Returning

This morning we stepped back into our home in Fize, after almost 6 weeks of traveling, family-timing, holidaying, traveling more, conferencing and networking, and traveling more.  There are always mixed emotions returning to our homes, and it is not always easy to even name what those emotions are or where they have come from. 

Let’s be honest, there are a variety of aspects of life here that are not exciting to return to.  The convenience I miss the most is a refrigerator, and the close second is a hot shower.  It is also hard to return knowing that I am not coming back to a job that is going well, in fact I’m coming back to address all the problems that I gladly left behind weeks ago.  The reality is that as soon as I deal with those problems, there will be just as many new ones, because our projects always seem to create issues before we can really help people make lasting solutions.  Oh the energy it takes to even think about that.  It’s funny how I often feel the most zapped when I return here from a break. 

In the first hours back in our house, there were so many things that I needed to get to work on, but my heart was really opposed, so I had to take a few minutes, find a quiet place, and talk to my Maker about the state of things.  Actually I didn’t communicate much, but rather I urged Him to speak up a bit.  It’s a shame to admit that I was surprised when He answered.  Maybe it’s because the answer came in a unique way.  All at once, my senses were opened, and a combination of present happenings and near memories popped into my mind like a film.  In a matter of minutes my consciousness scanned and senses absorbed the following things that are all right here:

-the laughter and play of hundreds of children in the school across the street

-the flowerpots on the street, but they are not flowerpots, they’re old tank wheels put on their side

-the men on the sidewalk who spend the whole afternoon playing chess

-the watchman who returned a bottle of perfume that my wife unknowingly dropped 5 weeks ago (rather than taking it home)

-the driver who was noticeably careful with the van full of young families (the same driver I threatened and nearly fired 2 months ago for not driving safe)

-my son who arrived and toured every room and corner of the yard with exuberant joy

-my wife who threw herself right into cleaning the layer of dust off of everything

-my daughter who vacillated between smiley giggles, and closed-eye head-bobbling, as she tried to stay happy and awake during lunch

These senses and pictures help on days when returning seems hard.  It is so great when help comes right when we need it.

Life update on the author of the most neglected blog in the world.

I don’t have much time or energy these days to write, but I should at least try to keep you updated more, right?  Here’s a few nuggets…

The WASH proposal – In my last post I explained the WASH proposal that I had been working on since March.  After 4 months of hard work on this, I ended up dropping out of the bid for the project.  It was disappointing, but sort of an honest return to reality and who we are and what we can handle and what is more than we can handle at this stage in life and with all the other considerations we have here. 

I would have enjoyed working with a project that I designed from the start and a staff them that I picked and trained.  It also would have let me get projects in more districts in this province, which I think would be great. 

Unfortunately there were big concerns in the security outlook, and when the project got trimmed from 3 years to 2 years I realized it would be impossible to count on training local leaders to fully take responsibility for a project in such a short time; I would have to manage the whole thing myself from start to finish. 

Sadly, the nail in the coffin of this project, for me, was that the consortium leader (the organization that was going to be the leader of the multiple organizations in this country all joined in the same project) was doing such a lousy job of leading the other partners in the consortium.  I lost faith in that organization supporting me in my unique part of the project (all the other partners were working with existing teams in existing fields, I was the only one starting from scratch), and my wife and I finally said, “if they can’t give me more than 24 hours to respond to demands for budgets or beneficiary spreadsheets or proposal revisions, then they’re never going to respect that we’re trying to live as a healthy family here!”  That was the end of that.  Decisive as that sounds, I still feel a sense of loss (but not regret).

The well with the half-naked well digger – If you didn’t read this 3-part story, you should scroll down and give it a go.  If you have followed along, you’ll be as disappointed and shocked as me to hear that the community has blamed us for dividing their community with this project. 

In this project we have found a classic example of how not to do a proper “Do No Harm” analysis prior to projects, and the negative consequences of neglecting that step!  Do No Harm, by the way, is a whole methodology that focuses on, well, you get the idea from the name don’t you?  I have a draft of a post about Do No Harm that I started in… April… hmm I’ll try to finish that soon. 

