they have many others on their web site that look very interesting. http://www.nuevasesperanzas.org/index.html This one is a roadworks project undertaken by the communities involved: http://www.nuevasesperanzas.org/Roadworks.html. There is not enough background on these to really understand how they are accomplishing this - but it appears to be a community based effort for the most part. It would be amazing to introduce the people of El Corozo to the people from San Jacinto and El Ojochal del Listón. El Corozo sorely needs a better road.
Sustainable?
Teustepe Worm Fertilizer Project
Teustepe is a little unusual in that the community there is really a small community within a larger urban setting. This group of individuals and families has had a sister relationship with a church from Minnesota for over 25 years. The relationship started with projects. The Northerners sent down funds to buy a herd of cows to provide mik for the children. They sent funds to put a roof on the baseball stadium. You know of course, that baseball is the national sport! They collected used typewriters and sent them down so they could start a commercial school to teach people to type - that was before computers!
The Northerners visited them, and they came to visit up North. Over the years, this relationship moved from projects to accompaniment. Now the two communities are family to each other, and they support each other. AKF became a partner and facilitator in all of this about 15 years ago. They provide community based education to the community - about leadership, organization, women's rights, etc. They also facilitate the community's discussions and decisions A few years ago, AKF pushed his relationship to set off on a new course. From that point on, Teustepe is expected to contribute to each gathering, to each delegation, to each enterprise. They pay some portion of the cost, they provide some portion of the food, etc. They are responsible partners in this enterprise.
The town has always had a water problem. Some of the leaders of this group became participants in a town wide effort to persuade the mayor and the legislature that they should have a new water facility. Thanks to their hard work, it became a reality. It is currently suffering some problems, but they are working on that.
They also set about a year long project to create a dream - what do they really need and want to do. They decided that they need a community center. They have been meeting for years in the old church, but access to it is not guaranteed, and it does not really have any facilities - kitchen or otherwise. Just deciding to develop a center brought a lot of other decisions to the fore - such as forming a legal entity which could own land and construct a building. That whole discussion has caused them to grow and mature. They also started their own fund raising to raise funds for the building. They are slowly gathering funds from their own members.
A year or so ago, one of the Northerners, a Rotarian, pitched the idea of a worm fertilizer project to the community that would be funded by Rotary. He also contacted a local government agency, AMUB, which is funded by the area municipalities to foster development. AMUB put together a plan, which basically had these features:
- Construction of a new building to produce fertilizer from waste products with worms.
- Staffing of this facility with volunteer workers from the community.
- Sale of the product of this facility, with some portion of the proceeds to go to the community.
- Management and oversight of the whole thing by AMUB for a fee.
- A backyard worm fertilizer program in the yard of any community member who wants to take part.
- Training in this type of production by the AKF Farm School.
- Use of recycled materials to construct the facilities.
- The sale of the fertilizer by the families that produce it, with a small portion going to the Community Fund.
- No involvement by the local government entity.
Sustainable? We should see some organizc farming enhancement, some additional wealth created, and we have a community who understands that this is THEIR program, done their way. I honestly thought this would never get to this point, but it did!
Teustepe Small Loan Program
This same community has a small loan program, with a 93% repayment rate - a phenomenal success in this type of finance. Most of these programs have to charge from 25% to 100% interest to just cover their losses. Why does this one succeed? Here are the characteristics:
- You must be a participating member of the community to apply for a loan.
- Membership requires a 9 month novitiate program.
- Membership requires attendance at 70% of the regular meetings of the community - they meet several times each month.
- An underwriting committee review all of the loan applications.
- They create a recommended list for the review of the entire community.
- The community reviews the list in a meeting, and the committee adjusts the loans according to the input of the larger community.
- The list is represented to the community, and forwarded to the "bank".
- The loans are given out in November at a meeting of the community.
- Each loan recipient signs a loan agreement, specifying the terms of the loan.
- Each recipient gets a payment schedule or receipt.
- Payments are collected and tallied at each monthly meeting, and a receipt is signed by the underwriting board.
- The payments are delivered to the "bank".
- There is no interest charged, but there are penalties if payments are late.
This works because this is a responsible community, and they have created the mechanism and the structure to enable this program to succeed. They own this financing agency that they have created.
Sustainable?
El Carmen Matiguas Water Project
See this reference: El Carmen Matiguas Water Project. This outfit does this kind of project all the time. This one provided a water system from mountain streams to a town of 612 people. Their only prior water source before this were some extremely polluted streams.
A major part of the project is the capacity building in the community before any work is started. There has to be a community organization, which is committed to doing the work, and maintaining the system. The municipality has to support the project. The labor contribution of the community amounted to $25,000 or so of the total $100,000 cost. Other funding sources were used, and the city also made a small contribution. Annual maintenance costs are estimated at $800, which the community has committed to do.
The Word document on the page is in Spanish, but it describes the organization of the community, and the fact that they became a legal entity that is responsible for this project and its continued maintenance. The responsible agency here - PWX - seems to understand how to do this. If we have a water project at any point, they would be a good contact.
Sustainable?
Cristo Rey - New Life Nicaragua
This work is by a mission family from the US who first came to Nicaragua to help the people living in the dump of Managua. And they do amazing things. On their home page there is a 10 minute video about their work There is an orphanage, feeding program, housing program, etc.
http://www.newlifenicaragua.org/
There are three other videos on their work here.
http://vimeo.com/newlifenicaragua
Watch the first one about the orphanage and the re-nutrition center. Talk about saving babies in the stream! These people have clearly done it.
If you have watched these videos, you will understand why I do not want to say anything bad about this work. These kids would likely not survive, and would certainly not grow to be healthy, capable adults. The new homes are replacing pieces of wood and plastic - which is a fairly common home in somany me parts of Managua. It is hard to watch this and not want to help.
There is very little information on how they do this, other than these videos. Based on the films, like the one where they are doing a census in Tipitapa, it looks like an external effort, funded by donations from the US, which gives food and homes to poor Nicaraguans. They are running a farm, and they use the food for the children. They have a medical clinic, staffed by a US doctor. They talk about using the facility to train local people in the technology.
There is also a blog, which has some additional information: http://www.newlifenicaragua.org/blog/tag/adoption. They feed 175 kids a day, and have built 43 homes. Kids that are not adopted are in foster care - mostly with US missionary families. They host medical missions which provide the care in the clinic. They have had some personal health problems etc. It is worth reading the blog to get a bit of perspective on how this all works.
Is it sustainable? What happens when the funding stops? Clearly there are some long term benefits - some capable, healthy people will grow to be mature adults. Those adults, however, may be laboring under the impression that all that is good and rich comes from the North, and not from themselves. That's the only negative comment I can manage.
Water Wells
Water wells are a classic type of project. Let's face it, getting water is one of the basic essentials of life. And isntalling a well should be a nobrainer. Once it is in, it works and provides water, right? Well, what about parts and repairs? Even if the parts are available, the knowledge to repair it is essential; and even if that is present, there is the small matter of the cost. In my few trips to Africa, there are many abandoned water works all over the place. It is very hard for a really poor community to maintain a water well. The truly sustainable approach also makes sure that repair and replacement is in place. See this reference for more details on that.
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/12/13/to-maintain-water-pumps-it-takes-more-than-a-village/
Conclusion
This is way too long already. But do you notice any common thread? Are the sustainable efforts any less beneficial? Do they take longer? Is there some way the other ones could be transformed into sustainable ones at this point? Why might that be difficult? And . . . just how are you going to help here?
It is snowing as I write this - good old Minnesota. It is good to be home!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)