Building a monument

That is one of the things a lot of us do, even
if we don't plan it that way.
While we are in our villages and towns we try
our best and in cases at the end we leave the
'old monument' standing as a testament to our
time there.
What you are seeing in the picture is the
beginning of the building of my monument.
This morning I put the sign over the door of what
I have dubbed ... 'my project'.
I've written about this library project that I decided
to make it my own personal unsustainable endeavor.
Well, the unsustainable part is not quite as cut and dried.
As far as the actual activity of this project, as of the
moment, heck, it's as unsustainable as unsustainable
can be.
Reasons being, I've thought of it, I bought the paint,
patched all the walls, searched for shelves, screws,
wood, did all the work except that a teacher
actually painted the sign that you see above the door.
So why in the haides do it if it doesn't fit the model
on how to build and nurture sustainability and self
reliance?
In this case, I am throwing all caution to the winds
and just rolling the dice, so to speak. I am just investing
into what I hope will become sustainable by the
knowledge that the school students may acquire.
If you later continue on to the Pando Project blog ...
link is in the upper right hand corner of this blog ...
you'll read a bunch of introductions from students in
the 9th grade English class here. The last entry is
by a girl named Rosemary and in her section, she
mentioned that the library was kind of weak and
lacked resources.
I am taking this as there are some kids who are
willing to make use of this library. The impact on
them should be related to the quality of the tools
they have to use.
So, despite the unsustainable side of it till the present,
there seems to be a possibility that sustainability
will come in the form of intelligence that they
will carry with them throughout life.
Do I think that the people will maintain the library
and keep it progressing after I leave, heck no.
So maybe the window of opportunity to make
the impact that will make all the investment worthwhile,
is limited to my time here, that's ok. I think it goes
under the ... it's better than nothing ... category.
Over the nine years, there have been successes and
failures and that's normal in all our lives. But even
after the years I feel pretty good because I've never
lost the ... ant can, move the rubber tree plant ... hope.
I've learned that it really isn't all that bad to throw
out the supposed (sustainable) model (that if it really
worked I wouldn't have been where I've been over
these years trying to make things better) and just go
by the seat of your pants, that gut feeling.
So, that's my monument, probably more of a monument
to flying by the seat of my pants than anything else.
But darn it, an ant really can move a rubber tree plant,
it make take a few generations but just by teaching the
child ant to keep trying, well, that could be called
sustainability.
I hope no matter if it all comes apart after I leave that
a few kids will have noticed this old guy just trying
to make it better for them. And if they do the same
for their future generations ... then that rubber tree
won't stand a chance of staying put.
.