Back to the well: it seems that the community was not adequately prepared to face 2 new realities: 1- the fact that water was no longer free (they would have to pay the electricity bill for the water pump), and 2- access to the reservoir was going to be more contentious than they realized. 

Once reality #1 sunk in, reality (problem) #2 started to churn as well.  The people that lived close to the reservoir helped themselves to as much water as they wanted, but the people living further away felt cheated.  The poorest people pushed for everyone to use the water only for drinking water so that the electric bill would be low, but the ‘not-so-poor’ people fought to use the water to wash, water animals, and even water their big gardens with. 

When these disputes started to arise, the village council did not want to take any responsibility for the problems.  This is disappointing, because prior to the project, our team had spent some time with the village council going over policies and agreements about the well and water usage, in attempt to make it fair and good for all.  Clearly, those discussions had not been serious enough or deep enough or touched on the right issues! 

For the past 2 months now our team has been hounding me with one suggestion after another to pacify this community.  The reason they’ve hounded me so long is that I am not going to agree to another hardware solution until the community is all together again in the fall (this community, like many in the area, scatters in the summer for grazing and fieldwork elsewhere). 

It’s been an interesting couple of months because I have learned a lot about the local team that works in this project, and they have learned a lot about critical questions!  Each time they come with another simple argument for what we should build for the community to shut them up, I ask them a series of critical questions that point specifically to the social angles of this project that have already gone wrong, and cannot be corrected only with cement and pipe.  So, week by week they are doing more and more meetings with individuals and families to learn where different people in the community stand on the issues surrounding the well, and by the time I get back here in Oct we will be ready to sort out a solution that is backed by a load of interactions and discussions between the project staff and the community, and among the community members themselves regarding the key reasons for why this project hasn’t been satisfactory for them yet. 

Well, I think this is long enough for one night.  I’ll try to write again in the next week and tell you a few other updates such as latrines, courses, and developing leaders- stay tuned!

A new project?

These days I am doing a lot of thinking and networking and gathering information and researching for a new WASH proposal.  My work at this point is entirely preliminary; there has not even been a call for proposals, let alone a clear answer of whether I can get the institutional funding to do this project.  Since I am new to this province, however, I feel it necessary for me to prepare as much as possible for the opportunity, if it comes about.  To be honest, as I learn more about the challenges of working in this province, I’m quite intimidated about taking this on.  There are definite reasons to try to do this:

• ·      After 12 years of aid, so many communities in this province still do not have safe drinking water!   
• ·      Adding another proposal and a new donor will make the community development programme here more resilient.
• ·      It will utilize the growing capacity our organization has in WASH, and extend our reach and influence in this province.

On the other hand, this is a big thing to take on, especially because the places that are the neediest for WASH are also the most inaccessible because of mountains and insecurity.  I met today with a man who formerly worked with an organization that did excellent work in one of those hard to reach places.  He told me that the only way they could reach the 3 districts they worked in was by riding horseback for 8 hours!  Amazingly, they established a project that worked well despite the access challenges, but then it had to be closed after they faced insecurity not in their working area, but along the way there!

The other big challenge to face will be using all new staff.  The funding will only be available for 3 years and the institutional donor will require a lot of outputs each year (WASH for 14 villages and 3 schools/year).  This means that the staff will have to be trained quickly and trusted to work under remote management. 

As I work towards this proposal and project, some days I’m excited with the possibility, and others I’m overwhelmed with concern about the challenges.  This morning I was encouraged to again read my favorite chapter of Proverbs.  I’ll copy the verses that were loud and clear to me tonight, I hope they are meaningful to you as well:

“The plans of the heart belong to man,
but the answer of the tongue is from the Lord.  All the ways of a man are clean in his own sight,
but the Lord weighs the motives.  Commit your works to the Lord
and your plans will be established.” (16:1-3)

“When a man’s ways are pleasing to the Lord,
He makes even his enemies to be at peace with him.” (16:7)

“The mind of man plans his way,
but the Lord directs his steps.” (16:9)

Projects to put hope in

Aid work and community development can sometimes wear a person down.  The intents are so good, but often the challenges are so huge and transformative results are elusive.  That is why I constantly seek new ideas, reports, and stories of projects that are really providing great results in this tough country.  Tonight I want to share 2 great projects with you.  I am currently not working with these projects, but I would like to be!

