Christmas Update

Well, I have to start by apologizing for my recent hiatus from blogging...I don't really have much of an excuse!  As much as I love most forms of communication, spoken and written, I have discovered that blogging is not my most natural form of expression.  However, I'm a work in progress and want to use this blog to keep you updated on my life and what WiLi is up to.  So, I'm back :)

To give you an update.  I returned from my most recent 6 week trip to Ethiopia about a month ago in the beginning of November.  My trip went very well!  I am continuing to build relationships with our Ethiopian partners, and in that discovering the delights and the challenges of working cross-culturally in the Ethiopian context.  I consider myself to be fairly culturally sensitive and aware, however it has been a challenge to learn how best to communicate and work in a culture that has different values from what I am used to.  Frustrations have certainly come, but overall it has been a growing experience to learn about Ethiopian values, and my own, and realize that there’s nothing wrong when they differ!

While I was in Ethiopia I got to spend a good bit of time out in the communities that we work in with different Sustainable Living Groups.  It was wonderful to have the time to meet with different groups and sit down with women and hear their stories!  In the future I want to share more of the individual stories, but for now here are some pictures of the different groups and women that I met with!

Sustainable Living Group preparing a coffee ceremony

Members of a Sustainable Living Group weaving together

Dadi, a Sustainable Living Group member that I had the joy to talk with

Since returning from Ethiopia in November I have been busy working on internal WiLi projects, continuing to fundraise, and preparing to move to Ethiopia next month.  That’s right, I’m moving to Ethiopia in mid-January!!!  The paper work is moving along and it seems clear to us that God has opened this door, so I will be moving to Ethiopia for the next year to be the new Ethiopia Country Director for WiLi.  I am THRILLED about this opportunity and so thankful that God has blessed me with this opportunity.  This comes at the perfect time for me personally, and for WiLi, with the transition we have been in.  As Country Director I will be doing a lot of what I have been doing the past six months, but more intensely and consistently now that I will be in Ethiopia full time.  I will be managing our ongoing well drilling and sanitation projects, will be responsible for communication and relationship building with the Ethiopian church and our other in-country partners, implementing the SLG sponsorship program and other new initiatives on the ground, and serving as the bridge between WiLi’s field operations in Ethiopia and our head office in Orlando.

As I mentioned above, I am continuing to fundraise with the goal of raising support to cover half of my expenses for the coming year.  If you would be interested in financially supporting me, please check out my fundraising page here.  Any support you could give would truly be a blessing to me and to WiLi!  If you have any questions about WiLi's funding or the way funds are used please let me know.

I’ll be blogging again soon to keep you updated on my move and what WiLi is up to!  I hope you all have a Merry Christmas with family and truly get to reflect on what an unequaled blessing it is for us that Jesus came to earth.  I know I will be especially savoring this Christmas season with my family and friends.

Merry Christmas,

 

 

What is Poverty?

Since being back here in Ethiopia I’ve been thinking a lot about this basic question: 

What is poverty?

Every day I pass people on the street, I sit and have coffee with people, and I enter the homes of people that would be described as living in poverty.  There are the tell-tale signs of bare feet covered in dirt and children’s’ stomachs distended from malnourishment, but still I’ve been thinking about the definition of poverty.  Many straightforward answers are probably popping into your head, such as:

• Living on less than $1 a day

• Not having enough food to eat or clean water to drink

• Children not being able to attend school because they can’t afford the fees or are needed at home

• Living on the streets and having to beg for money

The way we answer this question determines how we view the poor and how we view our relationship with them, and in my line of work that is really important.  Poverty is complex and we know enough to understand that it goes beyond money and material resources, but often we can’t grasp the systemic problem of poverty and where its roots truly lay.

In the 1990s there was a study conducted by the World Bank to answer this question.  This study directly interviewed more than 60,000 poor people from 60 low income countries across the world.  Here are some of the descriptions that the poor gave of their own situation:

“When one is poor, she has no say in public, she feels inferior.  She has no food, so there is a famine in her house; no clothing, and no progress in her family.”

“Your hunger is never satisfied, your thirst is never quenched; you can never sleep until you are no longer tired.”

“For a poor person everything is terrible-illness, humiliation, shame.  We are cripples; we are afraid of everything; we depend on everyone.  No one needs us.  We are like garbage that everyone wants to get rid of.”

“During the past two years we have not celebrated any holidays with others.  We cannot afford to invite anyone to our house and we feel uncomfortable visiting others without bringing a present.  The lack of contact leaves one depressed, creates a constant feeling of unhappiness, and a sense of low self-esteem.”

