On Saturday, Alex and I traveled to Anloga for the internet. Since we now have to make a trip every time we want internet access, it gives us an opportunity to reflect on things and participate in some good discussions. This particular instance, we were talking about identity, how it is created, how it is sustained, and how we, as people, create ourselves.
The realization is that here, or in any unfamiliar place, one must re-negotiate their identity. How well they do this, will determine the quality of their experience and their perception of their travels. What people naturally do is define themselves by things, materialistic, substance lacking, things. For example, I love coffee, I enjoy going Starbucks to read my book and enjoy my tasty iced beverage. I love going to the gym, working out, exercising. I eat certain foods at certain times of the day. I like to dress a certain way, keep my home looking a certain way, listen to specific artists. The list goes on.
What happens when you place yourself in completely unfamiliar, not previously experienced, surroundings? All of these prior sources of identity, familiarity and comfort are stripped from us until we are nothing but our pure un-contaminated selves. We have nothing to fall back on, no point of reference. I cannot meet someone new and tell them my favorite Starbucks beverage and have them understand. Starbucks? What is that? I cannot talk to someone, and tell them in my conversation that I love going to the gym. The gym? The gym does not exist here.
I also cannot hold on to my previously understood expectations. I cannot expect that anything comprising ‘life’ here, in a new community, location, country, system of beliefs and norms, will be anything like the individual parts that comprise ‘life’ for me in the United States. If I were to hold on to my old expectations I would encounter nothing but disappointment and frustration. My time would be ruined, because I would not be able to let go of everything I thought I was, and discover just who I really am without those materialist things.
You like buses to run on a time schedule? You like to eat yogurt for breakfast? You like people to work on deadlines, and get things to you on time? You expect that A causes B, B causes C and D will proceed E? Wrong. F follows K, Z comes before A, nothing is the same. As soon as you let everything go and understand this, you will become completely comfortable, satisfied, and fulfilled with the life around you.
What happens when you are able to let yourself go, completely open yourself up to an entirely different way of life and way of being… existing… is a complete influx of knowledge and shift in perceptions. Your mind will be opened and you will begin to make connections, find similarities, with what you once knew, and what you now understand.
You will make discoveries that hit the root of pure human nature. You will begin to see how different surroundings have the power to mold us humans into different actions. You will see how different surroundings make possible the formulation of different materialistic things, with different inbred meanings, depending on their context. And then you will see, we are really all the same.
Everyone, everywhere, struggles. Everyone everywhere, needs to eat. Universal truths. My own struggle is not any different than anybody else’s. But, my own struggle will be worse if I lead myself to believe that I am alone in it.
So what must we do? We must let ourselves go. We must understand that when we define ourselves with material we are insulting who we really are beneath it.
The faster I let my own ‘material’ go, and let myself understand another cultures ‘material,’ the faster I will understand the meanings that underlie this material. I will then be able to assimilate, relate, and be at peace.
Monday, September 14, 2009
Final Exam Day
Final exam day for client business training classes was on Friday. What a day! Everyone had to take a ten question oral exam and pass with a 70% or more in order to be eligible for a loan. Clients were also finishing up their business plans from class on Thursday. Their business plans are written in their groups, so one plan per group, and they are then given to the Anlo Rural Bank for their loans.
We started our morning by printing off the final exam questions and going over them all with our teachers. We had to be sure that the questions would translate well into Ewe, and we also gave them 14 possible questions, of which they chose the best ten. After we had done this, I went to one of the morning classes in order to help them finish their business plans. There were only about two people in the class who understood any English at all, so I had one of the young boys in the village translate for me.
On a quick tangent. There are three boys here that have been absolutely wonderful to our team. They will spend entire days at a time translating for us, doing tedious and exhausting surveys over and over again with clients. They are all in school, but lucky for us they are on summer break right now. As a result we have three of the brightest kids in the village working for Lumana… I cannot even imagine what we would be doing without them.
Alright, so here I was standing in front of a class with Gadzito by my side, teaching savings plans. Somehow, perhaps by the grace of God, we were able to do the entire savings plan portion of the business plan with the whole class. This portion of the business plan has each group come up with a personal, business, and emergency savings goal. For example, their personal goal might be to save for their children’s school, or to build a new room on their house, their business goal might be to purchase a new hairdryer (in the case of the hairdressers), and their emergency savings goal is two weeks of personal expenses.