Art - bush style

When I am in the States I live by the coast so when
taking walks, it is the norm to come across many
beautiful pieces of drift wood. In the case of the
picture ... what are you looking at is kind of the same
concept only from the bush. So I guess one could call
it ... bush wood.
Almost daily I take a walk out into the bush (not too
deep, two weeks ago a man got killed by an
elephant, he was deep in the bush) and of course
there are many things to discover.
One of them being that piece of bush wood. It has
become a mantle piece for my table. If you look at
the center of this piece you can see a shape that
resembles a dragon. It is one of those meant to
be/fate things as my Chinese astrological sign is the
dragon.
But as this is Saturday and the end of another week
it is kind of a recapitulation time.
The week went well and there was some progress and
of course regress. But I think that it appears to be
arriving at the point where the progress is greater than
the regress.
The netball court situation is still up in the air. One of
the poles broke and that's another challenge to overcome
(getting it fixed).
The women's support group garden had taken a little
back step as the people were occupied with other activities
but it is back to normal again.
The library continues to develop. The shaky shelves are
now actually able to stand on their own. Well, if they
are bolted together in a cross configuration. The shelves
were actually nailed to the wall and when we took the
nails out they actually collapsed like they got hit by a
George Foreman right hand. The reason that they
collapsed is that the metal shelves usually come with
some pieces that are bolted to the sides but of course,
aren't here. Also the shelves normally would be bolted
together with about 40 small bolts with nuts and washers.
Well, these had about 15 bolts and no washers.
So using the old engineering degree I somehow managed
to obtain, used the old noggin and also had about 10
bolts hanging around and lo and behold, it stands, holds
books and people are amazed that it functions while
not having to be crucified to the wall.
Another progressive situation is that with an ex Romanian
Peace Corps Volunteer we have been able to start up
a cross cultural blog. The link should be or will be in
the upper right hand section of this blog. The blog's
name is 'The Pando Project'.
We thought of this last year when we were both in
Romania and what it's goal is is to bring schools
together from different countries with the intent for
the students to ask questions and discuss points of
difference and interest.
This has been slow to start due to various reasons but
finally it appears to be gaining momentum. We hope
that once it gets up to speed that the countries represented
will be ... The United States, South Korea, Argentina,
Kazakhstan, Romania and of course, Namibia. So after
almost a year since conception, it is pretty cool
to see it come to life.
The debating clubs had a little snafu this last week and
didn't get to do their weekly debate, but we ironed
some points and it seems that it may begin to be easier
to get it to be kind of like it should be, easy.
Also had a sharing of my culture experience that worked
out well.
One of the goal posts at the new soccer field was basically
held together with bubble gum. The upper right hand
corner where the two pieces of tubing joined, had it's
welded joint broke. So what the people did was put in
a short (too short) piece of smaller tubing to
hold it together. It worked except for the fact that if
you hit, knocked or ran into the upright pole, it
would come crashing down. This was a dangerous
situation, that with the right circumstances, could
actually kill someone.
So, I found a longer and bigger piece of tubing and
then asked anyone at the Youth Office (responsible
for fixing the goal post) if they've ever heard the
term ... beat the s__t out of something. Here they
don't have all these colorful sayings like we do in
the States. I am sure they do in their local languages,
but not in the English they use.
So I said that all we needed was a strong hammer
and I will demonstrate what beating the s__t out of
something was.
So we went to the soccer field, found out that the
tubing that we wanted to use to fix the goal post
was long enough, but was too wide.
By beating the s__t out of that tubing and also
demonstrating and sharing of my culture, it worked.
The goal post is as stable as if it was welded.
I asked the guys if now they understood the meaning
of that phrase, beat the s__t out of something. They
said that now, they did. Let me tell you, I really had
to beat that tube to get it to work.
I guess there were other minor successes this week
but too small to mention.
It was a good week and of course that the hope
is that this is the beginning of an upward spiral.
Ciao

simply rice

That's all you're looking at in the picture. Nothing
spectacular with that batch of rice except ... that it
was cooked in the solar oven we made a while back.
The picture of the solar oven is in a prior article. Click
here to see article and photo of oven.
It isn't a big thing, in many places it is old technology
and has been used for a while. Again, except, here it is
the first time anyone has seen anything like a solar oven.
As mentioned in the prior article, it was made by me and
the guy from Romania. He said that he's never seen one,
while I was in Romania I never saw one either. He
wasn't so sure that it would work but today he came
and showed me the cooked rice.
It is a beautiful Sunday here and it has been the best day
yet.
It started with the church choir just get better by the week.
They have 3 songs that they are really incredible at. So
that went well.
The test of the solar oven finally happened after 5 weeks
and that worked.
I took a walk into town and saw the lady with the new
brick oven's bread. And it was just beautiful. Cooked
almost to perfection. This is the third day that she's used
the oven. The first day, it was under cooked, second,
over cooked but today ... voila.
Also saw the OVCs (orphans and vulnerable children)
playing soccer on the new soccer field. Then saw
a bunch of young girls playing netball on the court we
made.
Then saw a notice on the wall telling of the upcoming
debate on Wednesday between the school kids and
the younger adults. The topic or motion will be ...
Are the parents important to development of child and
society. We know this is true but it is a topic never
discussed out here and hopefully it will start spreading
food for thought. Many parents here are alcoholics.
Also, I met a few of the San girls who are participating
in a theater group that we've started. The interesting
part is that they are not just mimicking other plays.
We asked them to write their own and there are
four topics. Malaria, HIV/AIDS, teenage pregnancy
and my favorite ... the lazy husband.
For us the most important part is that they are writing
it and it will give us a better insight through their
interpretations. The San (Bushmen) think differently
so the standard messages don't work as well as they
do with other peoples. Hopefully they can tell us how
they see it.
We will be looking for clues as to how to prevent and
deal with those issues.
So, it has been the best day yet but to keep the feet
on the ground, I remember that it can all come crashing
down in a New York minute.
But for today, you can keep New York, I'm liking it
here 70 km from anywhere.

