The Way the World Turns

At the core of all of humanities Big Ideas lies the root concept of balance. Call it what you will - heaven and hell, day and night, black and white, yin and yang, good and evil - everything balances if you take the time to notice. I’ve recently been reminded of this because waaaaaay down at the bottom of this balance sheet, miles and miles away from the big shots I’ve just named, you have the last few weeks in my little life.

Case in point. Two Thursdays ago, the day before a Troop Meeting where it was our task to try to reconcile the old and the new TCE field system’s statistical gathering systems, we found out via email that it had been decided that we were going to drop the new system and revert back to the old one. Via email because our boss was away at an unimportant week long meeting, and didn’t feel it necessary to deal with this huge change himself. Reverting back to the old system because no one had thought through the rolling out of an entirely new system (and one unsanctioned by our donors) and had finally seen many of the gaping chasms of incompatibility that Brian and I had been pointing out since we first got here. Leaving us - 3 permanent staff, 2 volunteers and 2 interns - to tell the Field Officers the next day that the two months of confusing and unsettling new materials and procedures, the one full week of training, the two weeks of using the new system in the field, and the US$30,000 it had taken to roll out the new system was being rolled back.

The same day Vision, the dog I had gotten attached to in a land where I haven’t yet made any real friends was taken away because he had bitten a woman in the neighboring village. I have been assured he hasn’t been killed though. Suffice to it was one bad day and I didn’t necessarily take it all that well. There may have been tears, although mainly over the dog. And so we have the hell, the night, the black, the evil, the (is it yin or yang?).

The next Tuesday, however, the universe obligingly began to right itself. In the middle of preparing a Support Group training for the next day I stumbled upon my purpose for being here. I came up with a project proposal that I hope will be accepted and workable within the budget and that I am very excited about. More on that later. Brian and I also decided to start a Youth Afterschool program at the DAPP centre for the kids in the surrounding area. The same day I found out that one of the remaining dogs at the centre was pregnant with pups and there is a chance I might get one! Enter heaven, day, white, good, you get the drift.

Since that week things have continued to balance themselves, if you take the time to look. We found out that there is a good chance our funding won’t be renewed on the 30th June. This is because our contract expires with our donor, Global Fund, at the same time that they are in the process of renewing their agreement with the government of Namibia, which seems to be having some problems. Which most likely means that as of 30th June our project will be shut down for an indefinite period of time until everything gets sorted. Leaving any plans (including my Support Group proposal) and our current job up in the air.

To balance this rather annoying news one of the dogs gave birth two days ago to her pups. They are currently hidden and warm underneath a pile of hay just by my running field. I can’t get too close to the pile so I don’t know how many pups there are but I am holding out hope that I might get to keep one for the year. Also on the positive side of the scale we have also started meeting the small group of foreigners in our area, who all seem to be Peace Corp. Last weekend we had lunch at the only pizza restaurant in Outapi with Patty, the 56 year old Peace Corp volunteer from Hawaii/Lake Tahoe who teaches at the DAPP Private Primary School in our compound and her teacher friend Tina who is Namibian. And yesterday three other Peace Corp volunteers living in this area and Patty came over to our place for lunch. So we are making social headway.

So these are the big, dramatic events in my little TV-less world. I wonder how all of this that seems so important to me now will seem a in a year when I am (hopefully) back home working and living in a house with toilet and bedrooms attached, hot water and no birds living in the roof (they are about to start flying, by the way, judging from the wing flapping I have been hearing in the morning).

So raise your glasses to balance – its out there, if you know how to look.

And cross your fingers for me about the puppy = ).