Achieving a Goal ...

Many times accomplishing a project takes more effort
than what is truly required. This is for many reasons,
some due to lack of resources, some for lack of human
motivation and sometimes, just plain bad luck.
So when a goal is achieved, it is almost euphoric. Yeah,
this is the deal in all our lives at one time or another and
it really does demonstrate that despite cultural practices
and other differences, that we are really all the same.
I have found that it is just the degree of motivation and
rate of action that are generally the differences.
In the picture above, it is what it is, a goal post on the west
side of the new soccer field. I've mentioned over the last
few months that we were making a new field, and wrote
of the progress along the way.
Well, it is finished, finally. It took close to 4 months to
complete a job that had about a total 30 man hours.
It really was that easy. Yes, there was a little bull work,
but that consumed about 10 of the 30 man hours.
How does one explain the uphill battle it is just to
terminate a project of that nature? I've been at this
for a while and it is almost always the same. The
need of some catastrophic event to get the ball rolling,
another catastrophic event to keep it flowing and
another catastrophic event to finish it.
Here, it went like this. Everyone wanted a new soccer
field because the old one was so far away from the
center of town. It was also not measured out and was
looking like it was too thin but probably long enough.
It had so much thorns and would basically eat a soccer
ball in no time. Also a few other smaller reasons.
We deliberated for almost a month on where to put
the new field. Finally, somebody came up with a perfect
location. The new field would just about remedy all
the problems of the old soccer field. It would be
close to the center of town. The old one was about
2 kilometers or about a mile and a half away. The
new field is only about 150 meters tops from the
center. There are no thorns at all in the new field.
The new field is also, the official size of 60 meters by
100 meters. Also, with the field's location, it too will
serve as the school's soccer field. In the past due to
the location of the old field, the school didn't have
a field for their sports.
Also, another huge factor to making this what I feel to
be a successful project is it's cost. The total cost for
making a new official size field (the only official sized
one in the whole region) was ... nothing, nada, rien,
hay hunde, nimic, jambe or just plain, the big fat zero.
Yeah, really, we had the old goal posts, we had a
shovel and an ax, we had a tape measure, we had
everything we needed. Except, for one thing that we
lacked most of the time, motivated people.
It was, today at eight in the morning we'll go work on
the field. Only to notice at 9 that no one showed up.
On the odd day, they would come and when they were
there, they worked well.
Now, the argument would be, maybe they were busy
trying to make a living. That would have been under-
standable, but that wasn't the case, they were either
recuperating from an hangover or just plain lazy.
But that's how it goes out here and it just makes the
finishing or achieving of a goal so magnified in it's
joyous state of emotion.
As a volunteer it takes a little bit to be able to adapt
to the way things are done. It really takes a change
of mind as to accepting the rate of how things flow.
It can be pretty stressful if one gets attached to the
outcome of a project too much. I have found that in
the end, it usually all works out to the best it will be.
For me, I just always have a little side project of my
own so when the 8 o'clock in the morning waiting till
people show doesn't pan out, it is, I'm outta here and
off to doing my little activity.
This morning I went out and walked the field and just
soaked in some of the sense of accomplishing a goal.
If the soccer field project would have lasted another
month I am thinking that the instead of soaking in
success, I would have been soaking my handkerchief
with tears of frustration, to tell you the truth.
But, in the end, it will all be a memory and another
legendary village story of how the field became.
Last Saturday we watched as the orphans (OVCs) used
the field while the place was loaded with spectators. It
was a good feeling to know that we were the ones that
made it happen.
In the end, the field should be remarkable. When the rains
come the grass will regrow and fill in. We will transplant
some grass into one of the corners and like we did in
Senegal (an ex-volunteer Pat knows) build a scoreboard.
Also make 4 little red flags for the corners and voila, one
pretty decent bush soccer field.
So, now it is on to the library project that looks like is
going to make the 4 months it took to finish the soccer
field, look like a nano-second in comparison.
Oh well, welcome to the world of a volunteer.