Ongoing Activities

These past few weeks since I arrived back in Oudomxay after travelling through Vietnam with Paul have been even crazier than I thought they would be.

On June 13 we had our innaugural meeting to officially start the research phase of our watershed project in the Nam Ko River Basin. We had community leaders from 23 villages meet with us in a central village called Ban Konoy. We also had some government officials from district and provincial offices join us.

It was a interesting day as the staff from PSTEO (my Lao counterparts) organized and planned the entire event. It started off in typical Lao style with all the community leaders and government officials were sat down at tiny little desks (the meeting took place at a primary school) and the staff from PSTEO lectured them for over an hour about being good environmental citizens, what the project objectives are, etc etc. And then the community leaders each took their turn to stand up and say how happy they were to be there, how great the government is for doing such a project, etc etc.

I even had to put in a word (in Lao) and got up and told everyone who I was, that I was glad to be there and that they could call me "Patchit"-guy who travels too much, "Falangnoi"-small foreigner, or "Falangjeun"--fried foreigner, which are my nicknames in Lao. This went over well and finally got a laugh and some smiles out of the room--Lao folks can be far too serious in my opinion.

After this was finally finished, we broke up into working groups of four or five villages, and the staff from PSTEO held discussions about land use and environmental problems. It was very interesting to see what the villagers felt were important environmental issues were and the level of understanding they had of the environment and watershed issues. Some of the issues they identified were: deforestation and lower water flows in the river; restrictions on access to land and resulting shorter fallow periods--meaning the villagers are forced to reuse the same land more often than in the past thus degrading the soil; water pollution; and loss of fisheries.

So, for the next step we will be heading out and doing some in-depth participatory research in 7 of the 23 villages to get a better idea of exactly how all this is happening.

An unfortunate turn of events for another project, the Community Learning Centre assessment with DED, has been put on hold indefinitely, or at least PSTEO's role in it. It seemed as though my counterparts either didn't understand the project or lost interest as I just couldn't get them to do their part. so I had to call DED and let them know that it seemed we wouldn't be able to do any assessment after all. Thankfully, DED has been understanding so far and I don't think it damaged our relationship. The problem is that whenever someone asks PSTEO to get involved in a project they say yes without thinking about whether or not its feasible, so sometimes things fall apart.

The Ban Bo water project has been seeing some rocky ground as well. There has been a lot of confusion between my office and German Agro Action, who approved our project and is supporting us with $2500 USD to put in a gravity fed water system and biosand filters. I won't get into details, but suffice to say at one point this week my bosses called up GAA and politely told them we would no longer do the project as we were tired of all the nonense. GAA responded back, apologizing for the confusion and asking us to please stay on the project. I think we will still do it...at least I hope so for the villagers sake.

Anyways, that's been my last week and a half of fun and games.

A Learning Experience Part 4

Development as a Social Experiment

As with many things in life, there is always more than one side to an issue: pros and cons, positives and negatives. All too often, development is cast in a light that focuses entirely too much on either the positive or the negative. That all development is good and the world can never improve without the “developed” world assisting the “underdeveloped” world; or as being a giant social experiment run amok, causing more harm than good and something that should be stopped immediately; that by allowing developing nations to help themselves, they’ll do a far more effective and practical job than the largest amounts of aid money and volunteers could ever hope to accomplish.

Honestly, my opinions run back and forth between these two extremes on a daily basis more or less depending on my mood. “Development” is the proverbial onion, once you start to tear back the layers, the underlying complexity and unexpected consequences can make your eyes water and your head spin, but in order to get to the core its an exercise that must be undertaken.

First Layer-The Handout Mentality

When I first arrived in Ban Tan Nguey I was surprised to learn I was not the first development worker to be taken there. In fact, German Agro Action, a German NGO had done some agriculture and infrastructure development five years previously. During that time they had installed a gravity fed water system (GFWS) that was now no longer functioning due to sediment build-up in the pipes, which blocks up the system and leads to leaks. Also, the GFW system had been built for the village in its previous location when the people had still been living on a hill 250 metres above the current town site. As a result the village had no source of water within the village boundaries.

