As devastated as I was when everything fell through, I am confident that all will work out even better in the end - work out as it should. The program in Ghana is one of the oldest PC programs around which may be why she feels so much frustration. I am tempted to think that the program has gotten stagnant and the communities the PC works in are so accustomed to the white Americans coming in, bringing some western crap, trying to do some good and then leaving, that there is little progress able to be made. That is sad. I do think much of what she says, about western aid workers, is true. Teach a man to fish and all that.
We are hoping to be part of a PC program that has been started or changed more recently in the hopes that it will be more in touch with the true needs and rhythm of the community. Hopefully...
All is can say is that I am completely powerless over people and how they treat each other and whether or not they choose to be honest or manipulative or kind and considerate. I guess when you live in a place where no one has what they consider to be “enough”, then everyman is out to gain only for himself.
Wait, I shouldn’t say that, just yesterday, I watched Francis, at the tea stand, give food and coins to a hungry man who came over and sat down on the bench. I’ve watched him give small pieces of bread and coins away countless times. My friend, Sandra, brings me food when she can barely feed herself. So, I know that kindness exists here and I’m constantly witness to beauty in this world, I guess this week I’ve just been hit in the face with a big pie of manipulation and dishonesty and I want to punch something.
We’ve created a monster. By we, I mean development workers, religious organizations, and all other enablers that show up on their white horses to swoop into “poor” countries hoping to save the day. How could I have been so self-righteous, so egotistical to come here? Its almost impossible to make friends because even the ones who do care for you, are still hoping for a hand out, how can they not, they watch TV, they see what they don’t have and what they think you do have it all.
So much of this country is dependent on the money we place here and we’re not helping anyone. We’re enabling them to sit around and drink all day long and not do anything for themselves except beg the white man for money. I do not
speak for the entire community/ country, of course there are the heart warming stories of the guy who walked to school from the village everyday as an adult, being teased by his family, wearing a uniform and sitting in primary school as a
full grown man because all he wanted to do was learn to read and write and in the end, completed University, and now does grassroots work for the Upper West, a true story that my co-worker Richard lived. But, these are few and far between
and don’t always compare to the pain I see others inflict on their fellow man out of fear or greed or some other drive I can’t seem to pinpoint.
WHAT ARE WE DOING HERE? I’m so confused. I want to weep but I’m so angry, the tears won’t come right now. Man, this is a rude awakening.
Last week, I argued with a carpenter who over-charged the women in the bakery group three times. He gave us a price for the doors and windows and then he upped it once, then he upped it again, this time to accommodate for the hardware, then months later, when we still had no doors and windows, he told
them they had to pay even more for installation.
This no good *******, pretended not to understand English each and every time I’ve ever spoken to him and I stupidly viewed him as a nice humble carpenter riding around on his old beat up bicycle. Well, last week, he showed up to put the doors in, after receiving the final collection of money, which these poor women took from their nearly empty pockets and put into the pot to pay him, and he spoke English to me!!! I lost it. I yelled at him, asking why it is that I care more about his community and these women than he does?
Why is it that we’re busting our ***** to build a bakery for
this **** community that comes along and sees a white lady and ups the price? (Which just proves that our presence only brings about greed, and it wasn’t meant to be that way but we designed this monster and after 47 years, its begging instincts are honed and his survival ones have nearly all been forgotten.)
And then, the carpenter just laughs, of course, because everyone yells here so much, it has no effect. I start to take deep breaths because I’m fuming and then I look up to see him getting on a brand new motorcycle! I wanted to strangle him, I asked him how he paid for it and gave him a death stare, but then I jumped slumped down on the ledge and sat, feeling weighted with sadness, I thought I was escaping that type of treatment but now I see that it happens everywhere, how was I so naive?
Yesterday, while I was visiting the Sunday market, greeting the local women and enjoying the wonderful breeze that lasted all day after the storm that blew through the night before, this man walks up behind me and says, White lady, why don’t you give me 2000. I turned around and looked up at him and said in the loudest voice I could muster, I should just slap you! Then I walked away, but I really wanted to slap him, so bad I can only describe it as the way your mouth salivates at the smell of food when you haven’t eaten all day. So I turned and looked up at him again and raised my arm up and said, No really, I should slap you, why would you ask me that? He said, No, no, sorry, sorry. I put my arm down, felt deflated, turned and slowly walked away. I hate this feeling. I don’t want to hurt anyone, I understand, if I was in his shoes, I’d probably ask the same thing. I just don’t know how to proceed. I’m lost.
I had my first full day at IDE yesterday. I man who works with IDE Myanmar was in town and so gave a lecture to us about what they are doing there and how they responded to the cyclone - it is now reported that 130,000 people died. That is just a portion of the damage though: mass amounts of children have been orphaned, crops were not able to be planted so families and villages and entire regions will be dependent on foreign aid for a significant amount of time and there is severe emotional stress being dealt with by those who survived.
IDE is not a relief organization - they teach and provide the tools for rural farmers in poverty-stricken areas of Asia and Africa to become more efficient and self-supportive in order to permanently reduce poverty and dependence upon foreign aid. It is a great organization and I am excited and honored to intern there. The Myanmar office was located in the middle of the area affected by the cyclone. Since they had already obtained permission by the government to provide assistance, they were able to help after the disaster. They focused their energies on the contaminated drinking water since much of their experience is with water and irrigation systems. The water supply had been ruined by the decomposing bodies (animals and human) that were left untreated for a week (or longer) in many areas.
The big question IDE Myanmar now has to answer is how long will the continue to provide relief work before switching their full attention back to sustainable development?
This world is so complicated.....
Brett, the man who gave the presentation, was not allowed to actually participate in the aid since he is foreigner and the government did not want any westerner to be seen providing aid, and yet, after one week had passed since the disaster, the government still had not responded.
