Camelot

I got five packages the day before my birthday, mailed all the way back from February to April, then I got another one ON my birthday. This definitely makes up for the most depressing Christmas a middle class white American with no complaints can't have.  I was, and still am, so overwhelmed by the amount of stuff. Books, food, 8-month old newspaper articles, etc.  I was sent and just finished The Dark Side of Camelot and am starting The Best and the Brightest.  Wow, the Kennedy's. Shaaaaaaaaaaaady.  Pulled a GWB before GWB and stole the 1960 election.

 

Books aside, I'm just plodding along here, waiting for CARE to leave in a couple weeks.  In addition to all the potential work I wrote about earlier, I just happened onto a community development group that formed late 2005/early 2006 in Lagdo.  This group and the Lagdo mayor brought in a Cameroonian government agency to do a needs-assessment, which the agency did, and the report has been collecting dust ever since.  From the couple of meetings with the guy in charge of the community group, here's what I've gathered so far: His organization was formed in conjunction with the needs-assessment report.  After the report was done early 2006, him and some community members went to every quartier (at least 8 in Lagdo Centre - a quartier is just a neighborhood) and village chief stating the problems found in the report... and then nothing happened.  Part of the problem is that the different actors - the mayor, the community group, the quartiers - all have different priorities.  The quartiers say the biggest problem is water, whether it's lack of running water, a lack of a well, or broken wells.  No surprise there.  The mayor, on the other hand, would like to extend the running water pipeline, but wants the road fixed first.  The community group (CCDL) is just a piece of paper, despite the president's claim that it isn't.  The intentions for the CCDL are good, though, so there's hope.  What's the problem, though?

 

My first thought lies with the CCDL.  They have this excellent needs-assessment already completed (Note: Needs-assessment is what health PCVs are trained to do). They went to every quartier and got shut down.  Here's my theory why: All they did was present the problems and didn't offer any solutions.  Simple as that.  I tried to explain this to the president, Yotti, and I think he maybe understood what I was saying, but I'm not sure.  If I had a broken well in my backyard, and some guy named Yotti comes and tells me I have a broken well in my backyard, I'd stare at him and say, "No shit, Sherlock.  What are you gonna do about it?"  And that's what people in Lagdo basically said to the CCDL. The presentation was all wrong.  Now I'm just starting the process on how to go about making it better.  This process has the potential to be a long one: a slog through Lagdo politics, maybe another needs-assessment to see what's changed in the 18 months since the last one, planting season (It's rainy season now.  Rainy season means planting season.  Planting season coupled with school being out means Lagdo is quite the deserted place compared to a few months ago because everyone is back in their village or aux champs and not really available to talk about wells.).  As usual, on va voir ce que passer, or some snooty French phrase like that.

 

Is Andruw traded yet?  I also ordered a couch and didn't specify to the carpenter what kind of cushions I wanted.  Can you say Leopard Print?