Start with what they know, build on what they have, and work with the leaders so when the work is done, people can say- We did this ourselves.
Lao Tzu 700 BC
Bujugali Falls...my new home!
Been five days now. Hard to believe, hard not to believe. This is ‘orientation week’; myself and 7 other Americans (6 from New England, 1 from Portland) are guided like lame livestock through the ins and outs of our current and upcoming Ugandan experiences by our Program Coordinators, Jen (4 redbulls a day, rides a bike around the city at night w/o a light, has a deathwish?,Vancouver) and Berna (goofy, just wants a beer, gasps like she’s run over a toddler every time her phone rings, NE Uganda) and Margaret (regrets this isn’t a Christian organization, drives a low rider white pickup the size of a mini cooper, wears dress suits EVERYDAY, Kampala) our Program Director.
Over the course of the week we’ve been tooling around Jinja and have had and will be having various sessions on:
• Expectations (you’re not gonna change the world)
• Safety & Security (don’t be stupid or you’ll get robbed)
• Culture Shock (you’re rich and white…ummm…better get over it or we can try and get you knock off Zoloft from a local clinic)
• Local Community Orientation (get used to being lost, ripped off and laughed at)
• Health (like diarrhea? Vomiting? Snails that enter your bloodstream through your feet?…well, it don’t matter cuz you’ll have an intimate relationship with all of them in a few weeks!)
• Living with a host family (Everything they do will be weird and everything you do will offend them…but hey…we’re bridging cross-cultural gaps!)
And coming soon to a small sweaty cement room near you:
• Conducting a Needs Assessment (you don’t know shit, go find some out)
• Working with a Host Organization (8am means 11am and when it rains no one will show up to work…it rains daily)
My host organization!!!! Soft Power Health.
Friday we move in with our host families. Start work Monday morning. We’ve been told the first week is supposed to be strictly an observation week, but considering I’ll be in a four room clinic I think people will notice the mzungu in the room biting her nails, not doing jack. By the end of week two we have to have developed our workplan, budget, objectives and agenda for the next twelve weeks…I’m the only one in the group who fundraised before coming so everyone else’s budgets are restricted to $200, which is something, but probably won’t go too far, I’m hoping I’ll have the ability to aim a bit higher with an inflated budget. There’s just so much to do, so much that can’t be done and so many components that must be taken into consideration before I can do anything at all. Tell me how, after 10 days in a community, I’m going to be able to determine what they truly need, tackle how to accomplish that and still make the locals feel important, involved and empowered. But perhaps, 12 weeks from now, there will be small circle of Busoga and one pasty white girl in front of the Soft Power Health Clinic, beaming over the same thought… ‘We did this ourselves’.
I’m into that.
(me being into it)
a boat and a bike in bujugali for eric...everything he could ever need.
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