During my first visits to the village, the residents cited this as a major priority along with a means for filtering water for personal consumption. This led to the clean water project described previously, and I was more than happy to do it. As the work was underway however, I was forced to ask myself what would happen after we installed the GFWS? In five years, would the sediment simply build up and the GWFS would be broken again? If so, who would fix it? Who would pay for the repairs? Was the project sustainable?

Although Ban Tan Nguey is certainly a poor village the residents do have sources of income stemming from agriculture exports and non-timber forest products. The benefits of these activities can be seen throughout the village. Many residents are currently building new homes; some even have TV’s, stereos, motorbikes, and cell phones. Electricity in the village is generated through solar panels and micro hydro that the villagers essentially rent for 10,000kip/month ($1.00/month) from the local energy company. As a result I was rather surprised by the responses I got from both my colleagues and the village residents when I brought up the issue of who would pay for the repairs. “We don’t have the funds? Can you find money for us?”

I couldn’t help but wonder how it could be that there was money for luxury items, but the villagers were seemingly unwilling to organize their own money around something so essential to their communal and individual health and well being. I probed further into the issue and received some interesting answers. The villagers simply replied that the Falang (foreigners) had given them the money last time; I had just finished supplying the moneythis time; so, it seemed reasonable to them that there would be money available again in the future.

My colleagues echoed these same sentiments. Why bother paying for something yourself when if you wait long enough someone will come along and give you the money for free? Can anyone honestly say they would do anything differently under these circumstances?

During my time in the village I have never ceased to be amazed at how ingenious and skilled the villagers are. I’ve watched them rig up all kinds of new forms of technology for their day-to-day labours without pausing to even think it over. Also, they are organized on many levels. Without any kind of meeting the entire village will come together and build a new toilet, lay the pipes for the GWFS through 2500m of dense jungle, organize land use, etc etc etc. Whatever needs to be done, they do it as a group, fast and effectively. I couldn’t understand why they seemed hesitant to do so with regard to maintaining their water system.

The whole situation reminded me of an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, I once saw on TV. (A friend reminded me of the episode while I was visiting in Luang Nam Tha). The Enterprise (the main Star Trek space ship for you non-trekkie dorks) had come across an alien ship that was broken down and stranded in space.

The captain, Jean-Luc Picard, hails the ship and offers assistance. As it turns out the aliens are in need of a new part that the Enterprise just happens to be capable of “simulating” a new one. Jean-Luc orders it up and sends it over, pronto. Just as the Enterprise is about to leave, they get a distress message from the alien ship: they don’t know how to install it. Would the Enterprise be able to send someone over and install it for them? Jean-Luc, although somewhat annoyed, agrees and sends over his best engineer, Geordie (can’t remember how to spell his name).

When Geordie arrives and attempts to show the aliens how to install the broken part he is baffled by their hesitation. “Can’t you just do it for us?” they ask. “It would be so much easier and quicker if you did it. We can figure it out later.” Geordie, worried about being away from the Enterprise for too long, agreed and just installed the new part. Just as he was about to “beam” back to the Enterprise, the aliens had one more request. “Our navigational system is broken. Can you fix it for us?” Again when Geordie offered to show them how to fix it so they would know how to do it themselves in the future, the aliens hesitated and said, “We don’t want to hold you up, we know you have to get back to your ship, why don’t you just fix it and we’ll figure it out later.” Next thing you know the aliens had Geordie working on yet another project and had another way of convincing him to just go and ahead and do it for them.

Meanwhile back on the Enterprise Jean-Luc was wondering what had happened to his engineer and sent his first officer “Number One” over to find him. Before he could even get off the “Beaming Pad” (sorry I can’t remember all the proper terms for these things—I guess I’m not that good a trekkie) the aliens had Number One fixing something for them. Before long, half of the crew from the Enterprise were on board the alien ship fixing things. Throughout the entire ordeal, the aliens were finding ways to keep from learning how to fix and maintain their own ship. By the time Jean-Luc, very upset now from having lost so much time, goes over to the ship. We learn that this is how the aliens manage to travel through space and survive. They had evolved by getting others to fix everything for them.

