Blogging...and More

I want to thank my Save the Children IT manager, Lee Steuber, for this blogging idea. I had been hearing of blogs for quite some time, but I never fully understood, (out of ignorance, which is always the case for mis-understanding) why anyone would want to read of anothers thoughts. I guess after publishing my own mundane blog that I still feel that way, why would anyone want to read of my thoughts - we'll see. But one thing I have realized, that I never really understand what I am thinking until after I have written of it. This I heard on my first class in college on writing. It was a challenge from my instructor, and I recall that I vehemently (to myself, of course) denied this premise, feeling that I could understand in my own mind what I know of my thoughts, ideals, conceptions. At the conclusion of that quarter, I told my instructor what I had discovered about writing.

I am beginning to think that this writing-to-thinking phenomenon, if closely examined, would do much to reveal who we are as humans in our desire, need, and relevance to communicate, that is to connect with other people. Increased honest communication would certainly cure many ills we have as humans in living in close proximity with one another, if followed by proper action and deeds.

My room overlooks the city and I have begun to see that in developing countries I see, hear, and smell some common elements. There must be some correlative coefficient of some sorts as to slope in relation to poverty. The steeper the slope, the poorer the people who live and farm their. It is certainly the case in Haiti. The land use practices have forced many to live in seemingly uninhabitable areas by North American standards. Again, my paradigm of life is challenged, and I am continually amazed on the comforts of my chance of being birthed in North America.



It is Sunday, and I am, because of flight availability, here essentially a day early. This does give me the moment to recover from travel and to better plan for my weeks work. I was asked, for the first time ever, to present to the Save the Children managers an introduction to the use of PDA's for time management. What a delight! I have always offered this seminar to each Country office (CO) that i have visited, but i have also realized that in the context of humanitarian workers in developing nations, that managers have more important tasks than to learn how to use some technological gadget. Yet my PDA, coupled with Microsofts' Outlook with it's task, contacts and appointment functions is essential to my being productive as an individual, as a business owner, and as a Save the Children consultant. I hope ot be able to pass this skill to the CO managers here. A "pull" is always better than a "push".

Again, my room has a small balcony to view the hotel courtyard below, where I can observe the comings and goings of the guests. There must be some Sunday night entertainment this evening as I saw the creole musicians arrive and began unloading their audio equipment. I have a tendency to hide out in my room, as I am not much on partaking of the hotel social scene. The hotel grounds are filled with many tall, luxurious trees, which are always filled with birds. I should of brought my Audubon field Guide ot North American Birds. Oops, that would not work here in the Caribbean, but perhaps so with migrating species! As soon as the musician's moved their equipment towards the main compound, a flock of birds hastily flew into the tree directly beneath my room. They must be aware of the audio disturbance (delightful creole music to my ears) upcoming and the alighted being much disturbed and looking back towards the trees that they had retreated from in the main compound. I am sure that they are aware of the morsels that will be left behind after the diners retreat this even to afford an early morning repast.

Ancient history continued...

Back in 2003 on my first trip as a volunteer consultant in El Salvador on my PDA implementation project, I was amazed at the positive reception that I received. Yet, I found that I had a clash with my egalitarian mores when being served. This is not only with the preponderance of servants ("it provides jobs, senor Isaak"), but my sense of why should someone do what I can do for myself. Oh, us Americans with our self-dependency. I recall my first day in the San Salvador CO after my introduction speech that I asked where the bathroom was at. The kitchen attendant, whom I later tenderly appreciated on my succeeding 4 trips there, indicated ot follow her. She took me ot the bathroom, opened the door for me, and as I stood there, she lifted the toilet seat and wiped it down, before retreating. This was too much and I told the director that this was not at all necessary. She replied that this lady came from generations of servants and was providing this service out of respect and hospitality. I began to realize that I needed to change, but laying down my own well-intentioned, but ignorant preconceptions of how other people should be.

Later that first week in El Salvador we had traveled to to the focus area where an earthquake had leveled the peoples small homes in an area that had been resident ot guerrillas in the civil war. The government had seemed ot be "slow" to assist in the rebuilding, perhaps out of reprisal for the areas' support during the long civil war. Save The Children was leading the rebuilding effort along with USAID by building homes, water supplies (vital!), latrines and setting up schools and nutrition centers.




I will never forget while at a school at San Martin that Clelia, a SC staffer asked if I would like ot see one of the newly-constructed homes. As we walked out the back of the schoolyard, Clelia redirected out path away from a group of soldiers beating a young man. We then began to walk down a very steep path ("coefficient of poverty"?) through a corn field. Suddenly, we encounter an indigenous man, an obvious Quiche of Mayan descent.



He stood in our path tilling his maize plants with a machete at his side. I asked Clelia if I could take his picture as I, a well-fed, blue-eyed foreigner was stunned by this meeting. In response to Clelias' request he slowly lifted his machete towards the slope below and indicated no, that rather than himself, that I should take a picture of his new house. As we arrived, Clelia showed me the house that he and his grandson had been living in until that day as the concrete walls of the new house were drying. This house was little more than North American closet size consisting of interwoven branches sealed with mud. Clelia then translated as the man explained that SC have built this house for him and his grandson, the only survivors of the earthquake that had killed the rest of the extended family. I saw tears in his eyes as he he motioned ot his new reinforced concreted house with galvanized roof and fiberglass windows. Importantly, I found out that Save's strategy of also giving the title ot the land was a real struggle with the local authority. This strategy ensured that the house would remain in the man's ownership and not later taken from him by a corrupt legal system. A Quiche without knowledge of Spanish would have few rights in a legal system in the capital city.

On my flight back to America I began to consider this type of work compared with my prior occupation with the Boeing company helping ot make airplanes less costly and more efficiently. After several more trips abroad, I would always return to the U.s in a thankful mind for my indulgences. But I also found that I needed to guard myself from my emerging reactions to overhearing complaints of lack of perceived needs. I realized that our needs are always in context of the economy and culture. I see in the U.S an increasing difficulty for young families and young people navigating their way through our consumer culture and high cost of living. But, more importantly, I had begun to change. What I had seen as America being slight different each time that I returned from abroad, was in actually a reflection of the change in myself, and I could not hold others accountable for this change.