Typically we westerners describe poverty in terms of material poverty and lack of resources, but here we can see that the poor describe their poverty in different terms.  The poor talk of poverty far more in terms of psychological and social aspects, referring to shame, powerlessness, inferiority, and hopelessness.  This isn’t meant to depress you or make you feel bad, it’s just meant to show that the problem of poverty goes far beyond the material realm, and therefore so must the solutions.

One reason that I’m so passionate about the work that we at Water is Life are doing is because we seek to not just address the material symptoms of poverty (like water and sanitation), but we are striving to be personally involved in people’s lives and promote individual transformation of the mind, spirit, heart, and soul.  My heart breaks for women and children who have to spend hours out of their day collecting water and I feel unsettled knowing there are people just outside my window who have no choice but to drink water that will make them physically ill.  These are issues that particularly pierce my heart and grab my attention, but I also know that it’s not just clean water that people need.

One way that we are seeking to partner with individuals and promote emotional, spiritual, and psychological transformation is through working with the local church with Sustainable Living Groups (SLGs).  SLGs are organically formed groups of 15 to 20 individuals which organize around saving money.  These groups aren’t given any starting capital (this is different from micro-finance groups), and so individual agency is immediately established as the poorest of the poor begin to save their own money (often beginning with the cost of a ‘buna’ (cup of coffee) per day which is about 10 cents).  Aside from the savings component, SLGs provide group accountability, a unique social setting for discussion and support, and the opportunity for neighbors and acquaintances to begin loving and encouraging one another.

That’s a brief description of SLGs, but the concept is that not only are material needs being addressed through savings, but also people’s deeper emotional and spiritual needs.  I was talking to a friend out here the other day in regards to the work that they do, and they made the observation that people without hope do not save.  Someone with no hope doesn’t think they have a future, so why would they save money?  I began to think about that in regards to the SLGs, and realized that that is a part of the internal transformation of individuals.  Through the restoration of their individual agency and sense of dignity, SLG members begin to willfully save money because they have hope for their future.  They begin to believe that their actions, even small actions, can have an impact on the future of their family and the lives of their children.

That is the kind of change in mindset and spirit that I so long to see in the people here in Ethiopia that I work with.  That is the kind of poverty alleviation that I believe in, and that we are working towards.  By combining the provision of water and sanitation resources with this individual transformation we are hoping to have an impact far beyond the physical, and longer lasting than material changes.

 PS-many of the concepts and facts in regards to the World Bank study at the beginning of this post are taken from ‘When Helping Hurts’ by Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert.  I am currently reading this book for the second time and would definitely recommend it to anyone interested in biblically based poverty alleviation (which is not nearly as nerdy as it sounds)!

On the Move!

I’m so thankful for the life that God has given me and the places where he has me right now.  To bring you up to speed…I’ve been back in the U.S. for two weeks now and it’s been a wonderful time of rest, re-acclamation, and rich times with family and friends!  Over the past few weeks I’ve been bouncing between Jacksonville, Gainesville, and Orlando Florida.  In the words of my boys the Avett Brothers…

“A lot of movin', A lot of rollin'
A lot of drivin', A lot of strollin'
A lot of leavin' here
A lot of arrivin' there
Trying to go just about everywhere
A lot of thinking about where I'm going next.”

I have indeed been doing a lot of moving and driving lately!  The beginning of this week I spent in Orlando for our Water is Life staff…ummm what we’re calling “conference”.  Water is Life is an organization that is based in the U.S., operates in Ethiopia, has staff in the U.S. and Canada, as well as staff in different cities in those countries, so you can imagine that it is a rare occasion that all of our staff (mind you there’s a grand total of about 5 of us officially) is in one place at one time!  Well the past three days was one of those rare opportunities for all of us to gather together to cast long-term vision, to discuss logistics and budgets for our on-going projects, and most importantly to study God’s word and come together as a team in prayer.

The past few days we spent a good bit of time discussing our organization’s strategy and the way we operate.  David, our Executive Director, cited somebody famous (sorry I don’t remember who!) who first described in international development “the addiction of helpfulness”.  Water is Life’s basic purpose is to serve, love, and “help” impoverished people in Ethiopia and one of the core values that we discussed together this past week was that of simplicity and love.  Helping can sometimes be simple, but often it can become complicated and requires thoughtful and careful approaches.  We can’t just throw money at problems, we don’t want to foster a culture of dependence in our projects, and we also don’t want to undermine individual’s agency by what we do.  At Water is Life we are committed to taking simple approaches motivated by love in order to invest in local capacities, promote individual transformation, and extract our western influence as much as possible.

