In memory of a friend lost

It was about a year ago that a group of our teammates was murdered on their return from a remote health outreach.  They had hiked over 100 miles, over high mountain passes, to reach people that had no other health services.  On their return they were ambushed, and none were spared.  One year ago we grieved this bitter loss.

For the memorial service one year later, some family members of the deceased came to this country, to bring closure to their loss, and to meet some of us that remain here in the same line of service as their lost family member.  I wish I would have had the chance to go and meet the mother of my close friend that was killed, but I could not make the flight.  Some months after the team was killed, I was in contact with the mother of my friend, and I shared some photos with them of an adventure that her son and I had in Lal, in summer 2009.  This is the way I like to remember my friend: living life, taking on challenges and adventures, and loving people that the rest of the world counts hard to love.  So one year after his death, I want to go back 2 years, and remember and celebrate the life he lived, and for that I'll share some pictures that I took of him, and that he took of the people that were drawn to him.

The original Tiger

 Economic development is not something I often write about, because I’m more interested in the social aspects of community development.  However there is a degree to which change relies on the means to create access: access to education, to health care, to training, to markets, etc.  Lots of people here are seeking various forms of access, but they don’t have much capital to seek it with.  This is a context in which the producer of the cheapest products that create access will have a wildly successful business.  My case in point: Chinese motorcycles. 

Pictured below is my shiny red motorcycle, a Tiger Asli 150, made in China.  Brand new this baby sold for $780 (I bought mine used for less).  With it’s 150cc powerplant, 21 and 18 inch wheels, cargo racks, and remote starter this hot ride is near the top of the line around here.  Guys that settle for a 125cc motor, 17-inch wheels, and no-frills electronics can grab a new motorcycle for $500.  It’s been a long long time since a new motorcycle sold for that low of a price in America.  

Now, let’s get something straight- these are not performance motorcycles.  I’m a motorcycle enthusiast and I’ve ridden some terrific bikes, and to be honest some days I want to cry about how poor quality my Tiger Asli is.  The front wheel wanders all around because the forks has so much lateral flex, the rear shocks bounce wildly with no dampening, the gear shifting is upside-down from Japanese standard, and the motor signs off (8000 RPM in 5^th gear) at a whopping 48 MPH (the gearing has to be this low so that it has enough grunt to climb the mountain roads in 1^st gear).  I take it out on a trail now and then, but it is essentially a grocery-getter (which is extremely useful).  None of my moaning and groaning matters to the average motorcycle rider here.  Most of them have never ridden anything but a donkey, and believe me, these motorcycles are a step up from the embarrassment of riding a braying, farting donkey.  The typical rider does not need to go anywhere fast, or even comfortably, he just needs to get there.    

More often than not, these bikes get their riders where they need to go, and so the market for them has gone wild.  In a matter of a few years, all of the horse and donkey drawn carts have disappeared because they’ve been replaced by Chinese-made trikes.  The streets are otherwise a constant buzz with men of all ages on their Chinese motorcycles, zipping around running errands like they were never able to do on their beast of burden.  The motorcycle market has expanded the economy because suddenly, the circle of access around each market, training center, etc, has increased, because everyone with a motorcycle can travel so much faster and easier than before. 

The only downside to the soaring sales of motorcycles is that it has flooded the streets with drivers that clearly have not had any training in driving safely.  I’ve driven motorcycles in 6 Asian countries where traffic is very different, but here it’s scary because there is no law enforcement for traffic, and no one follows (or knows) any standard driving rules.  There have been a number of fatal motorcycle accidents just in the time we’ve been here.  So, like any development, there needs to be coordination from other agencies that say- we need to help the public stay safe as the transportation and economy develops!  Maybe I should start a motorcycle safety course?  Ha ha.

One last note that I found humorous.  The brand of my bike is Tiger Asli, which translates to “The original Tiger”.  So much of the Chinese products we see here are obvious copies of products made elsewher.  I got to looking for the bike that mine might have copied, and here it is:

This is a Triumph Tiger 800XC, made in the UK.  Both bikes have big gas tanks, big wheels for all-terrain riding, and luggage mounts.  The main difference?  Well the Triumph Tiger puts out close to 100 HP, and my Tiger... on a good day, perhaps 8 HP?  So I guess I should say that the Triumph Tiger is the  (real) original Tiger, but who cares?  The people that will buy one?  That won’t be many, the thing costs over $14,000!  I appreciate a nice motorcycle (can’t afford them but I appreciate them), but I am glad that some companies see the market potential in underdeveloped countries that are searching for transportation that will give them a chance to improve their lives.  

