Schools In

It would appear that the school our project team is building has slipped under the radar on my BLOG so I thought I’d give an update : Consisting of three buildings (6 classrooms, library and staff room plus a latrine block) for 164 primary school students the school will replace a temporary structure that has six rooms where they jam pack the kids in and the youngest class studies under the palm leaf patio (see picture above). The school project has taken centre stage this week. After a slow start to work in July (the school project had been stopped for security reasons for about three months) it has become apparent that the timeframe for the school project is extremely tight. As such I have spent much of the last week looking at programming of activities and in consultation with Yudha and Jean-Francois about how we can accelerate the program. The supervisors working on the school have come to the fore too, there has been a noticeable step up in energy on site (see photos below). With some reasonable weather this will be completed in October.

Money Talks

I had a difficult conversation with my brother on Sunday. I was frustrated and impatient and he was hungover and not listening. I ended up hanging up on him. I sent an apology email vowing not to call on a Sunday morning again as it was only likely to end in tears. He replied saying he understood and not to worry because “it's an incredible thing you're doing.” I’m in my second last week here in Moro’o and I definitely don’t feel like what I’m doing is incredible.

I feel this for two reasons.

The first is that to give up our comfortable little (and at times we need to realise how little) western lives for a short period of time is not impossible (contrary to popular belief) and the opportunities are out there (those who say they are not have not looked hard enough). In the same email my brother mentioned that this will be a blip on the radar and he’s right. Be not afraid people, a year not paying off the mortgage or not gunning for the next promotion will not result in an unhappy or unfulfilled life.

The second is how much I have been surprised by the number of people who see humanitarian work as an opportunity to make money. Yes they have been brave enough to step away from the comfortable life (see point one) but when their motive does no change it seems an hollow choice. Often salaries are mediocre but because one’s expenses are almost nothing many people look for NGO work to save a lot of money. No question this has a grander purpose than marketing junk food to children (or many of our inane jobs in the west) but when money is a significant reason why people are here it loses its incredibility.

Please Sir . . .

Having spent some time working out what stage we think we will be at by the end of September (10km of the 13km finished) and how much it will cost to return after the wet season to complete the road we headed to a meeting with our Donor. This meeting had two purposes, one was to explain the situation as it stands (that we won’t finish the road by October) and the other was to ask them for more money to fund the completion of the road. In reality the response of the people we met with was pragmatic. They understand how difficult things can be with the local community (they work in Moro’o also) and they have seen the challenges we’ve had in the wet. They also don’t sign the cheques so the response (not surprisingly) was “we’ll have to get back to you on this.” I couldn’t help but walk out of the meeting hoping the person with the chequebook would say no. Not because the community don’t deserve the last 3km but instead that we should be punished for not doing development well. It would make the project a “failure” and so questions would be asked , improvements made and promises in the future would be much more realistic. The alternative is the money is agreed to, the project is finished poorly (with contractors instead of workers from the community, without proper maintenance training and to a poorer standard due to the rush) and everyone walks away patting themselves on the back and happy to wildly overpromise and under-deliver on the next project.

On Nias they talk about the wet season starting sometime in September and lasting until the end of the year. It would appear that, weather-wise, things are happening a little early in 2009. At the start of last week we didn’t actually make it to Moro’o because of some flash flooding. On Wednesday we made it to site and surveyed the situation:
1. We were working in an area between two bridges called Humene and Katawaena (see photo). Both bridges were underwater on Wednesday. Work has now stopped in this area.

2. We can no longer transport stone beyond Humene Bridge so we are transport material as far as we can(to Ombolata) and stockpiling (which is very inefficient).
3. We are damagaing the road as we go. It is designed for motorbikes and the odd car so struggles with out 16 vehicles doing 10 trips per day in torrential rain especially when things like this happen (see video).

For the project as a whole it is likely we’ll lose at least a week. The prospect of not completing the road is well and truly on the agenda. We are now considering scenarios of how best to manage this situation (unless we come up with something remarkable in the meantime).

My First “Breaking the Fast” Party – Saturday 22 August 2009

Last Saturday was the first day of Ramadan and whilst Nias is predominantly Christian there are many Indonesians amongst our staff who will be fasting for the next month. Not sure what to expect I went along with the same approach to most social outings here, just wait and see. The party was no different to most I’ve been to, there was plenty of food, an old guy who spoke too much, a few embarrassed girls and plenty of shy guys etc etc. What struck me most was the conversation I had with a couple of the Muslims. Not surprisingly they are incredibly similar to most Christians (and I assume Jews but I can’t speak from experience on this one) with one striking difference. The consistency and depth to which they call on and test their own internal fortitude. Be it by not drinking or spending a month every year without food, water or cigarettes during daylight hours. Without question I have a new found respect for this and I have no doubt that many a moderate Muslim lives with a much deeper understanding of their own human spirit than many aethists/Christians I know.

How to walk away?

“Nias has benefitted from the tsunami.” This is the comment of many an expat referring to the fact that the outpouring of money and the development effort for tsunami relief. A substantial part of which was transferred to Nias after the massive earthquake four months later (2005). It is interesting to consider this statement in light of the situation of Eami, one of our drivers who I chatted with today. Eami worked for the French Croix Rouge in Aceh (presumably tsunami disaster relief or subsequent development work) as a driver and mechanic. He has since moved to Nias where there seemed to be more work with NGO’s. He is now working for ACTED as a driver but will finish in two weeks. When he is finished with ACTED he will head back to his family (wife and nine kids) in Teluk Dalam with little prospect of permanent employment (especially not a well-paid job with an NGO). I have no doubt that many houses built and livelihoods creating through the work of NGO’s have been and will be of immeasurable benefit to the people of Nias. But the shadow this benefit casts is the many people whose expertise (as a driver or translator or logistic officer) is based solely on NGO experience. Their skills are arguably transferable but with few jobs and many people those with specific experience get the roles. There is no easy answer to this problem. I have two thoughts on what the right “answer” might be. The first is to do just that, walk away, these guys will swim once thrown in the deep end that is life without NGO’s (and probably not until then). The other is development projects with delivered with patience and a long-term commitment (both of which are in short supply in the Western world . . . case in point: my 3 months here is a blip) that allow transition where independence is allowed to evolve naturally (and this takes time).

Downside of NGO’s [Wednesday 5 August]

We had our donor representative visit today which shed some more light on the apathy that surprised me on arrival (am used to it now but it is no less disappointing). Having worked in this area of Nias for some time and elsewhere in Indonesia post-Tsunami projects he has had plenty of experience with local communities. We are having difficulty getting the two villages where the road is complete to do some maintenance work on a voluntary basis. The logic being that the road is a “gift” from Caritas (the donor) and the communities should receive this gratefully by assisting with its maintenance. The reality is more like pulling teeth. My assumption was that they are lazy and ungrateful. Jean-Cyril (the Donor Rep) challenged this assumption by suggesting that in developing countries where NGO’s operate a culture of receiving develops. It is almost a survival instinct for these people to get as much as they can from the donor with as little effort for themselves as they don’t know when the next project may come along. Whilst this is hard to avoid it does beg the question are we really helping these people? In doing so it appears we are encouraging them to not help themselves, something that will no doubt be to their own detriment in the long-term.