Projects and Stuff

  Probably the best thing ever invented for a PCV was the e-reader. You have a lot of down time, and often don't have anyone to talk to. Even if you do, it's often hard to have truly intellectual conversations. That's not to say every here is an idiot. That's not even saying I'm above them. However, the language barrier really does prevent higher level exchanges on topics more complex than “who's going to win the BPL this season?” Sure, there are other PCVs I can talk to, and I do, but over the phone and by SMS, there's only so much you can get into, and service can be very spotty. I would venture to say that I spend a good 3-4 hours a day reading on an average weekday. That's not to say I'm anti-social, since I do go out with my co-workers and have a good time quite often and hang with people in my town. But I'll often spend my lunch break with a book, wake up and read, rather than checking Facebook first thing in the morning, and lie in bed reading rather than catching up on that show. I read a lot.

But, then again, I always have. That's something my parents instilled in me at a young age (and, sadly, failed to instill in my brother). And I am not simply writing about this to brag. But, as many of you know, one thing I've been constantly criticized for by people here is reading too much. My host kids especially. They, like my brother, are of the opinion that time spend reading is time that could be better spent watching cartoons. Now, yes, they would occasionally play outside. Generally, that was because the electricity was off (happens ever day or 2) or because I grabbed my soccer ball and dragged them outside. It's a shift I've been noticing in America for a while now, and something I'm very disappointed to say we've been exporting. Too many kids these days grow up thinking books are what you do when you can't use the TV. And I'll admit it. I often watched too much TV back home. TV shows being available on the internet made it worse. And for my 4 years of college, I don't think I read a single book for pleasure. After several hundred of pages of assigned reading, the last thing I'd want to do during the school year was read another book. The summer was my break, and I was often arrogant enough to also see it as my opportunity to take a break from all pursuits even remotely academic. However, since college, I have rediscovered my love of reading. And, unfortunately, have failed to pass it on to kids here.

This is all I have to say to those who believe I read too much or that reading isn't good for you

Fortunately, there are people who have been more successful. On my way back from re-connect, I spent a night with a couple travel companions in Otjiwarongo. Because the guy we were meeting had a small place, the girls I was traveling with were going to leave their bags at the place of a female teaching volunteer. We walk into her place, and there were books everywhere. Magic Tree House, Box Car Children, Encyclopedia Brown, Harry Potter, and probably several hundred more. And the kids were reading them. In a country in need of some serious innovation, it's great to see the joy of reading being passed down. The biggest cost of TV is that kids don't develop their creativity.

Well, enough about that. In this post, I speak about my PDM/Grant Writing seminar, a project I'm working on, some thoughts on the drought, and a couple ideas I have for future projects and bringing in some money.

So, I just got back from part 1 of my re-connect. This was a workshop and seminar on project design and management (PDM). Honestly, as someone who studied IDev in college, this was nothing new or exciting. However, our counterparts were invited, and this helped clarify for them why I have not actually gotten any major projects off the ground. See, I could just jump into things, but in order to make them sustainable, a level of planning is required, the first step of which I am still working on, that being assessing the needs of my community. Sure, there are assumptions I have about what these people need. There are projects I really want to start for my own desires. But unless the ideas come from the community and the community takes some ownership of the project, there's no way these projects outlast my time here. In this regard, teaching volunteers have it easier than CHHAP or SEED volunteers.

On project I am looking to start is a soccer program called “GrassRoot Soccer” (see below for my overall dream for this program). This is a program designed to fight HV/AIDS and teach healthy living through the game of soccer. Since my primary mission with Peace Corps is HIV/AIDS and several members of the community have approached me about starting a youth soccer program, this seems like a great fit for a project, and since GRS has a program designed in partnership for Peace Corps, this seems like a manageable first major project. Even better, my counterpart plays for the local soccer club and is interested in helping me with this project, and is willing to get other players involved as well, which sets up the sustainability part.

Okay, so, we have an idea for a project. We know what the problem we want to address is, and we know how we plan on addressing it. In other words, step one is done. We have our vision for the project.

Now, on to step 2: figuring out what we need and what the community has to offer. We have coaches. Since I work for the Ministry of Youth, National Service, Sport, and Culture, we have access to the soccer field (potentially). We have access to the hospital and its resources through Grace, a fellow health PCV in my town. We have access to the balls and a weight room through my ministry. We have access to the local schools, which can provide the youths and lifeskills teachers, since our ministry does a lot of work with them. We have access to money through the ministry, assuming we use the proper channels. We even have access to the radio, through connections. Okay, so, there's step 2 of project design completed.

Step 3: How do we make this happen. So, this would take several paragraphs to get into the details of, so I'm going with the short answer. In order to recruit learners and make this sustainable, our hope is to talk the Goriseb High School right across from our center about setting this program up as part of the curriculum for their 9^th and 10^th grade lifeskills classes. In order to get most of the soccer equipment and the fields, we plan on going through the ministry, mainly the Sports Directorate. We're looking to get some small funds from the ministry, but we're hoping a local business will donate shirts to our youths, with their names on the front, the ministry logo on the sleeve, a logo patch we're designing (see some sketches below), and, since the end goal would be for this to spread to other schools, the shirts themselves wold be the school colors. We'd provide the learners with markers and let them write their own names and numbers on the back (mainly to spare me the embarrassment of having to spell their names). For shorts, we're looking into getting those donated also, though initially, we may just need the learners to have their own. For other equipment (shin guards, cleats, socks), I've been talking to people back in the states about possibly having used equipment drives, but, to be honest, those can come later; none of those are particularly needed (admittedly, nor are shirts, but they're a way to get the learners to come).