Stories from our projects

Today I'm going to share 3 stories that our local staff have gathered from the communities in the past couple months.  I have had a very minimal, indirect involvement with these projects, so it was neat for me to read them and know that without foreigner input, the local staff are taking this programme forward.  I have left them just the way they wrote them, translated by our administrator.  Hope you enjoy.

Sakina’s clean latrine

“After I went to the hygiene course given by the CDP ladies team I am trying to make a lot of improvements in our hygiene, cleanliness of the household and our latrine.  We are now able to keep our home a lot cleaner and use the latrine properly.  After going to the latrine, we are washing our hands with soap and water, and we have made a cover for the latrine hole to prevent germs.  And I have stopped the children going to the toilet outside in the yard.  We have put fly screen up in our windows because we have learned about the way flies pass on diseases.

Our 4 children were always suffering with diarrhoea, and we were spending money all the time on visits to the doctor, medicines.  But now, by the grace of God, none of us has trouble with diarrhoea, and we are saving the money we used to spend at the doctor’s.  We are very happy that I went to the course, and learned all this.”

Gulabza’s Biosand filter

“My daughter Zeba is 17 years old, studying 10^th grade at the Girls’ High School in the village.  There never used to be any clean water available in our village, there weren’t even any wells.  Our family, like everyone else in the village, used to use water straight from the reservoir.  The two wells that were dug in the village were salty and bitter, so no one would drink from them.  My daughter suffered from stomach ache and kidney problems since she was small.  She couldn’t do her lessons properly because of the illness.  All the doctors in the city said she had kidney and bladder stones, and needed operations.  My husband died several years ago, and the money which I worked for was going on doctors and medicines.

When the ladies from CDP started a hygiene course I was part of it, and I learned a lot of good things on the course.  The most valuable thing was using a filter to get clean water.  My family is now benefiting from clean filtered water, because they have learned to use and look after the filter properly too.  Since she started drinking filtered water, my daughter’s kidney problems have improved day by day.  It is about 4 months since she needed to go to a doctor or take medicine.  I am so thankful that God sent you to do this work, it has made such a difference to her health, and I pray that you will keep doing this for a long time.”

Deadly reservoir changed forever 

“A young man Subghatullah, 18 years old in a nearby village used to operate a hand cart ‘karachi’ with his father for their living.  One day he went to the reservoir by the mosque to fetch a few jerry cans of water.  After a few hours his mother realised he had not come home yet, so she went out to look for him.   When she got to the reservoir all she could see were the jerry cans on the bank – there was no sign of her son.  She told everyone in the village that her son had gone out to get water and disappeared.  My first thought was that he’d fallen in the water – so I called a group of young men together and told them to jump in the reservoir and look for Subghatullah.  That is what they did, and they found his body in the water.  That is not the first time this has happened – I’ve been alive for 85 years and I’ve seen it happen quite a few times.  A few days later we had a general meeting of the village council to work out what we could do about this – but they couldn’t really think of any good ideas.  

Luckily for us, a guy called Usta Mohammad Hashem who had worked in a neighbouring country for several years came up with an idea.  Look, he said, this reservoir is a little bit higher up than the rest of the village – how about we ask some agency to help us put a pipe in to bring the water out at street level.  And then we should put a fence around the reservoir to stop people getting water from it and falling in.  And if we stop stepping in and out of the reservoir the water stay cleaner too.   Everyone though this was a great idea, and we got some money together between ourselves.  Then we went to ask the NGO to help us, as they had started doing other clean water projects around our neighbourhood.  They agreed to give us the things we were short of - cement, pipes and the fence.  We started the work as soon as we could, and now it is finished – the water coming from the taps is much cleaner than any other reservoir water around here.  As one of the senior whitebeards of the community, I would like to thank the NGO on behalf of all of us, men, women and children, for working with us to finish this project, with the help of God.”

 

Fasting, fervency, and fundamentalism (Part 2 of 2)

 I ended part 1 mentioning that I have recently been confronted by some radical characters here.  It was a somewhat disturbing experience, and one that I am still processing.  One output of my thoughts is a critical bit about how people of various religions (not just the dominant one here) come to hate one another.  The point is not which religion is more prone to create haters, but more simply a challenge for you to consider: am I willing to love rather than hate my enemy?

