Going Fishing

Though you may think this blog post is going to have something to do with a recent fishing trip that we went on with Luis (who loves fishing and keeps telling us about when he's going to take us), it's not. I want to ask some questions to our large, devout, and interested readership that I hope exists. And if you, Readership, are not there, well then I'll use this to record some personal thoughts I've had.

We've all heard the adage: Give a man a fish; you have fed him for today. Teach a man to fish; you have fed him for a lifetime. (thanks to the internet for providing the precise wording)

My main question: Does it really matter that we teach the man to fish if he's never going to fish anyways? What if, for example, he doesn't have a boat? Do we give him a boat, too? But we shouldn't do that; it would be better that we teach him to build a boat so that in the future when his boat breaks and starts leaking he can fix it. Of course. But really, is teaching a man to fish better than anything else even if he's never going to fish after we leave?

Another question: The man obviously has been keeping himself alive on something before we showed up, so what if he's actually not too bad at growing corn? Why do we bother to teach him how to fish? This goes back to the first question: why would the man keep fishing after we leave when he already knows how to grow corn and that's easier for him? Maybe he likes corn more than fish. Does he have to learn to like fish? What's so much better about fish in the first place?

So we show up and find (let's call him) Carlos growing corn for his family. We could even say that we find his whole community growing corn for their families. We think that if Carlos and his neighbors had fish in their diet they'd be healthier, they'd be happier, they might learn a trade, and maybe we'd even stimulate some local economic activity. So we teach them to fish.

Another question arises here: How do we know that eating fish is going to be better than eating corn? It may very well be better, but how do we know that? Who is saying that fish is going to be better for Carlos and his family and how did they decide that?

Even if eating fish really is better for Carlos and his neighbors, the problem is that we're the ones telling them this. Carlos has no reason to keep fishing after we leave just because we told him to. Remember, he already survives alright on corn and is loving his daily tortilla with cornbread. What's his incentive to go down the hill to the lake and hold a stick in it for a few hours? But if he and the rest of the community came up with the idea of fishing themselves, could we then be a little more certain that they would change their habits and decide to fish? It's probably a little more likely, though still not entirely certain.

What do we do, then? How do we make a positive impact in the lives of Carlos and his neighbors? (which brings up another issue that we won't discuss right now: why are we trying to make an impact in these people's lives in the first place? How is it our place to do that? And what does that mean?) Is it best to teach them to grow their corn just a little bit better? Is that the best impact we can have? That would make them at least a little better off, right? But would they even continue to do that after we leave?

One last question just to consider: If it's good to have Carlos and his neighbors come up with the idea of eating fish themselves, is there something we can do to help guide them to the idea at least? And what is that?

I'm really not trying to be completely critical of revered adage's here, but I think these questions are pretty central to development issues, and are central to our evaluation project here, too. And in terms of evaluation, I think that questioning one's actions is the first and last place to focus one's efforts.

I know there are a lot of holes in this "fishing theory" I've tried to develop. And obviously I'm pushing the symbolism a little too far. But hopefully asking questions like this has gotten you thinking a little about why we take the approaches we take.

Please comment.

The Purest Water in Latin America

A short funny story...

A few days after we arrived here to Santa Cruz, our boss, Luis, was telling us how the water in Santa Cruz is the cleanest and purest water in Latin America. Luis is a really great story-teller, so sometimes it's hard to tell how much he's exaggerating. Personally, I have been a little reluctant to believe that Santa Cruz's water is actually the cleanest of all of Latin America. According to the other staff, they pull it right out of the ground (400 meters below the ground, to be exact) and don't have to add chlorine or salt or anything.

Despite Santa Cruz having the cleanest water of Latin America, the office has a water cooler with one of those large bottles of purified water. Apparently they use this water cooler just because it gives the gringo visitors some peace of mind. Or, according to another staff member here in the office, all the other businesses in Santa Cruz also have purified water coolers in their offices because it looks good; it's a social status thing.

Anyways, last week we finished the last bottle of water here in the office. With all the bottles being empty, we had to wait until the distributor came again to deliver new, filled bottles. Miraculously, though, our last bottle of water lasted through the end of the week.

Later in the week, Luis asked Doug: "Have any of you been sick lately? No one's had stomach pains or anything?" "No, we've all been fine. Why?" "Oh, just because...we filled up the water cooler with water from the kitchen faucet." So, instead of waiting for new water bottles, the staff just filled up the old one with "the purest water in Latin America". And then they decided not to tell us. Isn't it interesting what 'watching out for the gringos' means in different cultures?

Good news is we now know that the tap water doesn't get us sick. That's not going to keep me from drinking the purified water from the water cooler, but at least I can feel at ease trying some of the fresh fruit juices when we go out to eat.

