Welcome back

Ok I'll tell you about the work we do then I'll tell you about what I do. So as you know there's this organization called Inshindo Foundation located in Columbia, and they are developing this program called PSA (Preparation for Social Action). That program is what is being implemented here but it's also being done in many other countries, 17 I think, mostly in South America and Africa. The program is designed to empower the youth of the communities and develop them into what we call Promoters of Community Well Being. So what it is is it's a series of material (Secondary Educational Material) which the youth would go through and once they finish they would graduate and become PCWBs (Promoters of Community Wellbeing). The whole program is a two - two and a half year course which is divided up into 8 "blocks", a block is about 3 months and there are three books per block, so about a month is spent on each book. And the books are all specified for different things, all of which are designed to realize potential and develop capacities. The materials are actually very similar to the Ruhi materials in their structure (The organization that designs the material and actually started the program is called FUNDAEC, which was started by two members of the Universal House of Justice, the same ones who created the Ruhi process). So there are groups in different communities, each group has a tutor or facilitator (not a teacher, like Ruhi) and they go through the material together in a read and feedback sort of way and in addition to doing the material there are many projects the groups would do within their communities (practical application of the material like in Ruhi!). So it's a very high level education being provided here by Inshindo, and so what we as an organization do is work with the communities on the community level, as opposed to some NGOs which work above the communities or beside the communities. So what that means is we provide the trained tutors, the material, the equipment and the educational opportunity and the community would provide the venue where the classes would take place.
ANYWAY! SO that's basically what its about so what we've been doing now for the past few weeks is meeting with the leaders of all the communities around the place and telling them all about the program and with them organizing youth who would apply and join the program, organize venues and stuff. So really we're starting from the beginning, and so now we have a lot of active participation from the communities and thier leaders so very soon the groups will be starting the actual groups which means the students will be needing books and materials. That's where I come in. See FUNDAEC sends the materials electronically to Garth and he prints them out here. So we print and bind the books our selves by hand here in the office, and that's what I do. One of the things anyway but lately that's been my main project because we're starting potentially 8 or so groups with anywhere from 15 - 30 students per group. Each student is require to start by purchasing the first 3 books up front, sooooo, we have to print and bind like 600 books. And in fact right now as I write this I'm actually waiting for some books to finish printing so I can bind them.
But we all have different jobs and responsibilities and at this stage in the implementation of the program there is ALOT of work to do so everyone is pretty stressed, especially Karen, but really everyone

So that's what we do, that's what my service entails. I'm like a resource, at the disposal of the Baha'i community, no matter how monotonous or tedious a task may be. Hehe, but it's cool.

So here's a story.

