crystalthread

A timely song from KT Tunstall …

It isn’t very difficult to see why 
You are the way you are 
Doesn’t take a genius to realise 
That sometimes life is hard 
It’s gonna take time 
But you’ll just have to wait 
You’re gonna be fine 
But in the meantime 

Come over here lady 
Let me wipe your tears away 
Come a little nearer baby 
Coz you’ll heal over 
Heal over 
Heal over someday 

And I don’t wanna hear you tell yourself 
That these feelings are in the past 
You know it doesn’t mean they’re off the shelf 
Because pain’s built to last 
Everybody sails alone 
But we can travel side by side 
Even if you fail 
You know that no one really minds 
Come over here lady 

Don’t hold on but don’t let go 
I know it’s so hard 
You’ve got to try to trust yourself 
I know it’s so hard, so hard 

Come over here lady 
Let me wipe your tears away 
Come a little nearer baby 
Coz you’ll heal over, heal over, heal over someday

For you …

All I hear is raindrops
Falling on the rooftop
Oh baby tell me why’d you have to go
Cause this pain I feel
It wont go away
And today I’m officially missing you
I thought that from this heartache
I could escape
But I fronted long enough to know
There ain’t no way
And today
I’m officially missing you

Oh can’t nobody do it like you
Said every little thing you do
Hey baby say it stays on my mind
And I, I’m officially

All I do is lay around
Two ears full of tears
From looking at your face on the wall
Just a week ago you were my baby
Now I don’t even know you at all
I don’t know you at all
Well I wish that you would call me right now
So that I could get through to you somehow
But I guess it’s safe to say baby safe to say
That I’m officially missing you

Well I thought I could just get over you baby
But I see that’s something I just can’t do
From the way you would hold me
To the sweet things you told me
I just can’t find a way
To let go of you

Para sa ating isang taong pag-ibig at paglalakbay…

Kay tagal kong sinusuyod ang buong mundo

Para hanapin, para hanapin ka.

Nilibot ang distrito ng iyong lumbay,

Pupulutin, pupulutin ka.

Sinusundo kita, sinusundo …

Asahan mo, mula ngayon, pag-ibig ko’y sa’yo.

Sa akin mo isabit ang pangarap mo;

Di kukulangin ang ibibigay.

Isuko ang kaba, tuluyan kang bumitaw;

Ika’y manalig, manalig ka.

Handa na sa liwanag mo

Sinuyod ang buong mundo;

Maghihintay sa’yong sundo.

The views and opinions expressed in this blog entry are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect that of the Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO).

Festus is the PTA Secretary in a village where a nursery and primary school project is being built by a German NGO. I conducted an interview with him about how he and the community has been involved the building of the school as part of the data gathering I am doing for the local NGO I am working with.

He told me that he wrote a letter to the organization I am currently working with asking for the building of a community school. My NGO responded after six months and informed them that some funding will be given by the Germans. They have been told that a school will be built in their village and what they have to do is manual labor. Hence, Festus and some members of the PTA looked for builders and laborers and they helped out in the construction. No employment contracts for the workers; but they have been promised to receive 2000 FCFA (or 200 PHP) per day. The community was not consulted on how the building would look like, where will it be built, how many children will benefit from this facility, among other things. They do not know how much funds are poured by the funders to the project.

The builders and laborers apparently were not paid in full for the 91 days they have worked in the construction site. Hence, it has been agreed that their children could get into the school for free, with the school fees paid by my NGO. My NGO likewise promised to pay the teachers; it did but not for all the months that they served. Again, there was no agreement stating the commitment of my NGO to pay for its arrears to the builders and laborers and the teachers’ salaries. My NGO also did not visit them as to how things are doing in the school and the other needs and problems of the village.  

Two more constructions took place later on; adding more rooms for the primary school. Again, the community was not consulted about this. They just learned that there will funds and additional rooms to be built.

Before I ended my interview, I asked Festus how he felt about all these developments; he said he can only wait for the assistance of my NGO because he thinks they know better.

But do they?

I asked myself why did Festus and his community place their lives in the hands of my organization when they themselves know about their needs. They know better. It bothers me that organizations ‘working for development’ assume the needs and issues of the community just because they have resources to implement ‘development projects.’ While it is true that the community is poor, they are not however, stupid. Development workers, like me, could facilitate the process of the community articulating their issues and needs and provide them with options on how to go about addressing these issues and needs; we cannot tell them what they should they do with their lives. Just because we came from more developed countries, with more access to information, knowledge, skills and resources, it does not necessarily mean we are better off in judging what is good for them.