We start by taking the final amount they need to have saved, and then they tell me when they want to have it saved by (6 months, one year, two years?), and finally we calculate how much they will need to set aside each week in order to reach their goal.
This seems like a simple task. But then you think about it from a different perspective. You are trying to teach an entire class of people to make three different savings goals. Most of them have never participated in any sort of savings, much less divided their goals into different categories. Once you explain the concept of categories (through your translator of course), you must then communicate that they need to pick a particular item to save for, not just an arbitrary amount of money they would like to achieve for that ‘account.’
Once we accomplished this it was wonderful to see each group get excited about the prospect of having that thing which they decided to save for. By breaking it down into a weekly amount that they would need to set aside, the goal became much more tangible in their minds. There was a new energy of empowerment flowing through the room. They all realized how capable they are of actually reaching the goals that they set for themselves. What an experience!
After my lunch break I went back to the school to help the afternoon classes. Both of the afternoon classes had been able to finish their business plans the day before, but we still needed to administer the oral exam. Our four teachers were overwhelmed trying to process everyone, because our ten question exam was taking about 15 minutes per person.
I set myself up in a classroom, this time with Victor by my side to translate, and began giving oral exams. I gave exams for about two hours, all the way until we had processed every last student.
This was Lumana’s first time doing an oral exam, and there were good lessons learned in the process. Our team debriefed after the day and brainstormed ways to make the questions better understood once they are translated into Ewe. We also brainstormed how we can alter the questions so we are sure to be testing not terms, but application of the concepts. By applying all of our changes, the exam can be administered quicker in the future, and it will also be easier to translate, especially for the boys that are helping us. (One common issue I had was Victor telling me “by clarifying what this question is asking I am essentially giving them the answer.”) I ended up making up a few questions on the fly to remedy this problem. The process will be streamlined and uniform for our next round of clients.
This week we have our graduation ceremony for clients… and Patience, our loan officer, will be filling out loan applications with every group. We will then process all of the loan applications, decide on the final amounts, and make the money available for our clients in the bank. How exciting!
We started our morning by printing off the final exam questions and going over them all with our teachers. We had to be sure that the questions would translate well into Ewe, and we also gave them 14 possible questions, of which they chose the best ten. After we had done this, I went to one of the morning classes in order to help them finish their business plans. There were only about two people in the class who understood any English at all, so I had one of the young boys in the village translate for me.
On a quick tangent. There are three boys here that have been absolutely wonderful to our team. They will spend entire days at a time translating for us, doing tedious and exhausting surveys over and over again with clients. They are all in school, but lucky for us they are on summer break right now. As a result we have three of the brightest kids in the village working for Lumana… I cannot even imagine what we would be doing without them.
Alright, so here I was standing in front of a class with Gadzito by my side, teaching savings plans. Somehow, perhaps by the grace of God, we were able to do the entire savings plan portion of the business plan with the whole class. This portion of the business plan has each group come up with a personal, business, and emergency savings goal. For example, their personal goal might be to save for their children’s school, or to build a new room on their house, their business goal might be to purchase a new hairdryer (in the case of the hairdressers), and their emergency savings goal is two weeks of personal expenses.
We start by taking the final amount they need to have saved, and then they tell me when they want to have it saved by (6 months, one year, two years?), and finally we calculate how much they will need to set aside each week in order to reach their goal.
This seems like a simple task. But then you think about it from a different perspective. You are trying to teach an entire class of people to make three different savings goals. Most of them have never participated in any sort of savings, much less divided their goals into different categories. Once you explain the concept of categories (through your translator of course), you must then communicate that they need to pick a particular item to save for, not just an arbitrary amount of money they would like to achieve for that ‘account.’
Once we accomplished this it was wonderful to see each group get excited about the prospect of having that thing which they decided to save for. By breaking it down into a weekly amount that they would need to set aside, the goal became much more tangible in their minds. There was a new energy of empowerment flowing through the room. They all realized how capable they are of actually reaching the goals that they set for themselves. What an experience!
After my lunch break I went back to the school to help the afternoon classes. Both of the afternoon classes had been able to finish their business plans the day before, but we still needed to administer the oral exam. Our four teachers were overwhelmed trying to process everyone, because our ten question exam was taking about 15 minutes per person.
I set myself up in a classroom, this time with Victor by my side to translate, and began giving oral exams. I gave exams for about two hours, all the way until we had processed every last student.
