Emily's Worldview

A few people sent me links to the NY times article on Bill Clinton and his foundation. The basic tone of the article is, sure, Clinton's doing a lot now, but he's probably just trying to make up for his lack of action on AIDS and Rwanda during his presidency and secure his place in history.

Can someone be forgiven for allowing a genocide unfold and millions of treatable patients to die? Clinton's line is that talk about redemption now won't save any lives. His foundation does, and his name and presence makes their work stronger and more impactful, which is why he is at the center of their activities. Public figures like him who enter the nonprofit worlds are vulnerable to their motives being questioned, but often one of the most powerful elements they bring (along with buckets of money) is their own star power, media coverage, influence and weight. Do they need a reason why?

It's been 12 whole months since I started this blog up. I wasn't sure if I would be able to maintain it, but it's turned out to be very rewarding. For the next twelve months I will be trying to post more pictures, link to other blogs, and hopefully spread the word about this ridiculous thing. Anyways, thanks for a great year.

So the epilogue to my summer in Kenya is two weeks in Australia with my parents, brother, and sister. We had a week in Sydney and explored the city thoroughly. We did the obvious, (opera house, harbor bridge), but also went to less famous neighborhoods and near-in suburbs by ferry. In Manly, we walked along the cliffs to enjoy the view of Sydney Harbor and from Watson Bay we looked out to the Pacific ocean. There is a beautiful botanical garden near the city center where my brother and I watched the sun set behind the Sydney skyline and were menaced by a flock of wild cockatoos. The city is world class, clean, and has excellent public transportation including buses, subway, monorail, and ferry. From Sydney, we did two day trips—one to the Blue Mountains, where we hiked through eucalyptus forest with enough palm trees and ferns to make it feel exotic. My brother, mother and I also went on a wine tour in an area that must be lovely once the leaves come out on the grapevines. We got tipsy and quadrupled our knowledge about wine, so it was a successful day.


It being my family, we also did a lot of very touristy stuff. We went to an animal park with all the Australian animals—including koalas (The Most Heart-Melting Creature on Earth), some overfed kangaroos, cassowaries (giant bird with a blue neck and a crest of horn on top of their heads), echidnas (egg-laying hedgehog with a little duck bill), and wombats (giant hamsters). I thought about how amazing it must have been for the European explorers when they first saw all of these improbable creatures. More touristy stuff: we rode two scenic railways and a sky gondola over a rainforest, and took a mangrove cruise. One day we signed up for a tour of a crocodile farm, thinking we would see some cute attack show or learn about habitats or something. Instead, we found ourselves on a tour of a working crocodile farm, supplier of skins to Gucci etc., with a very intense guide. In response to one of my stupid questions, he turned around, stared me down through his sunglasses, and asked: “Have you ever, in your entire life, been on any kind of farm at all?”. We giggled behind his back.

We spent a few days on Dunk Island, reached by a 20 minute flight in a tiny airplane from Cairns. The island was mostly covered with rainforest—palms and vines and ferns and butterflies fluttering through--but it also had a beach with a resort around it. Sea turtles poked their heads up from the waves. Being a family of participators, we alternated our beach lounging time with rainforest hikes, boomerang-throwing lessons, aqua aerobics, the sunset champagne cruise, and sea-kayaking. At night we ate nice dinners with wine in the dining hall, and then retired to our rooms to play bridge and Oh Hell until late at night.


We went snorkeling on the Great Barrier Reef twice. The first time we all got seasick, swallowed gallons of seawater, and didn’t see anything, but the second time was incredible. Even just floating on the surface, we could see dozens of different kinds of coral, anemone with clownfish darting in and out, huge parrotfish decorated in teal pink orange purple or yellow gray white or black, schools of tiny silver blue fish, and big sweet-lips with black speckles and stripes. It was just like an aquarium, except we were in it—we could feel the waves and hung out in one spot to watch a little cleaner fish tidying up a wriggling bigger fish. I wished I could watch for hours.

That was on the last day and on the boat ride back the afternoon sun was glinting off the ocean. It was the last beautiful thing I saw.

My last three weeks were a whirlwind. In Kisumu, I had to present my findings twice on powerpoint and once on a poster, produce 3 20-30 page reports, and whip up a protocol for a follow-on study. But after a grueling week, everything was wrapped up and ready to go. On my last day, a Saturday, Florence threw a big African-style party for me. The guests were invited to come at 4 pm, for dinner at 6 pm. The first guests arrived at 6 pm and dinner was served around 10 pm. At that point, the house was packed. Women and babies sat on the sofas around the TV—eyes riveted to a Mexican soap opera. The men had carried chairs onto the porch and sit drinking beers, talking mostly about the recently completed World Cup. The children raced upstairs and downstairs, spilling sodas, and climbing all over the guests. The dinner was spiced rice, mashed green bananas, ugali, grilled cheese sandwiches, taro root, guacamole, fried chicken, chicken stew, fried beef, beef stew, and minced meat sauce (you can spot my two contributions). I gave a short speech in Swahili and English thanking everyone—most of whom I’d never seen before—and we all ate until we were painfully full. Dessert was fruit salad served out of a hollowed-out pineapple by a lady who reminded me of that one person at every potluck who makes sure everyone has tried her casserole.