Although I believe there are many essential fundamentals to my faith that cannot be compromised, I will not associate myself as a fundamentalist of any faith, because I have seen the intolerance that boils out of the fundamentalist mind.  Too many fundamentalists have taken their rigorous study of theology to such an airtight conclusion that if you’re not with them to the jot and tittle, then you’re WRONG.  Once a fundamentalist has labeled someone as WRONG (or whatever label they find appropriate to assign), they will build their case of what they will and will not tolerate from them, with the wrath of god (or God) as their foundation.  Levels of intolerance vary.  Some intolerance is done so that those in the right are not polluted or damaged by the WRONG.  Unfortunately this can become a slippery slope, because those measures of control might not be in the hands of the right, not in the way they wish.  Then the fundamentalist has a choice: to tolerate, or to be more extreme in their intolerance.  Tolerance does not suit a fundamentalist mind well, so more extreme intolerance often wins.  Fast forward to the end of this slippery slope and you end up with an intolerance to let the WRONG live.  Examples?  Various Islamic terrorist organizations will probably be your first suggestions, and I agree.  What about this Christian fellow in Norway recently?  Although the professed religion was different, the same intolerance-to-the-point-of-killing drove him. 

Whether you like my examples or not, you probably want to know my alternate suggestion to fundamentalism.  I don’t have a packaged term for you (and please don’t assign a term like “liberal” to me), but I will say that our desire for others to believe what we believe needs to pause and be checked if they resist our suggestion.  Ask yourself: why do you intend for them to believe what you believe?  Is the benefit for them, or for you only?  If it is for them, and you earnestly wish blessing and hope and life for them, then why would you so quickly give up if they reject or resist you?  If there was value in their life when you thought they might convert, is that value completely lost if they do not?  In my opinion this puts too much trust in our words and ability to communicate them perfectly.  We’re too rushed to bother with letting the Word be incarnate among people that have never heard it.  We’re too fearful that tolerance will lead to us being conquered (even though the best periods of Christian history were when they were NOT in control).  We’re too tempted to boil the whole works of our faith down to some simple litmus test of questions that will determine if I love and protect you or hate and push you away.  The alternative I espouse is to tolerate life.  Recognize each life was created in God’s image, and has a potential to be transformed into His follower at any point (not just when we say they must).  This is not a lame or inept or inactive stance.  On the contrary, tolerance can and should be active.  Celebrate those that accept salvation, weep over those that are still resistant, be the active, intentional example of what you believe, and tolerate life.  Yes, this even includes those scary Mus.lims that all gather and do that intimidating prayer and prostrations thing.

And what will I do about being issued ultimadums by fundamentalists here?  At the moment it’s good food for conversations.  Themes of my rant above will make it back to them through contacts I already have. It’s an interesting thing to converse with people here about the fact that their development, international relations, the demise of their family structure and the state of constant war is largely a product of intolerant religious radicals. To the fundamentalist youth I pointed out the irony that he would prefer to destroy much needed help for his poor people, just because of his religious intolerance.  With one friend I am going to start a review of religious tenets that guide us in serving others, i.e. the needy.  He gets to start with tenets from his book, and when he runs out it will be my turn with my book.

So yes, the challenges I’m getting here will be answered, as long as we feel safe enough to remain here.  I’m quite certain, however, that the issue between the dominant religion here and the rest of the world will not be solved from this end only.  You, yes you back in the west have a role to play.  Think of it- we want them (people here, your enemies) to stop being fundamental and intolerant and hateful, meanwhile we, despite our belief in a God of grace and forgiveness, have a very hard time putting down our defenses and intolerance and disgust for them.  Yes it is difficult, but Christ is the model and the strength that we have.  If we do not use that model and strength, we’re missing our purpose.  And if we cannot grow more tolerant and loving with this strength, how do we expect our enemies to meet our demands, without that strength? 

We can’t be a people that lets the sin of our enemy blind us to our own.  We have to pull the plank out of our own eyes before we can address the speck in anothers’. 

Proverbs 16:7 NRS

When the ways of people please the Lord, he causes even their enemies to be at peace with them.

Fasting, fervency, and fundamentalism (Part 1 of 2)

Last week the Islamic month of fasting started.  Fasting during this 30-day period called Ramadan is one of the main pillars of their faith.  The fast is only during the daylight hours, but the rules are quite strict.  The fast begins in the wee hours of the morning when a religious leader can see the difference between a white thread and a black thread held in his hand.  Being summer, that time is 3:30 am here.  Then the fast is broken each evening before the evening call to prayer, which has been around 7:20 pm.  Between those hours a good Muslim is not permitted to eat or drink anything. 