The aliens were by no means unintelligent or unable. In fact they had other skills that were highly developed and superior to the humans from the Enterprise, they just had developed their own form of intelligence with regard to getting other races and species to fix things for them.

Standing in Ban Tan Nguey, I couldn’t help wondering if by providing the funds for the BioSand Water Filters and the GWFS if I had not played a part in creating a similar situation. This is a classic question of development: if we just keep giving people money are we helping them to be self-sufficient or are we creating a dependency? It’s rather cynical but I believe a fair and necessary question. Let’s make this very clear: I don’t think that the villagers are helpless or incapable of doing the work themselves; exactly the opposite, but I couldn’t help thinking of the above analogy whenever I receive blank looks from them and my office colleagues when I asked how they would like to plan for future maintenance. An exceptionally ironic point was made when my boss said, “You’ll just have to find us some more money. Could you stay for another three years?”

"Engage engines, Scotty, we’re outta here!"

I have seen this kind of situation in other villages as well. A new village I'm currently working in, Ban Bo, had a large project with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) about five years ago. They also built a gravity-fed system for drinking water and an irrigation system. Now the gravity-fed water system no longer works and the irrigation system, although still functional, is in need of repairs. The villagers have asked STEO and myself to assist them in getting them to work again.

Again, the villagers seem to possess ample knowledge to fix the problem themselves. When I asked why they hadn’t done it yet they claimed to not have the funds. This is not one of the poorest villages I’ve been to. There are many new homes, satellite dishes, cars, trucks, etc. When I asked why they didn’t organize and save the funds over the last five years, the Phorban (Village chief) could not have put it more succinctly, “We’ve been waiting for someone like you to come along and help us get money”.

The fact of the matter is that people in Lao have grown accustomed to the idea of Aid money continuously flowing into their communities. Who wouldn’t? And they have gotten fairly good at figuring out what each institution or NGO might be able to offer them and then working to get it. In my experience, this has created unsustainable and detrimental dependencies that must be addressed if “development” is ever going to help anyone.

STEO and I are attempting to address the problem for Ban Bo by working out contractual agreements with the village residents that if we do find funding then they must develop a community development fund whereby all affected residents make contributions (with consideration that some families will be able to contribute more than others)—perhaps a barter system where people can trade sweat equity in maintaining the system, while others contribute money. It’s an ongoing process and we have agreed no money or materials will be provided until a system has been developed that is practical and has the support of all the project participants. I don’t know if this will work any better, but I figure we have to try something.

A Learning Experience Part 3

A Confused Do-Gooder

Like many development workers I was attracted to the prospect of living in a developing country and “helping” people for many years. My interested began as far back my social studies classes in junior high school. Sitting in class, looking at text books that showed Canadians working abroad, rural settings in Africa or South America, amicable, smiling, invariably sun burnt individuals standing next to groups of locals looking over one development project or another: perhaps an irrigation project or a water pump. In this context, Canadians were cast as a heroic humanitarian lot who were out changing things, making improvements, small yet effective contributions towards global problems that often seemed overwhelming and elusive to a young teenager. These images provided a small yet powerful glimpses of hope, of opportunities to travel, to have life altering experiences, and to change the world for the better, all something I wanted terribly to be a part of. That feeling never went away, and guided all my choices through seven years of post-secondary education: college and university. I always had it in the back of my mind that I was going to get “out there”, that I was going to “help”. With this position in Laos, the opportunity had finally arrived, yet here I was, staring at a one-way plan ticket and a two-year contract, realizing I had no real idea what any of it meant.

So what happened?

