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.

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!

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."

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.

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.

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:

• 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?

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!