Terraced, irrigated gardens:  I'm currently gathering results of the yield output change in this project, but it looks very promising.  As roads improve and markets develop, every farmer could increase his livelihood by converting a hillside into gardens like these.  Irrigation is lacking in a lot of places, but as electricity spreads into more and more villages, they have a new option of pumping water up from rivers to their fields, which, if they plant the right crops, would easily pay for itself.

Pistachio forests:  You're going to want to click on this picture below to see the bigger image, so go ahead and do that, then come back and read this..... okay did you see the trees on the top of the mountain, and the thin terraces on the lower half?  The trees up high are the remnants of a great pistachio tree forest that covered the hills here.  During the war years when markets were in shambles and people just needed to keep warm in the winter, they began cutting down the trees, working their way up the mountains from the base.  Fortunately their need for heat did not completely exhaust the forests, and some mature trees remained for a time when their produce would fetch a great price.  Today the owners of these trees are sell 15 lbs of pistachios for close to $40 USD!  That's good money!  Big organizations have taken notice of the economic opportunity, and assisted villages in this area in planting pistachio saplings in the terraces, to recreate the former forested hills.  Pistachio trees take around 20 years to mature to fruit-bearing, which is a long investment of time, but regardless, villages are clamoring to get aid help in planting their hills with pistachio trees again!

The nature of injustice

This week I found my copy of “Good News About Injustice” and I’m pleased to continue reading it.  Last fall I quoted the books author, Gary Haugen, in this post.  Today I read another gripping quote by Haugen, and I want to share it with you here:

“Let there be no mistake, evil and injustice thrive on moral ambiguity, equivocation, confusion and the failure to commit.  Remembering that injustice is the abuse of power, we must know that injustice is strong, forceful, committed.  In every case it will prevail against the uncertain, the unsure and the uncommitted.” (p.105)

Powerful and clear statement isn’t it? 

I cannot predict in which direction your mind will apply this, but I’ll tell you where my mind goes, it goes to the plight of the poor in countries like this.  Without someone to wholeheartedly painstakingly defend and advocate for the poor, the policies and tendencies of the powerful squash them.  I’m convicted because that’s not always where I put my attention.  What strikes me from this quote is the truth that being half-hearted, or trying to do a little about injustice, is useless. 

Oh that we could be whole-hearted in our stand for the people and the matters that weigh on the heart of our Lord. 

Hand-dug well part 3 - finished!

Thanks to those of you who expressed interest in this project!

At the end of the part 2 post (see below), I listed the work remaining on the well.  Those last things were completed in less than a week after I wrote the last post, because the people were so motivated to get the pump running so that they could have clean water in their village.

The finished product looks like this:

All the digging equipment is gone, the well is sealed and the lid has a chain and padlock to prevent tampering.  The electric lines to the pump are all buried, as is the pipe that runs up to the village.  At the other end of the pipe is this reservoir:

This cement reservoir was actually built by Oxfam in 2008, at the tail-end of a mountain spring project they did for this village.  Unfortunately that mountain spring dried up, and this reservoir had been unused for years.  We are glad to build on the foundations of work done by other groups, after all, these projects are for the good of the people, not the NGOs!  Before putting this reservoir back into use we fully disinfected the inside, added a chain and padlock to the lid on top, and made the single output pipe into a split so that 2 people could fill their buckets simultaneously.

I was back in this village today and the people had great things to say about what this water source has done for them: they spend much less time collecting water, and the water is safe for drinking.  In the mix with the statements of gratitude however, the community members also had further requests from this project.  They would like us to build another reservoir like this one, but to build it above the village, and then run gravity pipes down from it to a system of taps, one near each cluster of 4-5 houses.  They would also like a backup generator, to continue to pump water when the hydro-power supplied electricity cuts out.