Little sketch of a logo I came up with (some of the sessions got a tad dull)

My vision, both short term and long term, for this project

A short side note here: the term “learners” is not meant in any way to be talking down. Because English was not the original language, when they changed to English from local languages, term “learner” is what they used, rather than “student,” largely because of how it translated, from what I've been told. I try, when possible, to work some of the local things into my writing here as part of my efforts to teach y'all about Namibian culture.

Next step to figure out what our actual goals are and how we plan to measure them. Short-term, our main goals were just getting the learners to show up and participate. Long-term, our main goal is fighting HIV/AIDS. However, other goals include teaching healthy living, reducing youth pregnancy and alcohol consumption, and teaching soccer skills in the hopes of eventually setting up a youth soccer program. I'd go into our indicators we plan on using to figure out if we've been successful, but most of you are intelligent and can figure them out on your own. And for those of you who are not intelligent, just turn to the intelligent ones and they can explain it, but this post is getting long, and I don't want to bore you too much.

So, next step (in the Peace Corps model) is to assess feasibility. Given the low costs, we determined this project was feasible. Okie Dokie, moving on. The next step was to set up a timeline. This is largely, for us, anyway, based on the availability of the field, the school schedules (they are currently on holiday), and the fact that things with the ministry take a while. After that, you determine a plan for monitoring the success of the project (how you plan to measure/assess those indicators). Finally, you establish what it's going to cost, how much of a budget you have, and where you are going to get the rest of the needed funds. This is especially crucial for applying for grants, something I don't anticipate doing for this project.

I mention grants because this has established a bit of a challenge for many of us. In general, it would've been nice if they had waited until our counterparts left to go into grants stuff, since now many of them are expecting every project to involve grant applications to bring money in, and I'd (and many others) rather avoid that, because it can get messy, slow, and requires less creativity, plus, it gets people reliant on outside money, rather than trying to fundraise themselves.

So, there you go. PDM and my idea for my first major project.

Next up, the drought. My previous post included photos and articles from people who can express it far better than I can, so I won't go too much into that stuff. I will say I have seen the impact. Water gets shut off quite a bit, vegetables are much more expensive, water conservation is a crucial way of life, and birthrates are falling all over the country (which has had some problematic results, that I won't get into). Some of the photos I've seen are truly heartbreaking, even for someone as heartless as me. It's so bad that the UN has declared it an emergency. It's killing of certain traditional ways of life, and my region, the Kunene, has arguably been hit worse than anywhere else in the country, with the northern part having recently moved beyond 2 years without a drop of rain. Really puts into perspective those annoying waterless after a storm, a pipes problem, or those days where our flowers start dying. It can be brutal during the summer back home, but it generally ends by fall, and can never be measured in years. But, instead of me going on, again, I suggest you go to my previous post and check out the photos and videos on the links (also accessible through my Facebook).

While I mentioned that soccer project, it's not the only thing I have coming down the pipeline. The first is the health club. I've already gone into details on that, so I'll skip to the next one. Grace and I are considering starting a movie night. The idea would be to start with a small health-related program or discussion, then show a movie (if possible, related to the topic at hand). For instance, the following movies have been considered so far: Juno (to show even though abortion isn't legal here, there are options other than dropping out of school if you get pregnant), The Perks of Being a Wallflower (to talk about good friends/bad friend, peer pressure, and not trying to go through your problems alone), Finding Nemo (to show that a real man doesn't abandon a child for any reason, and because I like it), Kids (this would be for older groups, and probably would involve pausing several times to discuss things that are going on), Invictus (because the apartheid issue and tribalism are still very relevant here), and a few more. Grace and I have also been approached about teaching condom demonstrations in the conservancies, something we're discussing doing together so that questions can be addressed from both male and female perspective (as much as I believe in equality, when it comes to sex, there are questions that no girl is in any position to answer, and there are questions I'm not comfortable answering, since I could only speak from what I've heard/read, and not from experience). Grace also wants to do a male engagement program, but feels I'd need to be the one leading that project.

And, lastly, as a way to bring in money to fund projects, I'm thinking of starting a Damara t-shirt line. They'd be things like “Damaras be KhoeKhoe” (a pun/cultural reference in the states), “Damaras click with Everyone” (a reference to the click language), “Donkey Kart” (would be a cheap knock-off of Mario Kart), “Donkey Town” Khorixas shirts, and a few road signs (warthog/elephant/giraffe crossing signs to start). There will be more, but those of some starter ideas. I know they're corny. The idea would be to attract tourists/people in the states, and from what I've experienced, they go for the corny.

So, there you go. A bit long, but I hope you enjoyed it.