Having been appropriately farewelled, I headed to Arusha, where I used to live and work. When I got to the school, the kids came running, shouting my name. They were so excited to see me, they didn’t even ask for presents. My friend Genya, whose wedding I attended, now has a fat baby girl, my friend Zena is planning to get married, and two of my neighbors had newborns that they proudly brought me to hold. When I caught up with my old roommate Glory we both jumped around with joy. On the streets, people I didn’t recognize recognized me and remembered my name. But there were some sad developments as well. A woman whose husband I watched die of AIDS was pregnant. Some of our kids had left the school but were struggling at home. And these days in Arusha electricity is only being provided five days a week, a result of this year’s brutal drought.

While I was in Arusha, something amazing happened. When I was there before, I had been helping a boy, “Matatizo”, who needed a series of surgeries. But after the first surgery, his mother died and some of his relatives took him back to their village and since that time, there had been no word about his status (for more complete backstory, see: http://www.contextjournal.org/category1.php). But my first day back in Arusha, Matatizo and his relatives came to the school. Matatizo was much, much healthier than he had ever been—his limbs had plumped up and he could stand and walk for the first time in his life (he is 7). And the relatives clearly cared about him and they were ready to go ahead with the second surgery. So on my second day when I was supposed to be relaxing and hanging out with my friends, I went with them to Moshi. We learned that there is still no pediatric surgeon at that hospital (only two government hospitals in all of Tanzania have pediatric surgeons). But there is one at a private hospital in town and now we are trying to get the sponsor to agree to pay a little more for the second surgery for the private clinic.

My major activity while I was in Arusha, though, was helping to run a four-day “summer” camp. We had done a few of these before—basically we invite some of the needy kids from the neighborhood where we work to the main project site, and for a few days instead of 30 kids, we have 100. As far as I can tell, the work increases exponentially with each additional kid you add. The weather contributed four days of chilling rain, and the extreme workload brought out tensions in the staff and volunteers. There were a few times when I questioned the logic of me allocating time and money so that I could be present to peel potatoes, sweep the floor, wash muddy feet, and try to convince the volunteers that fingerpaints with a hundred kids was not a good idea. But some of the kids from the neighborhood are so skinny and their joy is so apparent at even a sticker or a tennis ball, that even though everyone is exhausted and the place is a wreck at the end of four days, it always seems worth it.

And the fact is, I missed it all the next week when I was back in Nairobi, producing reports and trying to impress people, only leaving my desk to microwave my lunch. I was antsy and ready to be done. Fortunately, I was housed very comfortably with the family of the lady I was working for. And now I’m off to Austalia, to meet my family and be a tourist.

You always do amaze me...

http://www.pokerpages.com/tournament/result13635.htm

well the thing about being a high priced ex-pat consultant, is that u always got that as a backup. i admired storm for leaving africa to go fight global evil, but im also concerned about what kind of super villains were running somalia by that time! let alone fuckin congo.. damn. they were gonna make a Spider Man India, but I just dont see what buildings he would swing between, u know?

So I've been a bit lazy with the blog, but when I put together my next real post, you'll see why. I wanted to share wise words from my friend Chuk, who is one of the most interesting people I know.

My question:

The people here at CDC like what I've been doing and now they're asking me if I want to think about coming back and doing a more formal job of it. Which made me feel good about myself. But then I realized that that would mean that I would be high-priced ex-pat consultant, and I don't believe in those. It would be pretty embarrassing to become one as soon as I finish school. I'm beginning to realize that I'm in kind of a Catch-22 because the big players in antiretroviral therapy for HIV are all the big donors and NGOs, which I don't think are good models for development/effective vehicles for personal action. But I also know that you can't make as much of a difference scraping along with some little NGO. Or, that I personally couldn't make much difference. What I need is a job with a big organization that is ethically in the clear. I can think of two. I hope they're hiring next May.

Chuk's Answer:

so when u work for a bigtime job cuz u figure u gotta get paid, u just gotta figure out how who does that right, and i bet the answer is to get with a small time NGO and make it get big, and then u will believe that it is working out well, like the parenting thing where time invested creates love (u know this bit from the little prince, when the prince is said he has spent so long with a flower he thot unique, but turned out to be just a common rose, he happens upon a fox who says to him,

"To me, you are still nothing more than a little boy who is just like a hundred thousand other little boys. And I have no need of you. And you, on your part, have no need of me. To you, I am nothing more than a fox like a hundred thousand other foxes. But if you tame me, then we shall need each other. To me, you will be unique in all the world. To you, I shall be unique in all the world..."

so the boy spends some time with the fox, and when eventually they find they must part ways, the fox tells the boy his secret,

"It is the time you have wasted for your rose that makes your rose so important")

so the NGOs u see and dont like are not yours and if u were with one and you believed in it i think that could be something that worked, not just this guerrilla strategy of always coming on board for small, underfunded groups, but instead making the little good ideas into big good ideas.