War against apathy

It's been awhile since I posted--completely on me. I'm online almost everyday, but finding the words to say just don't come out I suppose.



So a year on island has gone by now (a year as an official volunteer on 20 October). It was one thing to say that we've been here a year and perhaps it felt as such. Yet I think it really came to me when the current volunteers (both those at the 1-yr mark and those who are still here wrapping up their 2-year service) gathered at the air-port to greet the new, incoming volunteers. The airport here is small enough that we were able to assemble along the outer fence line and proceed to scream, hoot, and pound the fence as we saw them coming off their plane. Then we lined up like complete hooligans immediately outside the arrival exit doors waving a Vincy flag for people to walk through as we chanted various things like SVG, Peace Corps, and being wonderfully obnoxious. Thankfully, security must figure it's only once a year for a very short time--so we're forgiven. ^_^ Thanks airport security.

See the all the arrival shots here!

Here's the boss-man, Mr. Cool coming through.


The arrival welcoming crew


We ventured back to the office for a little meet and greet for a few hours. It was nice to see everyone face to face--even the current volunteers. Some of us here meet up from time to time for small events, but as a group we very rarely all get together in one place. This time we had every volunteer on island there and it was very cool. Scott and I stuck around until each host parent came to pick up there respective volunteer and take them to their new homes across SVG. It was akin to watching the box of puppies seeking adoption. ^_^ This arrival was very different from our group's landing last year. We didn't do a meet and greet, but we were met by a few volunteers at the arrival doors very briefly. Didn't have much chance to say hi, because the moment we got past our greeters our host parents were already at the airports to pick us up. Also, we arrived on a Saturday and didn't have anything specific to do until Monday when our training started. This gave us a couple days to figure out something to do as we settled into our village--no word from the staff or other volunteers. This time around, they landed on a Monday and started training the next day. Neither is better or worse, but interesting to compare.

President Obama welcomes you


The whole volunteer SVG crew is now assembled!


So while that was happy, joyful times--there is still plenty to do work to do.
The past couple of weeks has posed to be rather interesting in terms of 'passing the buck'. With my time and energy focusing on the two main groups I'm working with, I've rolled up my sleeves a bit for them.
--The tourism group, Cumberland Valley Eco-Tourism Organization, really needs to come together since their efforts are going to be launched as a small business group responsible for two tourist sites. I'm trying to fill in the training gaps from the larger development projecct, rather large gaps.
--The Spring Village Action Council has been having a hard time gathering its supposed members and putting our long talked about village enhancement project to paper. Seeing that project through is my driving goal while I am here.



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With the tourism project, there is an controlling group that is responsible for strengthening and training some dozen or so community tourism groups. They are covering everything from business fundamentals, accounting, computer training, marketing, safety & security, hospitality, and all sorts of other small start-up training. However, in my opinion, much of this training (at those I've attended) seem to be nothing more than a light dusting on these topics and are not engaging the groups. A few of our group members feel that the rest of the group is not taking the upcoming responsibilities seriously enough. Sometimes I wonder if the provided 'training' in not designed in such a way as to capture the involvement and bring these members on-board. Additionally, I feel as if this light dusting called training won't be sufficient to help these groups manage their sites if they've never managed something similar before.

I've offered extensively to assist the tourism development project team in any way they might see fit. However, there is a general feeling of turfism in that anyone who is not actively working as staff on the project team or contracted by them should be involved with the training. The project liaison and I have bumped heads a few times with my attempts to do some side training for my local village group. I warned the group about this training situation long ago and they didn't seem too concerned. Now that they are starting to realize that the sites will be ready and they'll be operating them by the end of the year (if not sooner), I'm being approached to assist with all sorts of things from the business plans to site marketing to doing the computer work for them. I haven't entirely let myself do all of their work. Just this morning, one of the members was asking me why I didn't get the tourism statistics they needed and I replied because it was them that needed to get it. So we met on middle ground as I sat her down at my computer and had her use her email to communicate to the Ministry of Tourism. They must stand on their own two feet.