This was Lumana’s first time doing an oral exam, and there were good lessons learned in the process. Our team debriefed after the day and brainstormed ways to make the questions better understood once they are translated into Ewe. We also brainstormed how we can alter the questions so we are sure to be testing not terms, but application of the concepts. By applying all of our changes, the exam can be administered quicker in the future, and it will also be easier to translate, especially for the boys that are helping us. (One common issue I had was Victor telling me “by clarifying what this question is asking I am essentially giving them the answer.”) I ended up making up a few questions on the fly to remedy this problem. The process will be streamlined and uniform for our next round of clients.
This week we have our graduation ceremony for clients… and Patience, our loan officer, will be filling out loan applications with every group. We will then process all of the loan applications, decide on the final amounts, and make the money available for our clients in the bank. How exciting!
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
The Tragic Loss Of A Cellphone
How does one lose their cell phone? I will tell you…
On Friday, my groupmates and I decided to take a trip to Dzita (pronounced Jeeta) for a bit of R and R after a long week. Dzita has a wonderful little hotel resort called ‘Meet me There’ on a lagoon in front of the ocean. It was founded as an NGO, and they reinvest all of their profits into the community. They come complete with a bar, lounge chairs, a diving platform, and a monkey (yes, a monkey).
So, after a nice afternoon in Dzita we were getting ready to head home to Atorkor so we could make it in time for dinner. We piled six of us into a small cab on the way there and then we got the cab drivers number so we could just have him bring us home as well. We easily could have caught a tro tro home, or another cab instead, but we liked this guy so we wanted to give him our business again. In addition to that, his car seemed as if it was about to fall apart… and we all seem to have a bit of a soft spot so we gave him a bit of sympathy business.
Well we called our driver about thirty minutes before we needed to leave so he could make his way over. In the meantime, a large group of locals from Keta showed up to ‘Meet me There,’ they were on their way home from a funeral (funerals are a huge deal here). Somehow we got some of them to start taking tots with us (shots). I was a spectator in these activities, but it was hilarious. Funeral goers are good partiers, and some of the men were definitely able to throw down. PJ and Eric were able to make the shots ‘on us’ as they only cost about 15 cents each.
These were very lively and drunk people. They had us walk out to the street with them and were attempting to get us to crawl into the back of their pickup truck so they could take us with them. In the midst of this chaotic exchange complicated by a language barrier, an old man was also trying to find out where we were living so he could come back tomorrow and take me out to dinner or something…
Despite all the chaos, we managed to escape their grasp and wish them well as they went on their way. I did not escape without a kiss on the cheek from this unnamed old Ghanaian man, and Sammie barely escaped the very forceful and strong hold of a Ghanaian woman that would have really enjoyed taking her home.
After this whole exchange we were laughing at the thought of what the result might be of them over consuming as opposed to us over consuming. We can imagine the possibility of one of us waking up after a crazy night in the states and wondering ‘Oooh no, how many people did I decide to treat to a drink last night…?’ Whereas their norm would be something more like waking up in the morning with Yavoo’s on their floor and thinking, ‘SHOOT! We hijacked some Yavoos again guys…”
Moving on…
Our cab driver finally arrived and we piled into the car for our trip home. We ended up finding out that the cab drivers name was Oscar. Now, there are a lot of speed bumps that one must drive over in order to get from Dzita to Atorkor. Poor Oscar’s car, run down and weighed down by 6 crazy yavoos, could barely make it over these speed bumps without dying. Our crew seemed to think it would be helpful to cheer Oscar on over every speed bump. So here we were, driving through a village, chanting “OSCAR! OSCAR! OSCAR! WHOOOOO!!!!” Over every speed bump. We reduced ourselves into a state of hysterical laughter at this, a completely contagious and hysterical laughter. Eric was in the front seat with Karin on his lap, his head falling backward with every laugh attack. Alex was on my left and every time she saw Eric laugh she started up again, because he was such a sight. Meanwhile I was laughing at Sammie, who was on my right and fighting not to snort every time she laughed. I can still see the image of her holding up her hand in the air and waving it up and down exclaiming “I just can’t stop!” I am not sure what PJ was doing in the midst of this. Probably had the window down so the wind could blow through his long Yavoo hair…
Just as our attacks were dying down we hit the bad part of the road, one that just a few week ago was completely blocked off due to the sand that was washed over it during a storm. There was another car driving on the road coming from the other direction, and they obviously did not understand that they should be the ones yielding for us. Thus we were pushed sideways into a ditch of sand, and poor Oscars car was stuck.
