Rarely does one get to experience the amount of movement we did today while sitting in one place!! We spent the day in meetings with the leadership team of the cooperative. We met in town at the sewing shop so the people who will actually use the machines had a chance to take a look before we made a final purchase. Excitement is mounting as the reality sets in that we will have three brand new, fabulous sewing machines of our own. The machines passed with flying colors, and we will likely buy them first thing Monday morning.
Georgina and Ethel get instruction on how to thread the new overlooking stitch machine, which was not for the faint of heart. It took more than 30 minutes to get it threaded
We had planned to walk back up to the guesthouse together, but Georgina, who is pregnant, was not feeling like she could manage the trip up the hill so we caught two taxis.
While waiting for our lunch at the lodge, we walked through a very fun exercise of answering a series of questions we had devised for the start of the meeting: 1. What was your favorite accomplishment of Living Compassion in the last year? 2. What was the biggest disappointment? 3. What do you feel is your greatest contribution to the team? 4. What are the top two things you would like to see us, as the Living Compassion team, accomplish in the next year?
Our meeting began "boardroom style" with the Living Compassion team leaders
With each question we went around the table and shared our answers—so interesting. A sampling: 1. Many said the farm; other responses were learning English, the roof loan program, tuck shop, scholarship program, financial lessons by our new accountant on board. (Beatrice made a family budget; Georgina opened a bank account!!) 2. We did not get to finish the hammer mill project; we lost two children to malaria; self-supporting ventures did not go as far as wished; building not finished. We confess our favorite answer was the last: Ethel’s favorite part of the year was when we came to visit as “it shows you love us.” 3. I have a heart for the whole community (Theresa—so true!), HIV/sanitation education, teach sewing, teach hygiene, willing to show up and do anything (Beatrice—we wanted to suggest that she become a monk!), motivating children to change habits (Ethel—what a skill to have!)
4. Finish the building; become self-sustaining; stand on our own; sponsor half the children ourselves; scholarship program for the whole community (This was Charles who made quite an inspiring speech about the amount of good the currently idle talent in Kantolomba could do if put to service for the world); coop team members acquire skills so they can start to give back; buy their own farm; empower women to have new skills when feeding is over each day; make children’s desks; train more tailors; acquire formal teacher training.
Having set the context, we continued to the business of our agenda. We started by talking about the possibility of using teams as a model for going forward in the various projects. It is a method we are using more and more in our work back in the U.S. We have a team to put together events, a team to run the physical plant of the Monastery, a team to build our facilitator program, etc., and it works beautifully. It promotes group responsibility while not leaving any one person on their own to do it all or to make what the group may end up seeing as poor decisions that do not benefit the whole. We realized this could be perfect for here as well.
Sure enough, everyone seemed to think this would be great. They are going to meet with the larger cooperative to sketch out what the teams will be and who will be a part of which team. We talked about the possibility of each team setting goals, sharing those goals with the larger cooperative, and receiving some sort of bonus if the goal is met.
The idea for incentives sparked when talking about a scholarship team as Charles shared Macy’s story. Macy, 15 years old, received a scholarship in January based on her strong academic promise. She had been in Charles’ secondary tutoring class but had never been to formal school as her family could not afford it. Charles and Ethel (our two secondary tutors) had recognized her potential and suggested her as a candidate for a scholarship to attend grade 6 at the local government school. Charles meets with her, along with several other students, every day after school to tutor them. He also goes to her school (and that of the other scholarship recipients) to check in with her teachers to see how she is doing. He found out just this week that Macy is now #1 in her class! We all agreed it would be excellent for there to be some recognition of this success for the team shepherding the scholarship students. We also plan to ask the team—can’t fit every topic in in one day!—whether there might be some appropriate form of recognition for Macy.
So the team plans also to discuss what those incentive plans might look like.
Our attention then turned to a fascinating topic that we will do our best to relay. You may have read a day or so ago about our finding out that Brenda, a member of the team, does not have anything to sleep on. This came up in our discussion. We asked if it would be just too difficult or inappropriate or… to get a mattress for Brenda. Everyone’s first reaction was “No way. If you get it for Brenda you have to get it for everyone.” “But not everyone needs one,” we pointed out. “Just about everyone has one.” And that branched off to a side topic as they went through to list who does and does not have a mattress, commenting that in many cases they do not know as someone who does not have a mattress would be shy and hide the fact. They concluded that it may be only Brenda or perhaps one or two others.
“And don’t you feel moved to help her?” we wondered. They seemed to consider this for a moment and then to come around to considering that, indeed, maybe it would be good to help her out. And as we explored it more, we all had a sudden realization—that she has sofas. Georgina commented, “I don’t have sofas.” As we looked at it we realized that everyone is making their own choices about where to put their resources. Georgina pointed out that she currently has no windows. When she got her home loan, she ran out of money before being able to put wooden frames and shutters in the window openings. So now, in the dry, windy season, the dust blows straight into her house. So, Brenda needs a bed and Georgina needs windows.