Marketing this group is my lastest drive for them. I have a running goal to get them an internet presence (email, social networks, and website) all up and running within two months. They will be alongside me nearly every step of the way. Thankfully, there are not webhosts with relatively easy to use interfaces that allow a person to literally drag-and-drop their way to building a website. Between that and a few tweaks of help, we should have something looking rather nice in the near future. Score one for them and since I'll make sure they can update it themselves, score one for both of us on sustainability.

I've also started to try help a local couple craftspeople to work on their product marketing as well. One of them in involved with the tourism project also--so the repeat coaching should help reinforce the concepts. I'll be happy to provide links for them in the future...

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The Spring Village Action Council has been it's own bunch of fun. We're going to meet later this evening and have lots to discuss. As a group, we were gathered to act as a networked council--bringing to the table representatives from the churches, non-church organizations, and interested individuals. We've noticed it is extremely hard to get many of the groups to respond regularly and many individuals don't seem to really acknowledge us as yet. Must strategically plan on how who we should target to expand membership and drive to enlarge ourselves in order to have sufficient numbers to share responsibilities.

We've been mapping out a development project--a somewhat ambitious one--as a tool to establish the group and provide several needed services to the community. However, without a strong membership base it seems as if our meetings are just going in circles. Tonight I hope to gain commitment to a general timeline for the project. Even if that timeline is long, it will give them something on a calendar to work along. The things we have planned out would greatly benefit the community and I fear should I be sent home early that much of this will fall through...

• Crossroad direction and neighborhood (rather than street) signs through the village
  
• Bus shed on the highway
  
• Establish a family play/relax park
  
• Establish an agricultural inputs shop
  
• Complete a bridge to gain access to part of the beach. Currently the river we cross can quickly rise to dangerous levels.
  
• Remodel parts of our community center to reflect changing interests
  
• Remodel and establish a computer training lab in one of the community center rooms.
  

We can do this, but we have to get motivated and start to write. I've told the members in the group that funding is available for those that work towards it--which has been one of their greatest concerns.

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I think the hardest part of what I do isn't facilitating any particular topic.

• It isn't working with kids--->way outside my comfort zone.
  
• It isn't patiently explaining a concept 4, 5 or 12 times to someone.
  
• It isn't trying to communicate with people while being hoarse for the past many months.
  
• It isn't doing lots of walking and hand-shaking to track down people or information to make something possible.

The hardest part about what I do is fight a war against apathy, non-motivation, and a general culture of undermining one another. I've talked on many occasions to people in my village and they will all agree on a particular idea, but none seem to have any idea as to how to start changing that culture. They will readily admit such practices run rampant in the village and the greater St. Vincent, but they won't admit to doing such things themselves. The barest strand of this aspect of Spring/Vincy culture shows that a person would like a certain level of happiness/standard of living. While this is not inherently problematic, the common thread continues that if someone else might become better off by helping that person--such as buy from a shop or contribute in any way to an organization, then a person would avoid or even work against the betterment of the person trying to succeed.

Anyone you ask shall tell you just what this community needs, but the vast majority will not provide any assistance towards the work that needs to be done. Invitations to consultations and other meetings would be announced that offer an opportunity for people come and be heard; yet the far majority do not come. Even recently, there was a land and watershed consultation done that actually had a decent turn-out and when the facilitators mentioned a potential of funding for environmental protection work, members of the audience began spinning question after question about when some group will come and fix this and that for them. The facilitators attempted to bring these people on-board with a collaborative venture, yet the audience members turned away from it. It seems apparent that the majority of the people simply want something done for them without personal investment. The local culture is one of negative criticism and perhaps it would be harder to criticize something negatively if that person had been a stakeholder on the effort.

My work here strongly discourages the "do it for them" approach and I don't believe in it either. Sadly, far too many stories have come from previous volunteers that say if you want something done, you just have to do it yourself. I've had to stoop to that before, but am trying my best to bring at least on person with me when something needs to get done. And so the war on apathy continues....

Stay safe and happy
ciao tutti
~your local wannabe jedi
~Shawn