More Canadians.
June 15, 2010
Adam Linnard
 
Deb, the CAUSE Kids Director, and Shaun, her carpenter husband, came to Kabala last week. Deb's here to do some monitoring on the CAUSE Kids programs and to get information on all the sponsored children before the school year finishes at the end of the month. Shaun's been monitoring some of the construction projects, talking with the builders and carpenters. When he showed up, the builders got nervous that their work wouldn't be up to the standards of a professional from an industrial country. "The quality is as good as it is in Canada," he told them, and later told us. Hand tools, local wood, and a whole lot of labour. The schools are "built to last."
 
Shaun has otherwise increased the interns' standard of living in Kabala by cooking our 5 common ingredients in creatively delicious new ways, immediately (perhaps accidentally) establishing a daily delivery contract with a woman who makes little cakes, and taking a handsaw to my bathroom door so that it now closes.
 
On the flipside, this morning he started a metal fire in our kitchen that smelted a pot lid and, while trying to put out the fire, torched out oven mitt. So his presence is beginning to even out in terms of its benefit to us. And Shaun's benefit to us is our primary concern.
 
Deb's presence, meanwhile, has been one of calm intelligence and valued insight. One of her most valuable insights has been that none of the emails we've sent to CAUSE addresses in Canada have been received for the last 3 weeks or so. That helped to explain a number of things, including why Deb didn't bring Melissa her jujubes or me my wax paper. More significantly, it also explained some unusual communication gaps between us and the Canmore office. Also, it's why my last blog (BLOG!) is so glaringly absent from the chronicles.
 
Unrelated but interestingly, I went to a town called Dogoloya on Friday in periodic West African downpour for a SWET “sensitization meeting.” The objective was to gauge support for the program before we start granting loans there. There were about 20 women present in a public shelter with a tall thatched roof; there were a great many swallows in the rafters who clearly harboured dreams of the perfect dive-bomb; and there were a number of older gentlemen in ornate Muslim garb reppin’ the husbands.
 
One of the men told us that his wife had been in the WIEP women’s literacy classes. She had died two weeks ago, and Margaret, Aminata, and Melissa from the WIEP office went to visit them in condolence. The man told us that there had been so many different NGOs who’d worked in Dogoloya in the past, but he couldn’t think of any that would have shown that kind of care for his family. He was deeply touched, and said that he would warmly welcome any CAUSE partnership across the bridge that this gesture had built. (That was his metaphor. I was happy with it.)
 
It was reassuring to find our projects supporting one another not only on paper but also in the lives of real people. It was also a good reminder that often the best work we do isn’t part of the job itself.