Wordless Wednesday

Is it Too Early for New Year’s Resolutions?

Around this office we talk a lot about empowerment and self-reliance. We talk about it as it relates to the people with whom we work and serve but we also talk about it as it relates to one another—our own staff, our own co-workers. Our manager in Bolivia perhaps put it best when he told his team that they all needed to make personal goals in addition to work goals because he said no one would believe what we were teaching if we weren't putting the ideas into practice in our own lives. That puts us in a precarious position. It means that when one of our very best workers decides that he is going to start his own business after teaching small business owners for years, we cheer. When someone takes the Foreign Service exam, we anxiously await the results hoping that they are good as he would like them to be. Those are successes, even if they leave us scrambling to find and train other great workers. It also means that sometimes we get burned.

I just got off the phone with a friend from Peru. Peru has been causing us more concern than any of the other places where we work. The volunteer from Peru called to ask me some simple questions and then told me that our troubles in Peru come from trusting too much. He needed to get some things off his chest and told me that we shouldn't have trusted the way we did and that we should have had other people checking up on what was happening. He told me we needed tighter controls (which is true. But we're still working on the best way to do that). His anger did make me think. He's right. There are some things that we need to work on, we need better communication and we need better documentation. But in some ways it made me think that he still doesn't get it. He still doesn't get what we're trying to do and he doesn't' understand why having a volunteer call on a paid staff member at random to verify his work and to do all of the fundraising isn't promoting the kind of development that we're trying to espouse in the villages where we work. However, I don't want to be the kind of person who hears criticism and then gets offended or defensive and doesn't do anything about it.

So, even though we're a few months away, I'm making my resolution list for 2010—his suggestions in mind. Here goes!

1. Expand our evaluation of programs to Peru and Ecuador
   
2. Statistically analyze the results of Bolivia's evaluation (with professionals) and talk to the staff about what's happening
   
3. Follow up with staff goals
   
4. Appropriate controls in admin and accounting—as shown by a procedure manual and enforced procedure to be presented at Jan training
   
5. Historical, searchable database for projects
   
6. Continue to believe that people are basically good and want to help other people
   
7. Have faith in other people.
   
8. As Ronald Reagan put it, "Trust, but verify." (I can't believe I just quoted Ronald Reagan. Don't tell my parents)
   

Carbon Footprinting

This weekend we have some big plans. Some neighbors of ours are laying sod (not a resource friendly option in Utah but I have a grass yard that's at least 2 times the size that they are putting down so who am I to talk?) this evening and they need some help. Saturday morning I'll head to my local health department early because they are finally offering H1N1 shots in my area to ladies who are in the family way. Saturday plans also include drying apples we scavenged from my parent's tree, raking and bagging leaves and walnuts from the trees in our yard, using the last of the kale and chard from the garden to can some veggie broth, two quilt squares for a dear friend whose baby is due next week and attending a college football game with my husband. I hope to find time to exercise and would love a couple of hours to nap and recuperate from my normal weeks of working 1.5 jobs (and growing a baby) which leave me exhausted (and with puffy ankles).

This morning, while getting ready to write a blog post I came across this story. About a man who is hoping to sell his autographed picture of Bridget Bardot to pay for surgery he needs ($2500) after the working as a coal miner for his whole life. I was struck with how different my life is than his. Health care is available to me. When I want the H1N1 shot I just have to wait until it's available and it's offered at my local health department clinic, just a 10 minute drive away, for free. My life is busier than I would like it to be but I am so blessed and my life is comparatively easy. It broke my heart to read that the portrait similar to the one this man had is currently selling on ebay for $35.

Earlier this week I got sucked into taking an internet quiz about my lifestyle. I should probably admit now that I love internet quizzes and if we are connected on twitter and you post one I will pretty much take it. The purpose of the quiz this week was to find out how many earths it would take to support the whole world's population if everyone lived the way I do. The answer is 4.5. And I think that's low. The quiz wasn't super comprehensive and I'm pretty sure that the only reason I wasn't on the "above average" side of the US is because we have a tenant in our mother-in-law apartment so we were technically "sharing" the use of all of our utilities. I am embarrassed to admit that I live in a state where state and local leaders refuse to admit that climate change is, even partially, due to human behavior. This morning, driving to work, on NPR they were talking about a group of local Doctors and Scientists who met last night to affirm that there really is no doubt that science indicates that global climate change has been affected by human behavior.

It's scary to think that earth can't sustain an entire population living the way I do but I do believe that there are more than enough resources to ensure that there is medical care for everyone, that clean potable water is available to all families, that children can be provided with an education, that mothers can get adequate prenatal care, that businesses can grow no matter in what country they are located. I, for one, because I do believe that climate change is affected by humans and that my carbon footprint is directly affecting women who now have to walk farther and farther to get water because their rivers and wells are drying up am willing to make some sacrifices to level the playing field. I can start with these…maybe not all of them, but some of them at least. We're talking baby steps here (thank you public radio for being a source of knowledge on all kinds of things).

