This week has been a long one, as I am trying to rethink ways of working successfully in El Menco. My work in three out of four sectors proves to be worthwhile, while the largest sector of Las Piedras still contributes little. Yesterday we had an interesting situation, and a difficult one that still isn’t resolved. We had a group of Rotary Club members visit in late afternoon, bringing gifts for the children of the people who benefited from the housing project. This was a great group of people who have been involved in this community for several years. They came from Ohio, Iowa, Cape Cod, etc, and knew this community before the housing project. The community knew they were coming, as two of ANF’s project staff came around 2pm. Dona Carmen, the woman that looks after Kai and I had also walked around the entire sector telling people that they were invited to meet the Rotary group. I’m sure something was said about people bringing gifts as well. I was unaware of the gift aspect of this visit, and as I went to begin my meeting in the afternoon, there were about 100 people waiting. Last week I had only 15 people participating, so I was glad that Dona Carmen had supported me in getting the people together. As I began, my enthusiasm soon faded, as the group of 100 soon moved away from me and began to socialize. For the most part, they weren’t interested in my meeting. They were there to get something from the Rotaries. I was left with a group of about 13 people, who worked on an activity where they list all of the assets of their community. Several hours wore on, and we concluded the meeting. No Rotary group yet. We finally had contact with them, and they were 10 minutes away. Unfortunately, by the time they arrived, they only had about 45 minutes of daylight. They came in a medium sized tour bus, and took a quick drive to see the new houses, and to show some of the first-time visitors what the old houses looked like. We stopped at a water station set up by ANF, where people can pump water and do laundry, and at the beach. I’m sure that the group would have liked to have more time. By the time it came to give out the supplies that this nice group of folks had packed and personally traveled with, over 200 people had gathered. One of the strings attached to these shoe boxes, which contained school supplies, clothes, a ball, etc, was that they were only for the beneficiaries of the houses, and that the children had to be attending school. What complicated the situation was that kids are currently out on vacation for the rest of the month, and no teachers were present to give a list of the kids in class. There were more kids than what they had supplies for, so after careful consideration, the group sent their supply truck back to Managua, where the supplies will wait until next week to be delivered by another Rotary group. The Rotary group left disappointed, as I know they were excited to see all of these children get these gifts that they had put so much time and effort into preparing. However, I think they made a good decision, because they would have also seen all the other kids’ sadness because they didn’t get anything.

It’s even more complicated than this. When Kai and I arrived, we brought a bag full of school supplies from our community in Ashland to the school for the teachers to distribute. Of course we didn’t have enough for every child, so we were hoping the school would utilize them for all of the kids. We later found out that the teachers had not given things out evenly. I don’t know the truth in this. I saw supplies being utilized in the preschool, but was told that kids were given things that didn’t even attend school. There are also many children who aren’t sent to school. Some by choice, but many by circumstance. Many parents can’t afford supplies for all of their children, so often the younger ones are kept home. Some parents simply need their children’s help at the house, and keep them to work.

Another interesting aspect is that only ½ of the community has benefited from the housing project, and I think we’ve finally figured out why. Felix and I were discussing this, and he informed me that when they started researching the demographics of El Menco, they worked with another organization, and hired someone from the community to go house to house and conduct a census. This local person simply conducted the census in the side of the community that has easy access and never traveled the 6km to the other more impoverished side. Therefore, ANF thought they had complete data, and were a little confused when I started working with the other side. El Menco, of course is all four sectors. Many people in Las Piedras seem to think that the only place of value is their sector. It has caused some justified tension in the community, as the people from El Islote and El Cerrito, whom haven’t worked with ANF have never known why they weren’t helped. Our goal at this point is to try to fundraise for houses and wells for them by early 2008.

Felix and I also had an interesting conversation about the difficulty of doing aid work with populations that are altogether ungrateful, and at times, downright selfish. This evening was a great example, where we see that people won’t attend meetings unless they are promised something. I see several things. For one, this section of our community has several generations of dysfunctional families. Families of parents who have abandoned their kids, who have been left to be taken care of by other family members. Families of children having children, as most women in our community become mothers between the ages of 13-16 years old. Many marry at that age as well, but parenting skills are almost non-existent. Social skills are poor, and in general, people don’t treat others with compassion.

Second, their lives were changed so dramatically with houses, wells, and latrines, all within the same year, that they haven’t really understood the implications. They’ve never received anything like this, and even though things have been explained, I feel that the idea of having to co-pay on their house, let alone on a sliding scale, is so new to them, they will need a lot of explaining.

Also, it is difficult to identify leaders in a community from a distance, such as is the case with ANF or any other organization working with similar aid projects. ANF has relied on several leaders identified by the community to tell people about meetings. What I have realized though, is that in Las Piedras, those leaders have certain alliances, and although they tell many people, they are not necessarily looking out for everyone. Organizing the community needs transparent, direct communication that serves everyone, such as postering the community in various popular spots.

All in all, no doubt the work ANF does benefits hundreds of thousands of people, which is bringing people out of poverty every day. I think that they will find that if they invested in building an education team, that they would start seeing more sustainable results, and would have a closer understanding and connection with their beneficiaries. In general, I believe their projects would be more successful.