Surfacing

What you see in the picture is the guy from
Romania beginning the base for what will
be ... for the lady who cooks bread in a hole in
the ground ... an above ground quasi traditional
oven. So, the whole effort is surfacing from a
subterranean time, to a time of what I am kind
of hoping will be, enlightenment.
We started it yesterday and today we finished it
and it looks pretty good. I will post a picture later
on that will show the finished product churning out
it's first in what hopes to be ... lots of bread.
To describe the oven ... it is not so tall, square and
has two shelves to cook in. Really kind of nice.
So this is some type of progress though it is not the
only traditional oven in town. There is a huge one that
was made for a ladies project. Another group project
that failed because they either , ate the goods or gave
out credit to the moochers whom never paid back.
Again, same old story in a group setting. Everywhere
I've been it has been the same.
That's why this lady's above ground oven is a good thing.
She's been cooking pretty inefficiently in a hole in the
ground that consumes gobs of wood to heat up the space.
But she's been in business for the last 6 months. She's
smart enough to know that she needs money to be
able to buy more materials to make more bread.
The hope is that this oven will at least cut down her
consumption of wood by half. Speed up her cooking time
and who knows, with the added free time she may be able
to try cooking new types of things to sell.
Also, tomorrow should be the the debating event between the
learners and the youth who have completed school. It will
be in the newly painted library and it may be not a bad
little activity. Of course in this gig one can't count the chickens
before they hatch, but, also despite that factor, you gotta
have a little hope to keep ya going.
All in all it's getting a little active now and it is one of those
cyclic things, will ride the peak of the wave this it crashes.
Right now in this time of activity I am just hanging ten but
always have the mind open for that possible ... wipe out.

Update

It has been a little while since I last posted an
article and I guess that it can just be said that I
just got lazy.
But, that isn't how it has been in the village since
the last posting. Not that it has been crazy but it
has been somewhat active and for me, a surprise
or two.
Starting with the support group's garden expansion
plan ... well ... we did about 85% of it but to get the
men together for that last 15 ... well ... it has been
at least a month of no shows. The other day I went to
the garden and it was funny because something just
seemed off. The I realized that someone actually worked
on expanding. I was totally surprised that someone
actually took their own initiative, surprise #1. So now,
there is about another 5% to go to finish the whole job.
If the greater forces can roll a lucky 7 for us, then maybe
that last 5% will be finished before the end of the month
or year.
The soccer field is totally done except for one thing. The
thing being that the village's teams would play on it. It has
been completed in full about 2 weeks ago, still no action.
But the orphans have been using it at times and for that
it isn't all too bad. There is a rumor that today the big guys
may finally play, we can only hope.
The Youth Officer has put out notice that the sign ups for
a debating club and a theater group are in effect all next week.
He did that on his own initiative and that is surprise #2 for me.
I have been knee deep into the building/re-building of the
school's library. It is my private project ... I've done the work
... bought the paint ($20 USD) and I have to say that despite
the fact that there is another 2 days work left, looks great.
I know that it doesn't seem to be sustainable as described
so far. The sustainability will come when the students have a
solid clean library/resource center to use. If I waited for the
adults to participate in this project, these kids grandchildren
would still be in the same dingy room. One on my colleagues
has sent me 8 boxes of books, so, the place should be looking
pretty nice and actually have some books too.
Another thing is that the gauntlet has been thrown in regards
to debating. The school's fledgling debating club has accepted
a challenge from a few of the younger people in the village.
This activity will be the kickoff event for the refurbished library.
It should happen either Thursday or Friday. This will be the
first debating event of it's kind.
Also, started working with a church choir. I have just filmed
their practices so that they can watch and hopefully critique their
performances.I am hoping that it will open the door for youth
activities such as AIDS/HIV education and discussions of
behavior relating to it.
So, it has been a fairly productive few weeks with a lot of potential
and hope that things will move is a positive constructive direction.
I have to end here, got to go to work on the library, it has to be
ready for the kickoff debate. I like it, it keeps me busy.