Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

As my days here dwindle, I am filled with hope and despair in the same moment. This past Saturday, our newly formed Committee for the Sustainable Development of El Menco planned for their meeting with the United Nations this Friday. The United Nations is sending 2-3 people to El Menco to see the community and hear about the project. Several people from the ANF, including Neyda, the Project Coordinator and the Mayor of the municipality of Buenos Aires are also attending. This is all a huge event for El Menco, and I only hope that they can offer some support to this community, who at this moment, has momentum and needs encouragement and real resources to develop better.

El Menco is a difficult community to work in when you don’t have immediate, tangible benefits for the people. I realized this wasn’t unique to my project when I witnessed another meeting concerning a project very beneficial to the community. Three young men came to my house last Friday morning, and asked for my support. They work for the national government and have a program that teaches people how to read and write. This is the way it works: they have books and a video that they provide to volunteers that offer to teach others in their community. Not only does this seem like a great approach to a huge problem using a minimum of resourses, but it is much needed here. They asked me to please invite any of the people I worked with to a meeting later that afternoon. The meeting was held at the basketball court across the street from my house. Despite the potential benefit, very few people showed up, and those who did I believe were people who the men talked directly to. Maybe about 20 people were there. It was painful to watch. The men had to talk over kids playing soccer, and when they asked for volunteers to teach, it was like pulling teeth. The community simply doesn’t respond well to outsiders that need something from them first. The fellows were also asking for volunteers to conduct a census from house to house, asking how many children were in each house, how many were in school, and if some weren’t, the reasons why they weren’t going. Another great idea- and not a person volunteered, after they tried to convince people for half an hour. I felt for them, as did the nurse, who was sitting next to me and has had similar disheartening experiences. Even though she and I both live here, we still struggle. I think that it is better to be here in the community though, but if it’s anything that I’ve learned from this experience, it’s that this will take a long time to truly take hold in this community. Now that I understand better the daily struggles here, I realize the oddity of what I’m asking. Planning for development in a community that is very isolated and that simply wants accessible water, and dignified functional houses is difficult. I think that I am lucky to have a strong group of leaders at this moment that are dedicated and motivated. I only hope we can keep their momentum going.

I will write more after I meet this week with the ANF, and hopefully will have more updates.

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