No problem! Out jump the Yavoos to push out the car! And the Yavoos save the day. We must be a strong bunch… the car was out in less than 30 seconds. But here is where things start to go downhill… somewhere in the middle of this getting out of the car and getting back in it Samantha’s purse fell sideways and a bunch of stuff came out.
Here starts the sad story of our little Nokia phone. When we were getting out of the taxi back in Atorkor we collected everything we saw that had fallen onto the floor of the cab. I checked the side I was on, and Sammie checked hers. Unfortunately, it was dark outside and we could have easily not seen something that was underneath a seat. We went in to dinner, and about 30 minutes later realized there was no Nokia.
We tried calling the cab driver, but to no avail. As Felix (our local friend) says, once a phone is forgotten in a cab it is gone forever. Thus the fate of Nokia. Gone forever.
Good-bye Nokia, you treated us well…..
On Friday, my groupmates and I decided to take a trip to Dzita (pronounced Jeeta) for a bit of R and R after a long week. Dzita has a wonderful little hotel resort called ‘Meet me There’ on a lagoon in front of the ocean. It was founded as an NGO, and they reinvest all of their profits into the community. They come complete with a bar, lounge chairs, a diving platform, and a monkey (yes, a monkey).
So, after a nice afternoon in Dzita we were getting ready to head home to Atorkor so we could make it in time for dinner. We piled six of us into a small cab on the way there and then we got the cab drivers number so we could just have him bring us home as well. We easily could have caught a tro tro home, or another cab instead, but we liked this guy so we wanted to give him our business again. In addition to that, his car seemed as if it was about to fall apart… and we all seem to have a bit of a soft spot so we gave him a bit of sympathy business.
Well we called our driver about thirty minutes before we needed to leave so he could make his way over. In the meantime, a large group of locals from Keta showed up to ‘Meet me There,’ they were on their way home from a funeral (funerals are a huge deal here). Somehow we got some of them to start taking tots with us (shots). I was a spectator in these activities, but it was hilarious. Funeral goers are good partiers, and some of the men were definitely able to throw down. PJ and Eric were able to make the shots ‘on us’ as they only cost about 15 cents each.
These were very lively and drunk people. They had us walk out to the street with them and were attempting to get us to crawl into the back of their pickup truck so they could take us with them. In the midst of this chaotic exchange complicated by a language barrier, an old man was also trying to find out where we were living so he could come back tomorrow and take me out to dinner or something…
Despite all the chaos, we managed to escape their grasp and wish them well as they went on their way. I did not escape without a kiss on the cheek from this unnamed old Ghanaian man, and Sammie barely escaped the very forceful and strong hold of a Ghanaian woman that would have really enjoyed taking her home.
After this whole exchange we were laughing at the thought of what the result might be of them over consuming as opposed to us over consuming. We can imagine the possibility of one of us waking up after a crazy night in the states and wondering ‘Oooh no, how many people did I decide to treat to a drink last night…?’ Whereas their norm would be something more like waking up in the morning with Yavoo’s on their floor and thinking, ‘SHOOT! We hijacked some Yavoos again guys…”
Moving on…
Our cab driver finally arrived and we piled into the car for our trip home. We ended up finding out that the cab drivers name was Oscar. Now, there are a lot of speed bumps that one must drive over in order to get from Dzita to Atorkor. Poor Oscar’s car, run down and weighed down by 6 crazy yavoos, could barely make it over these speed bumps without dying. Our crew seemed to think it would be helpful to cheer Oscar on over every speed bump. So here we were, driving through a village, chanting “OSCAR! OSCAR! OSCAR! WHOOOOO!!!!” Over every speed bump. We reduced ourselves into a state of hysterical laughter at this, a completely contagious and hysterical laughter. Eric was in the front seat with Karin on his lap, his head falling backward with every laugh attack. Alex was on my left and every time she saw Eric laugh she started up again, because he was such a sight. Meanwhile I was laughing at Sammie, who was on my right and fighting not to snort every time she laughed. I can still see the image of her holding up her hand in the air and waving it up and down exclaiming “I just can’t stop!” I am not sure what PJ was doing in the midst of this. Probably had the window down so the wind could blow through his long Yavoo hair…
Just as our attacks were dying down we hit the bad part of the road, one that just a few week ago was completely blocked off due to the sand that was washed over it during a storm. There was another car driving on the road coming from the other direction, and they obviously did not understand that they should be the ones yielding for us. Thus we were pushed sideways into a ditch of sand, and poor Oscars car was stuck.
