Macademias are supposedly the toughest nuts to crack (it requires about 300 psi or 2000 kPa to crack) and they are on their way to becoming Guatemala´s latest fashionable cash-crop. Even our orphanage will soon plant 40 macademia trees. But why all this drive for macademias I ask - Guatemala has enough tough nuts to crack already.
Nut 1:
Recently I strolled through the extensive grounds of the orphanage along the little stream that runs through the valley. Exotic plants, beautiful birds, shady trees all make it a heavenly spot if there wasn´t ... if there wasn´t the super stinky river running right through the valley and right through my dreams of making this a relaxing hang-out and playground for the pequenos.
Now, thrifty Mr T thinks, here´s a worthwhile cause to get behind - let´s organize the orphanage and the other stream-dwellers to keep the common river clean and make it enjoyable for everybody. What fool ye were!
Turns out that Guatemala isn´t quite ready for wide-eyed ¨Village Beautifulism¨. Parramos, along with the majority of Guatemala´s municipalities, neither has much of a sewage-water system, nor does it have a sewage treatment plant to do something with the s...t. That´s where the river comes into play. Sewage systems and treatment plants are very expensive things to build. A river is not and it provides seemingly cheap and easy waste disposal. It stinks a little during summer, but wait for the rainy season and it´s as good as new. Small stumbling stone, big rock underneath. That´s how it feels: you walk along the dusty road and your toe hits a little stone peeking out of the dust. In your pain and anger about this nuisance you think how easy it would be to get that little rock out and make life better for all passengers. Promptly you get a shovel and hack away at the dust only to discover that between you and successful sainthood lies a huge rock burried underneath the road. In fact the big boulder is what keeps the road together.
Nut 2:
With one of the kids in the orphanage I started an avocado trade. As I am a professed Avocado afficionado I proposed to him the deal that he would pick and ripen the avocados for me and I would pay him a good price for them rather than buying them at the market. Now I thought that the lack of cash among the pequenos would be a good motivator but I was bloody wrong. After ca. three successful avocado deals he told me that it was too much work to get the avocados now because all the low-hanging ones were already picked. Well, there I was, dumbfounded me. I mean that´s the idea that I was taught at university about homo economicus - you work, you get money and people would always choose more over less. Clearly I am missing some part in my equation here.
Nut 3:
This weekend I put a simple swing on one of the beautiful trees at the orphanage for some kids who really need some special attention right now. They said, hey, it´s great and used it. Today then they wanted to make a campfire and were collecting wood. I have a stack of chopped wood behind our house for drying so they went straight for that and helped themselves to it. I said hey guys, go collect your own wood for your fire. Well, as soon as I looked away more wood was gone. So I had to get mad at them. This shows two dilemmas. First, the kids are not necessarily good at showing gratitude. If they want something they are overly sweet to you and if there is something to be had they take what they can get without asking once where it comes from.
They are always provided with things through donations which they have to fight for amongst themselves but they never have a part in acquiring those donations, except being abused as cute props for pictures with any visitor who might decide to stroll in tomorrow. From my current perspective the charitable basis of the orphange creates this problem. Providing the kids with all the basic necessities is great but it´s of course not the reality outside of the orphanage. No wonder many of the kids want to work for N.P.H. after they left the orphanage. It´s the old dilemma of charity of course but currently I do not see anything done at the orphanage to aleviate this dilemma. There is hardly any incentive or benefits-for-work system in place. All the kids always have to work the land or the farm but they get nothing special in return. They only get scolded if they do not work. Well, getting back to the swing I also wanted to do it by myself, to get a kick out of it. The do-it-yourself-approach is certainly more appealing, easier and in the short term more successful. But in the long term the kids do not learn how to make a swing or learn how to take initiative and sustain themselves. Bah, what an old hat of a problem but it strikes you like a baseball if you encounter it in person outside of the development economics textbooks.
With Josef, another volunteer, I want to get the kids to sell avocados on the market to earn the money to buy a DVD player for their group. That´s a small initiative, let´s see whether it will work.
If you have any thoughts or ideas on how to alleviate these problems or hints on where I could look for answers, please please advise!
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The river idea you had is interesting -- does it remind you at all of the idea behind Al-Azhar Park? It leads me to think that, while perhaps locals are not keen to push through the "beautification" themselves, since oftentimes they have arguably "bigger" problems to worry about, sometimes it ends up being appreciated in the end if a group really pushes it through (I often stroll through the park to watch local kids -- not rich ones, by the way...apparently, rich kids don't use public parks -- playing and couples admiring the water and architecture). Although, if Al-Azhar Park was still being used as a landfill, it would prove to be an additional obstacle, such as the one you are describing... it sounds like there needs to be some reorganisation before any clean up can occur. Have you thought of alternative waste disposal besides expensive treatment plants? Perhaps there are eco-friendly options that they can implement there on a local level. I'm sure if you researched it...enough hippies have started up communes that there are probably techniques available that don't dirty up local water sources.
Honestly, your stories of the kids made me smile...I used to babysit a couple of kids that came from the downtown eastside and were in high profile foster care on a farm near my home when I was a teenager and it would often take a long time before we saw eye-to-eye on things like working for results -- but the accomplishment a child feels when you finally convince him of the rationale is very rewarding. Kids just aren't rational all the time, and when they have difficult emotions and mentalities due to difficult backgrounds that they come from, even more so. The key is reinforcement and being rational and stable yourself no matter what -- stability is paramount for kids who come from unstable backgrounds, or any kids for that matter. I went to a seminar by Dr. Martin Brokenleg once; he was a South Dakotan Indian who focused on "reclaiming native youth." One thing that he talked about that really stuck with me and that I used myself, is focusing on "natural consequences" of a child's actions. It's similar to what you were talking about economically, actually, but it extends to even relationships etc (i.e. If you take my firewood, I don't trust you as much and that affects our other similar transactions, and also now I have to cut more firewood which means I don't have time to do such-and-such a thing with you...that sort of thing). I think that you're on the right track and that your insights are right on - even if it seems like it's not working right away. The key is reinforcement...and talking to admin about changing the donation system. Not that there shouldn't be donations, but that basic necessities should not be fought over but distributed fairly. Kids shouldn't really be expected to have to work for their basic necessities, but, given that they aren't starving, they shouldn't get their dessert for free also...
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