We have observed Ramadan in a variety of places.  I experienced the party atmosphere of Ramadan in Cairo Egypt, where every night was dancing and feasting.  I also saw the long tables set in front of mosques in Turkey, where the faithful would gather for communal meals.  Those men would assemble with their overflowing plates on the table 20 minutes before the call to prayer would come, salivating as they counted down the minutes.  Together we had some great experience with Somalis during Ramadan in the US.  One year I kept the whole fast in order to grow closer in relationships with those friends, and so I have fond memories of that year.  Then there are harsher memories, like 2008 and 2009 when we were in Lal, witnessing the suffering that a malnourished population of poor farmers was experiencing as the fast came during wheat harvest.   So what is Ramadan?  Is it gluttony?  Is it legalism?  Is it community building?  Is it wicked?  I suggest that it cannot be described solely by any of these single-term definitions.  You have to go deeper to understand what is going on when people fast.

While I have never been able to say that I like fasting, I often remember that I like the effects of fasting.  Ones thoughts and attitudes and desires are deeply challenged and changed when you break your routine and experience hunger.  I like to fast when a big decision or heavy matter is in front of me, because it opens my eyes to new perspectives, and loosens my grip on my selfish will.  By denying the simple task of putting food in my mouth, it causes me to think more about what I so often automatically do to serve myself, and it makes me tune my senses more to God, who I say I always depend on (but do I?)

Although the observance of the fast and the subject of worship is different in different religions, I know that many Muslims also have soul-searching and spirit-changing experiences during the month.  We pray for them to have divine dreams or visions, because these are more common in this month than the rest of the year.  We take time to pray for direction to those that have had those dreams, that we can give some explanation to them or answer questions.  This is the side of Ramadan that we look forward to.

Unfortunately this year we have seen another spirit-changing effect of Ramadan, and this one is troubling.  Since we have been in this town it has been astounding how many times I have been proselytized on the sidewalks of the bazaar.  I don’t mind, I find these useful times to start conversations.  Then last week, as the month of fasting began, the religiously fervent upped their game and pushed some hard terms at me, and I have grown quite concerned about this.  One youth embodied and communicated to me the harshest rhetoric taught in madrassas here.  I have heard it all before, as just rhetoric, but hearing it face to face, with him talking about me, brought it home that religion takes some to the very extreme of intolerance.  

(to be continued...)

The cholera outbreak you won’t hear about anywhere else

I had this feeling when we came back from a nice long, refreshing holiday, that we may face some big new challenges when we came back to M-ville.  Last week when we were right in the middle of shuffling boxes out of one house and into another, I got a call from one of the big boys, the local leader of UNICEF.  He told me there was an outbreak of acute watery diarrhea in a near district, and asked if I could immediately announce a meeting gathering all the WASH (Water, Advocacy, Sanitation, Hygiene) organizations together to coordinate our responses to this outbreak. 

The next day the big boys all gathered in our office, and we started to discuss the issue and our responses.  We heard the startling stats and the sad stories of all the young children that had suffered and died from this outbreak of diarrhea.  The symptoms and stats had led health clinics to treat this outbreak as cholera, and yet, sadly, we learned that the Ministry of Public Health was unwilling to confirm that cholera was present.

In this meeting the hard reality struck: this disease outbreak was not going to make any news headlines whatsoever, because it is in a war area.  What do I mean?  First of all, cholera is a disease often associated with war zones, because people who are scared to leave their homes do not have good water or sanitation access, and are more susceptible to the disease.  Second reason you won’t hear a cry for international aid to respond to this outbreak is that the area has a high security risk for organizations that are unaware of how to proceed safely. 

That leaves us.  There is a handful of organizations in town, and we are all taking serious the weight of this outbreak and the possibility of it spreading.  Right now my teammate and I are the only 2 foreigners involved in the response, but some of the big boys are also quite compassionately concerned.  In our meeting some of the key leaders lobbied and persuaded hard for each organization to make sacrifices and change plans in order to redirect help to this outbreak. 

Our project’s main response is a donation of 300 of our Biosand filters.  Each one will provide a family with a sustainable source of clean water.  We are really amazed to see how God works, because a few weeks ago we were concerned that we had too large of a surplus of those filters and they were becoming a liability.  At the meeting, however, no one had any surplus of filters, and no one has the capacity to quickly build the filters either.  Our 300 are ready to roll, and we can continue to produce 50 a week, as needed.  Another organization is going to transport the filters for us, and still another organization will do the distribution in the villages, because they are already working there.  The insurgents that rule there allow this other organization to work there, so we will channel our responses through them rather than risk other personnel. 