Until next time,
Matt

The Trouble With Gripe A

Walking down the streets in Santa Cruz these days you might wonder if you're in a city full of surgeons or dental hygienists. I, at least, have never seen so many masked faces outside of the operating room or the dentist's chair. It's actually kind of an eerie feeling to be shopping in the supermarket, sitting on buses and even being served at restaurants by people whose faces are entirely hidden behind a protective mask--it's just eyes everywhere, independent of noses and mouths, which have been carefully masked behind their newly fashionable precautionary coverings. But perhaps the Cruceños are right to be cautious in light of the increasing cases of Gripe A (Swine Flu) here in Bolivia, and especially in the Department of Santa Cruz.

Worldwide, the number of cases of Gripe A has reached (depending on whose numbers you believe) over 95,000 reported cases and between 430-600+ deaths within the past few months since the outbreak began. Here, in Bolivia, there are over 600 confirmed cases, more than 400 of which are in Santa Cruz. There have been 3 deaths attributed to the epidemic in Bolivia, and the concern is that the ever increasing numbers of infected patients will soon be beyond the capacity of the country's medical services to control, increasing exponentially the number of deaths within the country. On Thursday, July 9, the department of Santa Cruz suspended all public activities for the next 15 days; that includes, concerts, movie theaters, discotheques, ferias, sporting events and even religious services. Of course, students here in Santa Cruz may not be too disapointed with their extra two weeks of vacation... too bad they can't celebrate with a trip to the movies or the discoteca.

For ASCEND in particular, this new turn of events has put a damper on the plans of the fund raising Gala that was to take place on July 21 (just 3 days before the end of the precautionary suspension of public gatherings). The staff here have been working hard to sell tickets and get everything in order for the big day... now it looks like they will have to wait until mid to late August to put on the event. That also means that "business as usual" will also have to be on hold a bit for an extra month since there is a new influx of issues to sort out, including making sure Bolivia's most famous folk music group, Los Kjarkas, will still be able to perform, being the main attraction and all.

For me personally, this is my second run-in with Swine Flu mania, and I have to say, I wonder how many other people's lives are being effected by the economic and social side effects of this pandemic. Just a few months ago I had planned to go to Mexico on Study Abroad through BYU, but because of the Swine Flu we were re-routed to Guatemala. It was by no means a poor substitute in terms of travel, but there were definitely some opportunities missed with the change of plans. And I was lucky. Some trips were canceled completely. And now, here in Santa Cruz, not only are people prohibited from social activities, and even from attending Church services, but, no doubt, many businesses and individuals are experiencing significant financial losses due to this two week suspension. (Not to mention the great personal loss I feel in not being able to see Harry Potter opening night en español!)

In any case, Gripe A has definitely taken its toll here in Santa Cruz (and elsewhere), and continues to do so. I can only hope that precautions such as those in place here in Santa Cruz will be successful in halting the rapid spread of the flu and preventing fatalities. Time will tell. But for now, I think I'll buy some hand sanitizer and a good movie to watch at home. The surgeon's mask-- I'll leave those for someone else.

Monkeys, Getting fat, and Evaluating development projects in the Holy Cross of the Hills

Before I tell you a bunch of stuff about Bolivia that you may or may not care about, let me say this: I'm getting fat.

As I was chatting with a friend over Skype, she said, "Doug, don't be offended by this, but you're a little chubbier." Another friend told me that I was a "rellenito" (for those of you who don't speak Spanish, that's the same word that's used to describe jelly doughnuts). But don't worry. You'll be happy to hear that I have a plan:

1. Only eat out ONCE a day.
2. Disable my webcam.

You see, Kendal, Matt, and I are now in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia (which Wikipedia tells me means "Holy Cross of the Hills, Bolivia"). After a brief vacation eating pesto, empanadas, and steak in Buenos Aires, we have arrived to Bolivia anxious to pilot Ascend's first evaluation implemented by interns (and yes, directed by university professors).



I have been sitting here at my computer longer than I probably should trying to think of an interesting way to describe our evaluation project to you, vast readership. (This is the point where you can stop reading.)

To put it frankly (and a bit fasciciously): In our prosperous economic times, people are starting to care even more about where they put their money. And those of us who work in Non-profit and International Development care more than ever about the kind of work that we do. Evaluation, conducted intelligently (which we hope to do), can show organizations the positive effect they have had and also how to improve their programs.

How was that description? We promise that even though we will be filling our heads with uninteresting theoretical topics about the evaluation we're doing here (we actually are pretty excited about it, which probably makes us really uninteresting), we will only occasionally bore you, vast readership, with the details. To prove this, I am including a picture of Matt and a monkey from the Monkey Park we went to on Saturday, July 4!!!!



Yay!! Monkey Park!!!

What better way to celebrate the independence of your native country than by comforting an abused, rescued, capuchin monkey in Bolivia? (And you just watched fireworks.)

We'll keep you posted.