The Dilemma

I am using this blog as a means to connect our donors, our supporters, our people of interest. I am using it as a means of engagement. I am using it maybe even as a means of persuasion. Because of that it is expected that I reflect our project in a positive light. I tell about our successes, our progress, our triumphs. I fuel optimism.


But I feel that every single person engaged in this project needs to be a part of the processes and progress, not just those parts that are positive. We all are all a part of making this project a reality and sometimes it becomes necessary to face the struggles inherent within its reality.


So here it is. Here is the dilemma.


I, like many of you, want to be an agent of change. I want to make a difference. I want to use my privilege to the advantage of those that lack such privilege. But it is not always that simple. Who asked me to use my privilege for change? Who gave me the right to impose my privilege, my resources, my reality on others? And even if it was invited, who is to say it will make any difference? Maybe change must come from within. Maybe change is more than just the transfer of resources and the equalization of privilege.


In the case of Darmang, we were invited. We told the community that we wanted to support them in any way that they needed. If they named the game, we would play. So they named it. They asked for three things: a clean, stable water source, a public toilet, and a vocational training center. We, with the idea of water already in mind, agreed to engage in a project in pursuit of clean and stable water. And we ran. We ran to American organizations for support, we ran to our professors for guidance, we ran to Seattle NGO's for grants. We ran and left Darmang completely disengaged. We ran back to America to solve the problems of Africa. We played the game in our own court, with our own people, and our own vision.


To be fair, we had a plane ticket out of Ghana before we even began on this project. We had registered for classes, rented houses, and made plans for our return long before we even stepped foot in the houses of the Darmang elders. And because we left, communication is inevitably limited. Shotty cell phone service is the only medium of communication which is further limited by the language barrier. So when we ran, we ran for reasons. We were playing the game that way because of circumstances not because of mal-intent.


But does that make it right?


When we show up a year and a half after leaving with the money for the well in our pocket, ready to be handed to the local contractor so construction can begin, will we really have empowered the community? Will we really have taken them one more step out of poverty?


Maybe.


We might very well save the lives of numbers of children otherwise destined to cholera or typhoid. We might very well allow children to truly benefit from their education since they no longer have to walk three hours a day to fetch water. We might very well have a profound impact.


But we will make an impact our way. Doing it on our turf, completely apart from anything the community had been a part of. This project was a consequence of our action and not a direct result of the people of Darmang's desire to create change in their lives.


If they had done it themselves, would they have chosen water? Would they have built four sealed, hand-pump boreholes? Is that the change they really wanted to see, or was it just because we offered to make change?


The dilemma, then, is not the change itself. Clean water is good. Clean water is necessary. Clean water will save lives. The problem is what is behind the change. The problem is that again and again we come in and make change without considering that such change is a consequence of the action of the other, and not of the community.


Where do we do from here? I cannot say. I, to be honest, do not know. I think that from here we sit, we think, we reflect. We step back and analyze our position. But I think we cannot  stop working towards our goal. We keep seeking support for clean water on our turf, but we engage more fully in dialogue with the people of Darmang. We bring them in. We bring this back to them. We play the game with their rules, on their field, with the support of both teams- ours and theirs. Maybe that is the solution.


Whatever the solution is, we have not found it yet.


Poverty is deepening, equality is becoming more rampant, and injustice is the plague of our generation. So this project needs to be more about a means to an end. It needs to be more about than just getting four boreholes. This project needs to be an exploration of what works. What has been tried on the global-scale has largely failed. We need to change something.


With that- let it be our goal to find out that something. Let it be our goal to produce more than water, but to produce a revolution of thought. A revolution developed by the insight of the people of Darmang and fostered by the strengthening of our relationship. It need not be anything that will revolutionize the world, but something that will simply creating lasting change in Darmang because that is where we must begin, locally. In the field of Darmang.