During childrens class one day I recieved a call from an aquaintence, a young girl, 15 or 16, I had met through her father. Her father I met on a bus coming back from Banani, we exchanged numbers and he invited me to his house to see his organization which works with youth and kids infected with AIDS or are orphaned. That day was wet and I had an unbrella with which I left, so the gentleman called his daughter and told her to run it to me quickly before I left, this is how we met, and we exchanged numbers. The phone call I recieved was many weeks after though, I hadn't seen either of them since.
So she called me during the class around 2:30 - 3:00 told me to meet her at the local grocery store. I said Cool, figure we could hang out in town get something to eat, you know, chill, it was Saturday after all. Got there, and the minute I saw her she snatched me up adn threw me on a bus to Chimanimani! Chimanimani is a community about 20 minutes bus ride from town, just long enough to make it VERY difficult to navagate your way back if your not on a bus, or not from this country.
We got there and got off the bus, now it's around 4 and I had called to tell Karen I'd be back by 6. We walked up the dusty street waving and greeting the elders as they passed by, chatting nonchalontly. I finally asked where she was taking me to which she replie, I'm taking you to see the youth. I remembered maybe two weeks before being invited to come meet the youth of thier organization and being unable to come for whatever reason. So I figured ok I'll meet these young people and we'll jam, totally unaware of the serious journey ahead of me.
We continued up the road, turned at a roundabout and cut through some grass to reach a field in which 40 or 50 kids were playing soccer, playing around or just chilling. I noticed a large cluster of them at one nd of the field, so I went there first. In the center of the group was a young boy sitting atop a rather large wooden goat skin drum. The drum was on its side and the boy was beating it as he sat. My arrival seemed to spark up something of a performance, it's not unusual for kids when meeting an adult to give a small presentation, weather it be a song or a dance or both. In this case it was both, the boy began drunning a simple rhyme and girls formed a line. The dancing went on for a few minutes before they all giggled and stopped. I nealed to the boy and said I challenge you to drum off. He was however overwhelmed by the dozens of other children around him yelling and laughing, so the drum off never happened. But we laughed and eventually I got up to leave. The girl who and escorted me told me she was leaving and now I was to folow her sister to the other group they have. And just like that she was gone again, into the bushes from whence we came, with not so much as an introduction of her sister.
Her and I went walking along another dusty road, this time through the planes of Africa.
Zambia is also know as the land of the skies because there are no hills or mountains, no tall trees or buildings or anything to block you and so the ski takes up your entire view. There's something about the African sky when the sun shines through the cluds in the evening its like an equisit painting. Words of course do it no justice at all, needless to say I've missed many a Kodak moment. But this particular scene, with the endless planes and tree or bush placed here of there, it was quite breathtaking to walk through it.
We walked for about 20 minutes and came across two gentleman, one with a bike. Pleasentry were exchanged and then, I was told that they had been waiting for me since 4, it now being closer to 6. We walked further and one of the men was exaplining to me thier situation, he told me about the conditions of the kids and the education they try to provide with them, he said thier teacher were few and undertrained. We walked for another half hour or so and I was begining to feel nervous since it was now almost 7 and the sun was going down, on top of that a little confused about the mans erlier comment, "wating to see me". We pressed on and encountered a flock of mothers, who were not very pleased. They said they too had been waiting since 4 to see me, and now they had to go home, it began to rain and they had a long way to go. I was feeling now even more confused and a little upset at the direction the day was going.
We walked for 15 more minutes, the last few of which we ran to get out of the rain which was pouring. We came to a small building, a school I came to find out, where the alleged other group was waiting too, since 4. I met the headmistres and some teachers. The HM had a lot to say about thier situation, she used the word suffering alot. She talked and then I told her about the Inshindo PSA program, and siggested maybe thier teachers could join the program and after graduating at least be more well equipped to teach. She said ok and that was that. We all came out of the building togeher, me the HM the teachers, the sister, the two gentlemen with the bike and the plethora of kids. By now the rain had stopped and sun was on its way down. BUT! The rain had stayed long enough to turn what was once a dustry road into total mush. So what took us 45 minutes to come on, took over 2 hours to go. By the time we reached the field from where we started it was well after dark. My shoes were completely destoryed, I was covered in mud, the whole trip the HM elaborateb more on how they were suffering, I was feling terribly helpless, simpathetic and upset that all this had been planned since 4 and I felt as though I was thrown into it unknowningly.
We finally made it to the road, by the now the group had disolved to just me and the sister again. She led me to her house where I met her father again, they had a whole dinner prepared for me. Apperantly this day was well thought out, except for the small detail of telling me what the hech was going on. I tried to politly exaplain that I was veyr late and needed to get home (I really just couldn't wait to get home) but they insisted and I was quite hungry so I ate. I was good, chicken and shima, and then the father and I went off where he go me a bus going to town, paid for it, escorted me all the way to front of our house. He's a good dude, and put a nice little twinge of happiness to my experiece at the end.
So that was the rest of the story, the result of the cliff hanger I left you with those weeks ago when last I updated. Now, it's old news in my mind, but at the time it was quite the adventure. ANd so since then, and as a result, the members of the Chimanimani community have joined the PSA program and two groups are starting their. So the trip bore fruit after all.