Wordless Wednesdays

He said, She said…

One of the magazines to which I subscribe (there is actually an embarrassingly long list that includes things like Vogue and OK weekly but let's just talk about the educational/literary magazines or I might get embarrassed) called The Sun which I love. And all of you should subscribe but that's not the point. At the end of every magazine they have a whole page titled "Sunbeams" they're quotes that pertain to the topic of the magazine. I love that they call them Sunbeams, that somehow small things other people say can light our lives. I remember the sunbeams that they printed on September 11, 2001. I was living in Ecuador and my mother mailed it to me—it was longer than one page and I folded it up and carried it with me as I traveled around the country for the next year and a half. The folded paper has made it with me in all subsequent moves and I still think about some of the things that were said. The quotes weren't about patriotism or valor they were about forgiveness, about love and about inclusion. I still love that response to tragedy—love and forgiveness. In honor of a large meeting we're preparing for this week we've been making our own collections of sunbeams about development. But one thing that we've learned is that development quotes, just like those in response to tragedy, aren't just about building and teaching. They are also about love, forgiveness, culture, valor, a call to action, poverty, and all other kinds of things. So without further ado here are our sunbeams. It isn't a complete list and we'd love your additions.

 

Do not wait for leaders; do it alone, person to person. - Mother Teresa

It is not how much we do, but how much love we put in the doing. It is not how much we give, but how much love we put in the giving. - Mother Teresa

We can do no great things-only small things with great love. - Mother Teresa

When you cease to make a contribution, you begin to die. - Eleanor Roosevelt

A society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they will never sit." - Greek proverb

"The way you get meaning into your life is to devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning." - Mitch Albom

"What we have done for ourselves dies with us; what we have done for others and the world remains immortal." - Albert Pike

"We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give." - Winston Churchill

"Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness." - Martin Luther King Jr.

"Teach this triple truth to all: A generous heart, kind speech, and a life of service and compassion are the things which renew humanity." - Buddha

"Service is the rent we pay for being. It is the very purpose of life, and not something you do in your spare time." - Marian Wright Edelman

"How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world." - Anne Frank

"He who wishes to secure the good of others, has already secured his own." - Confucius

"The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others." Mahatma Gandhi

"Blessed are those who give without remembering. And blessed are those who take without forgetting." Bernard Meltzer

"Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could only do a little." - Edmund Burke

"The purpose of life is to live a life of purpose." - Robert Byrne

"Poverty is hunger, loneliness, no where to go when the days is over, deprivation, discrimination, abuse, and illiteracy." Tarawatti Sooklall, single mother of two, Guyana

"Being unwanted, unloved, uncared for, forgotten by everybody, I think that is a much greater hunger, a much greater poverty than the person who has nothing to eat." - Mother Teresa

"Nine tenths of education is encouragement." - Anatole France

"A child educated only at school is an uneducated child." - George Santayana

"Much learning does not teach understanding." - Heraclitus

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed souls can change the world, indeed that is the only thing that ever has." - Margaret Mead

"The worst thing is apathy - to sit idly by in the face of injustice and to do nothing about it. There is a real responsibility to challenge things that are wrong." - Martin O'Brien

"It is every man's obligation to put back into the world at least the equivalent of what he takes out of it." - Albert Einstein

"No one has ever become poor by giving." - Anne Frank

"The poor of the world are crying out for schools and doctors, not guns and generals." - Oscar Arias Sanchez

"One works for justice not just for the big victories, but simply because engaging in the struggle is worth doing." - Oscar Arias Sanchez

"If we are to teach real peace in this world, and if we are to carry on a real war against war, we shall have to begin with the children." - Mahatma Ghandi

 

Wordless Wednesdays

So ASCEND's Annual Gala was amazing. I was so inspired by the generosity and spirit of humanitarianism displayed by the community, and I was extremely impressed by the professional appearance of the Gala- from the displays to the cuisine, all the minute details were efficiently handled.

Most of my night was spent in the Silent Auction, and I couldn't believe how many fun things we had up for bid (I was eyeing the 1 Free Pizza From the Pie gift certificate, yum). It was a great night, and everyone pulled together to make it a fun and enlightening experience (oh and lucky me! The volunteers got some great food!).

The official verdict: Best. Gala. Ever. Until next year, that is. . .

So I'm excited for two very cool things that we're doing:

1) Funfest. Need I say more?

2) Daybreak - One of SLC's communities is considering a sister-community program. I think sister programs are ingenious - they not only encourage cross-cultural engagement and understanding, but they also take that extra step and foster a sense of community. I've always admired Salt Lake City for partnering with Matsumoto, Japan and have enjoyed researching how the two cities have connected and what they've shared over the decades. So, needless to say, I am VERY excited to see where this one goes. . .

Before I go, here's some food for thought:

"A ship in the harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for."

Wordless Wednesdays