Where I’m going next is back to Ethiopia :)  On Sunday I depart to return to Ethiopia for another 5 weeks.  I’m excited to have the opportunity to get back to Ethiopia so soon, to jump right back into the rhythm and to continue building relationships and furthering the projects that are ongoing.  The past two weeks have been a great opportunity to research, connect with Water is Life partners in the U.S., and reflect and prepare for the future…but for the work that we are doing there truly is no replacement for being on the ground in Ethiopia.  So much of the work that we do is contingent upon face to face meetings and hands-on work in country in Ethiopia, and those things simply can’t be replaced by emails or Skype calls.  Your prayers would be much appreciated as David and I travel.  Next update will be coming from across the pond!

Blogging from Berlin

Six weeks ago if you had told me I’d be in Berlin, Germany today I wouldn’t have believed you…but here I am!  This morning I had the opportunity to meet with a representative from one of Water is Life’s donor partners here in Germany.  It was an encouraging time of sharing our vision for Sustainable Living Groups, reporting on growth and progress, and building our organizations’ relationship.  I feel honored to represent WiLi in this way, and it has been a really cool experience for me to explore a little bit of Germany as well :)

At the remains of the Berlin Wall

Berlin is a beautiful city, rich in history dating back hundreds of years, and it is evident in the construction of this place the effect that history has had.  My experience in Berlin has been unique coming off the perspective of Ethiopia!!!!  My eyes have grown accustomed to streets full of donkey carts weighed down with jericans, mini-buses piled high with live chickens and goats, and people pointing at me and calling ‘ferenji’ (Amharic word for foreigner) everywhere!  In contrast, the streets of Berlin are seemingly clean and orderly, full of BMWs and Mercedes, and inhabited by a population which is politely indifferent to my presence :)

Street life in Berlin

Yesterday I had some time to see some of the sights of the city and one of my many stops was Gendarmenmarkt Square.  This gorgeous area is the location of the Konzerthaus Berlin, as well as the German and French Cathedrals.  I was sitting on a bench drinking some coffee and just soaking in the sights when an older Berliner approached me and struck up conversation.  He assumed I speak German, as I’ve found most Berliners do, but we quickly transitioned to English and worked our way into conversation (I’m certainly no stranger to language barriers)!

 

Part of Gendarmenmarkt Square

The conversation that followed with this man has been on my mind since yesterday, and has continued to challenge me.  As we were sitting and chatting we were approached by a young girl with what looked like a petition.  It turned out that she was deaf and was asking for a donation.  My friend gave her 5 Euro and she went on her way.  Later on in our conversation I was telling my friend what I do with Water is Life, and I was explaining why I care about Ethiopia and why I’m passionate about water issues.  I told him it’s like what he did for that girl; he saw the need that she had, he had the resources to do something about it, so he responded.  Now obviously our work with WiLi isn’t about just handing out charity, but I hope you get what I mean!  My emphasis was on the recognition of a need, and a compassionate response that spurs action.  I began to explain to him that I’m a person of faith and it’s my belief in God and my understanding of his love that has led me to serve in this way.

My friend stopped me and said something really interesting.  He said in regards to the girl who had asked for the money that he didn’t know really if she was deaf, maybe she was faking in order to get money, but to him it didn’t matter.  Whatever her situation was, she was in a place where she felt the need to ask people for money, and that was reason enough for him to help her.  He said he didn’t even care if it ended up going towards alcohol or drugs, it wasn’t his place to judge that or decide the validity of that need, he just wanted to be kind.  Does that sound naïve to you?  It did to me at first, but the simplicity of this man’s approach has been challenging my personal thinking.

I come from an educational background and professional setting that constantly analyzes “best practices” in regards to development and aid, and is constantly seeking to ensure sustainability.  We worry about whether what we’re doing to help is actually helping, or if it could somehow be hurting and undermining an individual’s agency.  Now those considerations are really important, but as I was sitting in Gendarmenmarkt Square I was reminded of a simplicity that I often get away from.  It’s not rocket science, there’s no magic formula, and in fact it’s not something reserved for people who work in Africa or other impoverished places.  We’re meant to recognize the inherent value and dignity that everyone has, whether rich or poor, because we were all created in the image of God.  All the time we have opportunities to be generous, to be compassionate, and to be kind to other people.  Maybe it’s not an overly analytical mind that stops you like it does me, maybe it’s embarrassment or being busy.  Whatever it is my friends, sometimes I think we just have to get back to the basics.

"No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted."  Aesop's Fables