We hope this goes well.  Other organizations here are spending heaps of money on driving water tankers into the area, chlorinating water sources, and doing medical responses.  The clinics that have been caring for the cases have designated wards and other service units for suspected cholera cases to try to contain it.  Our hope is that we can stem the spread of the disease at the village sources, by providing water filtration.  We are dependent, however, on the distributing organization to really train the recipients in how to use their filters.  To better assure that, I created a picture guidebook on our Biosand filter, showing every step of installation, use, and maintenance.  I was really encouraged in our meeting that all the big boys, including local government, were enthused about this book and ordered (and even paid for!) 500 copies to be made and accompany our filters.  I hope that this puts a positive message out about our organization, and our desire to really see people served and changed. 

Did you catch that I said we’re sending aid into an insurgent controlled area?  How does that make you feel?  Myself I’m still a bit unsettled, but I find it terribly hard to think of denying aid to women and children that are suffering disease, just because the men around them are not cooperating with the powers, plans and wishes of their government or ours.  Do I feel guilty, as if I am aiding an enemy of our state?  I suppose disease could be a weapon against one’s enemy, and failing to respond to that disease could be a war strategy, but I much prefer the weaponry of insistent care for human beings.  What better attack is there than showing our enemies that while they cannot care for their own diseased, that we will show compassion.  And also, I often read a book that says clearly, to love your enemy.  Not an altogether comfortable concept, but I believe it’s important.

Parabolic solar cooker

 Today I want to quickly tell you about a new technology that we are considering in our community development project.  It is called a parabolic solar cooker.  We have worked with solar technologies before.  In this first picture you see a solar oven that was made by foreign organizations here in the late 90’s.  This cooker depends on dark colors and direct sun exposure to absorb heat.  There are 2 lids to this cooker, the top lid has a reflective inside, and the lower lid is glass.  Inside the glass lower lid the oven cavity is painted black.  Likewise the thin tin pots to be used in this cooker are painted black.  Heat is kept inside the glass lid.  We have cooked a variety of things in this cooker, and love it.  Baked potatoes take about 6 hours, chicken 3 hours, and you can also bake bread or cakes in it.  The great thing about this is that it does not burn food.  Unfortunately because it cooks slowly, it requires a lot of planning.  This cooker was promoted in local markets, for around $20, but it never took off like the creators hoped.  We are sure glad to have one, however, because it’s a lot better than lighting an oven in your house when it’s already 93 degrees!

The other solar technology that we have been using is a simple solar water heater.  These were produced by a renewable energies project until recently.  They also did not take off in the local market, but again, we love ours.  We used this every day when we lived in the mountains and did not have indoor plumbing.  It holds over 10 gallons, and with the amount of sunlight we get here we could heat water warm enough for a bath from February to November.  The heater again depends on direct sunlight and dark colors to absorb the heat, and a glass cover (which was broken by a small boy) to keep the heat in.  The simple solar water heater is pictured below.

Now I will tell you about the parabolic solar cooker, which is pictured below.  This device is unique from the previous two, in that it reflects and focuses a beam of light onto the bottom of the pot you want to heat.  Any pot under the sun will get warm, and warmer still if you paint it black and cover it with glass.  This, however, is something altogether different.  Notice the gleaming light at the bottom edge of the kettle- that’s the focused beam of light that is heating the water from the bottom up.  The base of this satellite-dish-like thing is fully adjustable so that the user can face the sun and focus the beam of light right on the bottom of their pot.  When it is in focus, you cannot even look at the bottom of the pot because it is too bright.  The demonstration we saw boiled water from a deep well in less than 20 minutes.  The demonstrators were also showing how intense the heat source was by putting pieces of cardboard in line with the beam of light- and they would immediately catch fire!  Chinese companies are making these cookers now, and local organizations have started to bring them in and sell them for $80.  Much more expensive than the older cookers, but from the reports we hear, they are selling.  The speed of cooking and boiling water is perhaps the reason.  I would like to see if local steelsmiths could make a similar shaped dish out of old barrels, and fit it on a concrete well-ring as a base.  Then if we could get the reflective tape, I bet we could produce these for less than half the cost.  Here is a list of some of the problems that would be eased if this technology spread across this country:

• ·      Less respiratory illness from indoor open-fire cooking.
• ·      Less eye problems for the same reason.
• ·      Less small children suffering life-altering burns from falling into firepits.
• ·      Animal manure could be used as field fertilizer rather than cooking fuel.
• ·      Less harvest of brush and trees, so less erosion and better farming environment.

Anyone want to come help me figure out a more affordable design?