The White Man’s arrogance has actually made poor countries poorer.

Our love is strange, my miel.

You there, me here; 

Time and Distance are certainly not our friends.

But we will get by, right?

One year more.

Wait for me.

I will be back.

I am and will always be yours.

Paulie, my co-volunteer here in my organization, asked me if I have figured out my purpose in life like it was a question of some Dr. Phil, or whoever. I haven’t answered him yet but it sure gave me a lot of thinking.

I know what I want to do – share my skills and hopefully, with the grace of God, change lives. I find inspiration in seeing those eyes light up when I share my knowledge and skills to my co-workers in my organization, to other co-volunteers, to other development workers. I find hope in listening to stories of my male participants in my gender trainings helping out their partners in the farm or doing domestic chores or being challenged by their communities and traditional rulers for ‘breaking’ customary roles of men and women.

These are the things that I do and I love to do but do these tell me my purpose in life?

Hard to say, really. I actually laugh at the whole idea of being here in Africa, of having to do the ‘figuring out my purpose’ halfway across the globe. Here are two things: one, I am enjoying this whole journey of figuring things out; reaching my destination is just but sweeter and two, there is a Force way powerful than I am who would bring me there.

Every time you spend money, you’re casting a vote for the kind of world you want. (Anna Lappe)

I was watching a TV documentary last night on E, a South African channel, about discrimination and violence against black albinos in Tanzania.

Based on this documentary, there are more than 200 black albinos in Tanzania. They are discriminated in their respective communities, preventing them to gain access to sources of or facilities for water, food, education and livelihood. Worse, they are vulnerable to violence as they are hunted for witchcraft. 

In this gripping documentary, pictures and stories of girl children violently amputated by community mobs were featured. Some have been maimed and killed. Body parts such as hair, bones and skin were taken and traded as it is believed that one could acquire great fortune having black albino body parts.

Based on Tanzanian official government statistics, there are about 20 cases of black albino killings however, NGO reports state that there are already about 60 cases so far. Cases of violence against black albinos are also present in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, and Malawi.   

Life expectancy of black albinos in Tanzania is about 16 years of age.     

Pear in Cameroon is avocado in Pinas

Torch = flashlight 

Stapler = stapling machine

Bucket = pail

Roundabout = rotunda

Fridge = refrigerator

Park = bus station

Perforator = paper puncher

Conference paper = kraft or manila paper

Cardboard paper = cartolina

Markers = Pentel pens

Documentation = photocopy

Sharing with you excerpts from the book, “Lords of Poverty” written by Graham Hancock. This book, in my opinion is filled with dismay with the international development organizations’ work (and behavior) in developing countries. While this is so, this book compels development workers like me to undertake serious introspection of what we do, how we do it, and why we do it….

Why do people work for development?

In the case of Europeans and Americans, the desire to help was mentioned fairly frequently: ‘It is nice if you can work and help other people at the same time,’ said one fairly typical aid official. However, this was rarely the only - or even the principal -motivation. 

It is the staff of voluntary agencies… who most frequently cite altruistic and humanitarian concerns as being their main or only reasons as for going to the Third World. This is why perhaps why they are prepared to put up with by far the lowest salaries and by far the worst working conditions in the development industry.

The great majority of idealistic charity workers and volunteers that I have encountered in the Third World thus nourish a none-too secret ambition to ‘graduate’ to the United Nations - which they tend to see as doing in a bigger and more prestigious way the same kinds of thing that they themselves have been doing all along.

… In all of this it simply seems to be taken for granted … that the experts and advisers it sends to the Third World communities at the expense of Western tax payers are not only competent and able but are also well-motivated and appropriately experienced. The key questions never get asked: Are the ‘guiders and managers’ really equipped to render direct and useful services to the poor?Do they have sufficient humility and insight - which presumably, are at least important as technical know-how? Perhaps most important of all, do the poor actually require the kind of guidance and management that wealthy foreigners can provide? Do they really want to be helped to help themselves or any other familiar stock phrases of that ilk? The assumption that they do, that this is what they are asking for, does rather pre-judge the shape of the development process and set its priorities.