I have always said that you must have good people on the ground if a project is going to work, and I stand by that statement. I might be "project manager," but if I don't have a great person as the in-country project manager, the chance of success diminishes greatly. I am fortunate to have a whole team of great people working on the clinic project in Mizoram. Nokap is doing an outstanding job of managing the project funds and books as well as consulting on materials and problem solving with the rest of the people involved.
The contractor is keeping the materials flowing to the job site and lining up the labour force. He is ahead of schedule, and best of all, on budget. His crew is working every day, under the watchful eye of the foreman. The only time I saw the workers stop was when I asked them to pose for a photo.
Grace is doing a great job with the computer training center, too: making forms for me and gathering personal information about potential students while still doing a great job in the classroom. She is not alone. I watched her family support her in the work she does. Her brother is now helping with the teaching, freeing some time for her to work on our project. I met her mother and father who beam with pride about the job their daughter is doing.
People who are not involved with a project yet have also been very kind. The principal of the Pine Hill Academy and Rama who manages of the new Adventist hospital and teaches at the SDA school in town both took time off to meet me at the plane in Aizawl and accompany me back to Champai. They opened their homes to me, fed me, and looked after my needs. We hope to work with these people soon with projects to help those whom they represent. Knowing that we have good people on the ground makes supporting a project much easier.
I cynic might say that all those people have a vested interest in being good to me, because they are receiving something in return. Of course this is true, but I believe that the relationship is far more symbiotic than parasitic. I also believe that these people are working not to improve their own lot in life but to help the members of their community who it.
I have been stuck in Aizawl for three days now because the weather is preventing the planes from landing. Everyone with whom I have come into contact gone out of their way to help me! These are not people with whom I am doing a project; for the most part, they don't even know why I am here! The staff at David's Kitchen and the Clover hotel who nightly (and sometimes many times nightly) had to reboot the internet connection so I could work at 3:30 a.m.; the wonderful young lady at the front desk who helped me place calls, suggested other hotels when hers was full, found me a taxi driver for the week--all I needed to do was ask and someone was phoning a brother or cousin to ask something or offering to take me where I needed to go. When I couldn't fly out to meet the group from the Good Shepherd Lutheran church and I didn't have a phone number for the local pastor they were to meet, many calls and emails were placed on my behalf to assist me.
My taxi driver offered me his phone to call long distance to Hyderabad then spent the rest of the trip phoning all his contacts to find me a hotel room (which is becoming harder and harder to find every day the planes don't fly). Shop keepers, egg roll makers, bank tellers and managers, and the very patient ticket agent at the airport have all been very kind to me, never asking for anything and refusing my offers of compensation. I am not so naive as to think that everyone is nice and that no one will take advantage of me, but the level of support has been amazing.
I would like to say a HUGE thank you to all the people who have gone out of their way to help me. It is truly the people that make the difference in this world, and to quote my mother, "You have to decide if you want to be part of the problem, or part of the solution." I'm so glad we can work together for solutions.
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