Sustainability

SUSTAINABILITY

How many of you can relate to the memory of unhappily cleaning your teenager’s room on a Saturday morning?  I found myself doing it too often, debating myself as I carried the dirty clothes down two flights of stairs. I could have closed the door so I couldn’t see it; but it would still be there.  I could have threatened to withhold food; but that would have diminished the harmony at the dinner table. I could have waited until that special shirt was needed urgently and then rebutted “I told you so”; but then I would participate in the scurry to find it.

I was thinking of that memory last week during training for Volunteers and our community counterparts on the topic of Program Design and Management. As a matter of fact in the three day training, I had plenty of free time to think. Of course I was paying attention and doing the tasks with my co-worker and I appreciated the brush up - for about half the time.  The other half I was reminded of my son’s bedroom when he was 12 years old.

It is so much easier to get something completed by just doing it yourself, right? The value is in the end results, right? So much can be saved if the able person does it, right? I can do this myself, right?

Wrong.

 Peace Corps invests in developing skills.  That’s what it’s all about here, not enabling, but assisting them to be able to know how get to the next level. At this point projects are done with a community counterparts, my role in the beginning is to guide and assist and then eventually fade out as the counterpart takes the lead.

Recipe to be an Effective Volunteer:        Patience + Steadfast = Success / Sustainability.

That’s what it’s about.

NEW:  A new project on the horizon will be working with a group of leaders to rebuild a community park that has been abandoned since independence 40 years ago. This can be designed as the community hub for educational, health, and other social services located right in the center of the villa. Peace Corps has small grants that can be applied for to assist with the funding. I am looking forward to working with my very excited counterparts!

(p.s. I did end up working myself out of my housekeeper job, eventually. Thanks Christian.)

(pp.s A visit to the beach of Xai-Xai, about 2 ½ hours away from my site.)