A person cannot blame a community for dreaming big and pushing the envelope with groups that come to partner with them.  However for these requested extensions to this water project, we will have to wait a little bit further into the year to see if we have budget for these, after we get planned projects in other villages rolling.

Hand-dug well part 2 (with pictures!)

Today I was back at the village where we're finishing up a hand-dug well.  Everyone was excited about today because we were bringing the big water pump and electrical control box, and we were going to get it all hooked up.  Before I explain the day, here's some pictures...

What once was a rocky hillside is now a 43 meter deep hole in the ground!  The wood and steel rope spool that rests on the barrels filled with sand is the only elevator.  Simple, but it works.

This is the big pump, housed in the yellow barrel.  The 1.5 kilo-watt pump is  spec'd to push a 2" flow of water up to 120 meters of vertical head.  The yellow barrel will keep the pump upright in the 80cm diameter well, and protect it from sucking sand up from the bottom.

 Here is the control box that houses the automatic pump shut-off.  A big pump like this requires a starter (top right), but the power going to that can be interrupted by an electrical relay switch from a Toyota Landcruiser (top left).  The relay switch is operated by a float switch that is attached inside the barrel, beside the pump.  The idea is that when the water is drawn down to a few inches above the intake on the pump, the float drops, tripping the relay, shutting off the pump.  This is all thanks to my German teammate who makes control boxes for micro-hydroelectric power plants.

After a busy morning of work at the well, the men from the village were more than happy to invite their foreign guests up to the community room for a celebration lunch.  This time with the men is probably equally important as the work itself, in both the eyes of the villagers, and ours.  The menu included: rice, meat, bread, potatoes, apricots, oranges, apples, yoghurt, and Pepsi.

After lunch I saw the well digger catnapping in the grass.  When he saw me he rose to attention, so I asked a couple guys to join him for a picture.  (Left to right up front: Project facilitator "Harry", the infamous well digger, and another consulting well digger who everyone likes better because he weighs about half of what the big well digger weighs and that makes him much easier to raise and lower in the well.)

After lunch we straightened the pipe and wires that attach to the well, and started to lower it down the well.  Unfortunately this was harder than expected.  Part of the reason was that we could not suspend the pump and barrel from dead center because of the position of the pipe and the lowering hooks.  The other part of the problem was that the well shaft turned out to be... not as straight and consistent in width as the well digger said it was.  Here's the well digger ready to climb down the well to see if he can help guide the barrel and pump to the bottom.

Most of the afternoon was like this: a small crowd gathered in anticipation of the big pump being turned on and water being pumped to the reservoir in the village, but everyone ended up doing a lot of waiting because the well digger had a lot of difficulty lowering the barrel all the way to the well floor.  When he finally emerged from the well he said, "well, the barrel is down, and it will probably never come back up, and one of your shovels is underneath it, sorry about that."   

 Despite the lost shovel, we decided to hook up the electrical and see how the pump worked.  Starting the pump caused a 30-volt drop in the electrical source (which might require heavier supply lines), but then the pump ran strong.  In this picture we are timing how long it takes to fill a 220 liter barrel.  Unfortunately before it filled the pump stopped, because the water level had already dropped to the level of dropping the float switch.  This was disappointing to everyone, because they certainly need more water than that for the village!  Discussing this with the leading men who were there, we all agreed that it was the well digger's responsibility to get the pump and barrel deeper into the water.  Our time was up and we needed to head back to town for other meetings, so as I left the well digger was climbing down the well again to get the shovel out from under the barrel, and push the barrel all the way to the bottom of the well.  I hope he succeeded!

What remains:
-The output pipe from the pump needs to be connected to the pipe that runs ~600 meters up to the village reservoir.
-The electrical lines from the pump need to be buried from the well to the control box.
-A 60cm cement ring needs to be set on top of the well, and a 20cm x 20cm cement "sofa" ring around that, sealing it.
-The well, pipe, and reservoir all need to be shock-chlorinated to kill any contaminants introduced while constructing the water source.
-Completing the terms of agreement in the community's water committee, to ensure that responsibility will be taken for this new resource.

If you really liked learning about our well project, you might be interested in backing up now and reading part 1 of the story by clicking here.