Nhobola Village

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Well, after our unexpected delay and the ones that are normal for these parts, we are finally off and running. Although my, well I guess now former associate has still not been seen since last Sunday, we have recuperated and have actually started to work in the village. On Tuesday, I met with the village elders, chairman, and board of trusties in order to discuss the upcoming survey we are about to conduct. And let me tell ya, after two weeks of doin nothin but paper work and research, day dreamin of what kinda burger I could be havin right now if I was back home, being at the village centre for the first time was well worth the wait.

As soon as our car pulled in and we walked from one office where we signed in to another office to have our meeting, I felt like I just won the Cup and was bringin it back to my hometown to celebrate. The smiles on people’s faces, the upbeat energy I felt was electrifying, despite the fact that the village itself has no electricity at all. Like we haven’t even really done anything yet, but man, lemme tell ya you could sense that everyone knew that this was the start of something that could turn this village around. It felt, at least for me, like seeing me was the beginning of our long climb up the mountain of development. Like help is finally here. It was an amazing feeling. Either that or they were like, Mzungu! Mzungu! I still think it was the latter though.

On Thursday we started our training. We have a total of 30 volunteers so far, 5 students and 25 villagers, mostly Swahili and Sukuma speaking. Originally, I expected to have 20 students and 12 villagers, and thus a younger, English speaking crowd, as was agreed upon in our meeting. Once I arrived and found out this had changed, however, I wasn’t happy. How can you turn away volunteers who want to help conduct a survey of a village that no one has any idea how big it actually is – other than its huge?!? The average person here has at least 3 hectares of land, 3 football fields (CFL size baby!), yet the board decided to turn students away, in favour of a few more villagers who are older and don’t speak English. I was dumfounded by this call until an English teacher and my translator told me that because these villagers are paying into a fund that will eventually go towards improving the community as a whole, the board believed they had priority while the students should focus on their studies. Now I was ticked. Damn political BS, sense of entitlement, you gotta be kiddin me!

But, as an ol’willey vet who spent 3 seasons sitting on the bench of Sacred Heart’s inaugural High School hockey team, I knew how to keeper cool and under control. We proceeded with the training anyway and all and all it went well with only minor adjustments needed to be made before we can start surveying the villagers next week. After, I spoke to the trusties about their decision to reject the students in favour of the older villagers. I says look, I don’t care if the volunteers are from Mars, the more the better. Students or villagers, it doesn’t matter. What matters is the people who are doing this know how to do it and do it well, that’s what counts. This project is the entire village’s project – students, farmers, grandmothers, etc. To make this project a success, everyone has to do their part and take ownership of it and it starts with the survey. Even if the student or villager can only get one survey filled, that’s one that was never done before.

For me, I’d prefer students because of their abilities to work in English and the fact that their younger and more abled bodied (terrain is not friendly out there), and for the fact that this project, if successful will benefit them the most. They are the future of this village, they should be involved! I would never turn others away in favour of them, but certainly favour encouraging the student’s involvement. Furthermore, the students can gain valuable experience in participating in such a survey and it can even be a notch in their resume.

Another major issue that was brought up was about payment. I’m not sure how, but some thought they were getting paid to do this work. But this survey is done on a volunteer basis. No one gets paid for doing it. We don’t have the funds to do so. Even if we did, I’d rather giver like we are. This project is all for them and their future, you shouldn’t have to be paid to do something like this, no matter how poor you are. Volunteering is done on your free time. If you can only do one house a day, beauty. Which is why I wanted as many volunteers as possible, because some will only do a handful, while others might not at all, especially those that thought they were gonna get paid. And hey, if you can’t giver, that’s fine too. I want people who are serious – which is the biggest reason why Im glad money is not involved. If these folks are really serious about improving their lives and their village’s future, then they will be more than happy to voluntarily help us conduct this survey. If not, and if they only do it if they’re getting paid, then there only lookin for a short term gain, and not a long term one. And if that’s the case, this development project is never gonna work.

I hope to start working in the field with the volunteers at the start of next week. Judging by the ball park estimates of the size of the village, I’d say it will take about 2-3 weeks to complete. After, the stats get compiled and we being writing a report that will be used to garner the funding we need to help accomplish our goals of bringing water, infrastructure, and electricity to the village. Inshallah.

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Photos

Village Office
Here we signed in the visitors book.

City Hall
Trois lange, un ville!

Acacia Tree
Close to the centre of the village.

Village Centre
Im standing at the centre of the village here takin this shot. Its just a huge giant circle, soccer nets at either end, houses all around.

Home
This type of home is seen all over the village and in villages all over the country. Around 75% of the country's population is rural.

No no, the roads are fine...
First trip to the village and we blow a tire...as I am often reminded every time something goes wrong, this is Africa...

These Things are Big and Ugly
I think there vultures but not 100% sure. They are everywhere around town.

Comments

[Paul & Tina]

Hi Matt
Matt dont get frustrated, the most satisfying results come from hard work & perseverance. Keep at it. Uncle Paul, Aunt Tina XOX