I’ve been in Lao already for one year. How would I answer Garnet now after all that I’ve been through? And I have been through quite a bit already. Two months of language studies in Savanakhet and now eleven months at my placement in Oudomxay. As many of you know I have managed to facilitate and implement a community based development initiative in a small ethnic Khmu village, Ban Tan Nguey, not far from the town of Oudomxay where I am stationed. The project, which involved introducing and training village residents in the construction, use and maintenance of a technology called the BioSand Water filter to provide clean drinking water, repairs and upgrades to the village gravity fed water system that would bring water into the village, and the construction of sanitation and toiletry facilities for the village primary school, was in many ways everything I had always thought development was about. Improving the lives of people living in poverty. Providing much needed infrastructure and enhancing their health and well-being. I recall, upon the completion of this pilot project, an immense feeling of satisfaction. I could experience the direct benefits of my presence and see the happiness and improvements brought into the lives of the people in the village. I could have left my placement right then, gone back to Canada and claimed the entire experience a success. I had “helped”. Or had I?

A Learning Experience Part 2

HELP!

I had of course looked over my job description provided by CUSO Canada. It had all the prerequisite points on alleviating poverty, empowering communities, encouraging good governance, and other feel good, yet frustratingly ambiguous goals. It did have some concrete objectives like training my counterparts in participatory research (although I honestly had very little understanding of what this really meant in a development context), proposal writing and fundraising, small business planning, project management, etc. Still, I had no idea as to how I was going to actually achieve these objectives once I arrived or how my counterparts might view or understand these ideals, or even if they agreed with them in principle. I had been provided with a week long intensive orientation to development and training in cultural integration, workshops on power and privilege, and gender equality and racism through CUSO, all of which had provided me with a plethora of tools and strategies for adapting to and coping with the mental and emotional strain that can come with taking a volunteer position in an isolated community in a developing nation.

Flexibility and patience. These were the key terms that were pounded into our heads repeatedly during the orientation week. Our job descriptions as told to us by our workshop facilitators, were intended to only provide a framework to guide our actions, not a concrete or tacit agreement, a snapshot of the interests or needs of our Lao partners at a certain time. The only thing we could expect for sure is that everything would change upon our arrival. Given this reality, CUSO cooperants (the term given to volunteers to imply the cooperative and mutually empowering exchange that is supposed to occur between us and our host national colleagues), are encouraged to do practically nothing doing their first six months of their placement, except “watch TV”. A phrase intended to convey the idea that initially we should try only to observe our partners, their day to day activities, their work practises, cultural idiosyncrasies within the office environment, how they identify issues or opportunities and how they go about making decisions and strategies to address them.

In other words: don't rush in thinking you already know everything. Build relationships first, gain people’s trust and get them to open up to your presence. Only then can you hope to approach that elusive question: what can I do? Nevertheless, all of this added up to the only one answer with which I could reply to Garnet with any confidence that day in his office: “I have no idea. I’ll have to see when I get there.”

Project Activities

The Science Technology and Environment Office in Oudomxay, my partner organization, is a provincial government agency mandated to identify environmental problems or issues and then develop and implement projects to address them. My job as Community Planning Facilitator, is to assist the office and to develop their capacity to conduct community based environmental research, find funds for project activities, assist the office in writing and submitting proposals (although truthfully at this point I do most of the writing) and then to facilitate the implementation and evaluation of projects.

Thus far, we have completed one project: the Clean Water and BioSand Filter project in Ban Tang Nguey, a small Khmu village of 150 people north of Oudomxay Town. The project went well and included the construction of a gravity fed water system, construction of a sanitation and toiletry facility for the village (the biggest in northern Laos) and the introduction and training in the construction, use and maintenance of the BioSand Water Filter. The project went very well and as of this time the villagers have construced and are using a total of 14 filters. The big task for STEO is to get back out to the village and test the filters and make sure that they were built properly.

Other activities that have either started or will be starting in the next little while include:

Community Learning Centre Assessment Initiative
This project involves our working with DED, the German Development Service here in Lao, to assess the feasibility of continuing support for Community Learning Centres in village communities around Oudomxay Province. DED approached us about four months ago, asking us to look into some CLC's that had been set up in recent years by a number of international NGO's, and to identify those centres that would most likely benefit from and would use additional support and financing from DED in the future.