No problem! Out jump the Yavoos to push out the car! And the Yavoos save the day. We must be a strong bunch… the car was out in less than 30 seconds. But here is where things start to go downhill… somewhere in the middle of this getting out of the car and getting back in it Samantha’s purse fell sideways and a bunch of stuff came out.
Here starts the sad story of our little Nokia phone. When we were getting out of the taxi back in Atorkor we collected everything we saw that had fallen onto the floor of the cab. I checked the side I was on, and Sammie checked hers. Unfortunately, it was dark outside and we could have easily not seen something that was underneath a seat. We went in to dinner, and about 30 minutes later realized there was no Nokia.
We tried calling the cab driver, but to no avail. As Felix (our local friend) says, once a phone is forgotten in a cab it is gone forever. Thus the fate of Nokia. Gone forever.
Good-bye Nokia, you treated us well…..
The Lumana 20 Promises (For you, Dad)
I think I recieved a special request from dad about the 20 promises! Here they are!
Lumana 20 promises: these are 20 specific promises that the groups can keep and commit to upholding in their lives. They must pledge to uphold the Lumana 20 Promises at the beginning of each and every weekly group meeting.
1. I will set achievable goals every day- What do I want to accomplish today?
2. I will clean my house every morning and evening
3. I will sleep under a treated mosquito net every night
4. I will keep myself and my children healthy
5. I will make personal hygiene a daily priority – for example, I will wash my hands with soap after the toilet or before cooking.
6. I will visit a public toilet rather than going free range
7. I will make my loan repayments regularly to Lumana through Anlo Rural Bank
8. I will attend meetings regularly and will be on time
9. I will make regular contributions to my savings account
10. I will treat members of my cooperative equally and encourage them (unity, friendliness, respect)
11. I will contribute my token (Easter levy and welfare dues)
12. I will participate in communal labour and attend meetings regularly and promptly
13. I will ensure that my children are regular at school
14. I will properly feed myself and my family
15. I will ensure my family takes treated water always
16. I will drink at least 3 litres of water per day (6 sachets)
17. I will rest at least 7 hours at night
18. I will make sure all of my current children are adequately fed and taken care of before bringing another into the world.
19. I will visit friends, family and my group members when they are sick
20. I will assist other group members (financially or otherwise) when they are in need
These were at the suggestion of our local teachers, and address many local needs. A lot of the topics here will be covered in the LLL's (Lumana Life Lessons) which I am writing. These are the 26-week lesson plans which consist of one lesson for every weekly repayment meeting that clients attend. The lessons are a more holistic approach to education and cover topics such as preventative health, general wellness, and community development.
Until next time!
Maresa
Lumana 20 promises: these are 20 specific promises that the groups can keep and commit to upholding in their lives. They must pledge to uphold the Lumana 20 Promises at the beginning of each and every weekly group meeting.
1. I will set achievable goals every day- What do I want to accomplish today?
2. I will clean my house every morning and evening
3. I will sleep under a treated mosquito net every night
4. I will keep myself and my children healthy
5. I will make personal hygiene a daily priority – for example, I will wash my hands with soap after the toilet or before cooking.
6. I will visit a public toilet rather than going free range
7. I will make my loan repayments regularly to Lumana through Anlo Rural Bank
8. I will attend meetings regularly and will be on time
9. I will make regular contributions to my savings account
10. I will treat members of my cooperative equally and encourage them (unity, friendliness, respect)
11. I will contribute my token (Easter levy and welfare dues)
12. I will participate in communal labour and attend meetings regularly and promptly
13. I will ensure that my children are regular at school
14. I will properly feed myself and my family
15. I will ensure my family takes treated water always
16. I will drink at least 3 litres of water per day (6 sachets)
17. I will rest at least 7 hours at night
18. I will make sure all of my current children are adequately fed and taken care of before bringing another into the world.
19. I will visit friends, family and my group members when they are sick
20. I will assist other group members (financially or otherwise) when they are in need
These were at the suggestion of our local teachers, and address many local needs. A lot of the topics here will be covered in the LLL's (Lumana Life Lessons) which I am writing. These are the 26-week lesson plans which consist of one lesson for every weekly repayment meeting that clients attend. The lessons are a more holistic approach to education and cover topics such as preventative health, general wellness, and community development.
Until next time!
Maresa
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