Then, a little miracle happened. “How much money do you have in the cooperative fund right now?” we asked. Eight million kwacha ($1,600). We all realized that this money could be made available to people as loans for whatever they choose. People can apply to the cooperative. Brenda could get a mattress (if that is important to her), Georgina can get her windows, or someone else might choose to borrow a little to start a business on the side. They had just one hesitation. Ethel, who is part of the leadership team and was with us in the discussion, is the only senior member of the cooperative who has not gotten a roof loan. They were feeling like they needed to provide her with her roof before people could use those funds for other things. Oh, perfect, the next item on the agenda was to inform the team that we just received another roof loan donation! Wow, cheers all around. (Thanks, Texas roof loan team!).
Ethel will get a new roof, and the current fund will be available for cooperative use.
They are going to hold a community meeting to discuss this and include Martha, our accountant, as they realize they could also decide to do something with some of that money as a cooperative that would grow the money, such as buying a popcorn machine. They have learned that it is important to do thorough research about a business idea before embarking. Are we in a place people actually want popcorn and can afford it? It is inspiring that they are gaining both the resources and the information to use them wisely.
It was interesting that they all insisted the loans should be interest-bearing. Even though they will be the folks taking out the loans, and could easily enough act out of pure self-interest, they are clear that interest is important.
Our next topic was malaria. According to many folks this was the worst malaria year they can remember. People got sicker faster and “every family had at least one case.” They divulged that people can tend to get complacent about malaria, feeling that if they do get it they can easily get the drugs and be cured. This year has gotten people’s attention.
Prevention is a tricky matter. Mosquito nets, the silver bullet often pointed to by the international aid community, are great, but they are not the whole picture. There is the issue of people selling their nets, as well as myriad other reasons people won’t or don’t use nets if they have them. Then there is the issue of the rest of the house. It is nearly impossible to mosquito-proof a home in Kantolomba as nothing is sealed. The spaces between the roof rafters, for example, are left open. Putting screens on the windows would be almost pointless. And, we found out for the first time, even if you could sleep under nets and mosquito-proof your home, people regularly sleep outdoors. It is tradition when someone dies (relative, friend or even someone in your neighborhood) everyone goes and camps at the house. People will sleep outdoors for 2 or 3 days at the house of the person who has died. And, in Kantolomba that is OFTEN. They all confirmed that they sleep outside at a funeral at least once per month! The web of factors that keep the revolving door of poverty turning can be overwhelming.
We asked them to be honest with us about whether malaria is an issue they feel is important to prioritize. If we think it is worth tackling and suggest ways to go about it, but they don’t see it as a main concern, there will never be sustainable action. They assured us it is vital. We agreed that nets for the members of the cooperative will be the first step. Together, we came up with what we think is an ingenious middle way to have everyone be able to afford the nets while still feeling some responsibility and ownership: the cooperative is going to loan each person enough to buy a net, and if the hammermill building is complete by August 1, then the loans do not need to be repaid. They were laughing at how this will motivate them all to get out there on the building site and help get it done. Fun for everyone.
Some of the other steps will be to get Rose, the new nurse, to do malaria education and for everyone to really promote early testing. They all agreed that Rose being able to test on site will make a huge difference. Georgina described the difficulty of having three children sick at the same time and not being able to carry more than one to the clinic (a 40-minute walk) at a time. She also said the lines at the clinic can be very long. “You set off at 7 hours in the morning and do not return until 15 hours (3pm).” We took a break for coffee, tea and cookies ,figuring we had certainly earned it! They are a fun group to simply hang out with, and the humor and playfulness is right there when the business is set aside.
While waiting for the tea service, we watch a slide show of memories from the week so far
Our well-earned break, sweetness in more ways than one! )
We finished up the meeting with another hour and a half of walking through all kinds of record-keeping and communication structures. We are working hard to show them how important communication is to the success of the project. It is important for structural/decision-making reasons, and also for keeping all of our participants on the other side of the world informed about the progress of the work. We tell them endlessly how inspired you are by their efforts. We are never quite sure they believe us. If we were as successful as we felt at the end of this meeting, you will be hearing more regular reports. Fingers crossed!
One fun business venture we hatched: the Bemba word of the day! For a $5/month subscription, you could receive a new Bemba word each day to practice. It will come to your inbox just as the Daily Peace Quote does. How fun is that?? And the income from this venture would go to the cooperative fund—the one they use for whatever purpose they choose. More details soon… There are many more ideas in the pipeline, and we all agreed this was plenty for now. Let us get our feet under us with all these structures and then see where we are.
Theresa, Jen, Ethel, Charles, Georgina, Veronica, Beatrice and Tracey