The CLC's were set up to provide training and education in village communities for any kind of training requirement from literacy to business administration. DED is interested in having us research and pick 6 or 7 centres which would receive new money and support and could continue their activities in the future. At this time the project has yet to get started but I'm hoping we can get going sometime this month.

Ban Bo Clean Water and BioSand Water Filter Project
This project was started when STEO was approached by the village chief of Ban Bo. Ban Bo is a Phonoy and Thai Leu ethnic village of about 1000 people located about 7 km north of Oudomxay Town. We were told by the Phor Ban that the village desparately needed a gravity fed water system and some means of filtering water for personal consumption. Fortunately, STEO has already done precisely this kind of project in Ban Tang Nguey (please read above) and we were more than happy to investigate. Our preliminary participatory planning meetings with the villagers confirmed the village chief's concerns and we set about finding funding. As mentioned previously, we have just recieved just under $2500 USD to build and gravity fed water system, and introduce and train the villagers in the construction, use and maintenance of the BioSand water filter. the project starts next week.

Water for Life: A Land Use and Watershed Management Project in Khmu Villages in the Ko River Watershed
This project, which recieved a $9,380 CND grant from the Saskatchewan Council For Internation Cooperation, represents STEO's biggest undertaking with my involvement to date. The whole idea is to conduct environmental and community research on the connection between contemporary and traditional land use practises and the impact on watershed services (ie. clean water, flood control, etc.) From there we will work with the village communities to develop and implement strategies for land use, integrating traditional practises and uses where possible, and protect the natural environment.

The project area is the Nam Ko River, a 85 km river, which startes approximately 55km north of Oudomxay town, runs through the townsite and then turns north again to drain into the Phak River. The Ko is a sub-catchment to the Lower Mekong River Basin, an area of high biodiversity levels, and a key resource to the livelyhood and economic sustainability of the Khmu people living in the region. As noted previously this project starts tomorrow and will run for the next ten months.

Tourism Environmental Education and Infrastructure Project
This project is very much in the planning stages. It started when the Provincial Tourism Authority approached STEO looking for assistance in conducting environmental research and education in villages that are developing eco-tourism projects. Our involement will include conducting environmental education activities, environmental impact assessments on tourism activities, and introducing the BioSand water filter into participating communities, as well as developing environmental protection strategies and plans.

That's a summary of my activities to date. I will do my best to keep this blog updated along with general thoughts and essays on development as these projects progress.

Back to work and already feeling crazy

Well, I'm back in Oudomxay now after a crazy two week trip to Vietnam with my brother Paul. First day in the office and already things are happening.

First thing, I recieved a phone call from the German Agro Action Office in Vientiane. A month or so ago I submitted a proposal to do a Clean water and Biosand Water filter project in the village "Ban Bo", a Phonoy and Thai Leu ethnic village about 7 km from Oudomxay Town. The proposal called for the building of a gravity fed water system and the introduction and training for village residents in the construction, use and maintenance of the biosand water filter. For those of you who are not familiar with this technology, it is a simple design that uses concrete, sand and gravel to filter water at the household level. It costs about 8 USD to make one. Our plan is to work with the villagers to build at least 10 of them and then to set up a community based cooperative to build and sell them to other villages and interested individuals. We figure the project is going to take about 6 months. GAA is going to give us just under 2500 USD to get the project off the ground.

Also, the Water for Life Project is getting off to a fast start. Although my office was unable to get any work done while I was gone, we start tomorrow with a big meeting in a village, Ban Konoy, about 15 km north of Oudomxay Town. The meeting will include village leaders from twenty different communities and a number of government agencies. Our plan is to brief them on the project and to solicit cooperation and participation. should be interesting. For those of you who are not familiar with the project...don't worry I will post a blog describing it in detail shortly.