DAY 8
Today, we had a final planning session with the team. We set out a progression of priorities for increasing their salary, based on whatever money is generated by the water bottling, and internet cafe. We also bought 80% of a biosand filters for each of the 7 members of the team. They'll each need to pay the remaining 12,000 shillings ($8) to get the water filter for their family. Everything seemed well and good, but then it got a bit dramatic:
Godfrey (the project manager) has been quite stressed and made some tearful accusations about the lack of transparency by revival movement leadership, unfair demands on him and his team, and he voiced fears that everything would fall apart once we leave. We haven't heard anyone speak from the heart like this. Mostly we get pretty formal speeches from people.
Unfortunately, Godfrey is the most educated, most gifted leader we've met here. He really gets it. (He's trained a medical tech, so the bottling, testing, filters, etc is right up his alley). He says his friends make fun of him because he makes so little at this job (he has been offered higher salaries by several organizations). He is considering leaving the project (he said he cried last night while falling asleep). It really sucks because this is the guy I like the most and respect the most here, and I'm sad to hear all this.I got separated from our traveling in the afternoon and got a chance to speak with Godfrey alone (I also spoke with some of the workers in some depth - although the main leader took them aside and told them not to talk to us). I sent some detailed notes to IT, because there's some pretty serious issues here.
Godfrey has told us that he cannot stay with the water project. And all 6 of the workers will leave when he goes. They are just staying as long as Godfrey is shielding them from the Revival leaders' control. Two things are holding him back from leaving:
-relationship with Bruce
-involvement in the Episcopal Church
Godfrey's closest friend is pastor Kaya (head of a 300 person baptist NGO that sponsors evangelism, education). Kaya feels sorry for his best friend Godfrey. He offered him 3x more money/month to test and work with borehole wells (water harvest international). Godfrey gave his CV today.In parallel, the hospital asked him to work fulltime as a lab tech. Currently working part-time as a tech trainer (4hrs/week and he makes more than with his 30hrs/week at the water project). A few months ago, a Japanese NGO selected him for 3 month course in Japan and job to bring plumbing to this area. He is waiting to see if they come back (delayed due to Japanese elections).
Godfrey feels like instead of developing his life, he is losing out due to the abuse he takes while working with Revival. After another big discussion, Godfrey seemed like he might stick around for another couple months if something changes rapidly. So now we're in a meeting the revival leadership to convince them to turn over more day to day control to Godfrey (like the keys to the truck, or the ability to buy supplies without asking). Bruce will recommend to IT that someone come here for a couple of months to manage the situation as it is quite fragile. Bruce stated to Godfrey that the allegations of fraud will be dealt with by IT, and to have patience with that. (We're not tackling that one so far. What a mess!)
Wow. Tough day. I don't know if my crazy notes made any sense, but it felt as if everything was crashing down around us. IT has a big mess on their hands here, and I'm still reeling from some of my conversations today. (I was the only one that these guys talked to, since I got away from the main group of "visitors"). It's the age-old issue of young leaders chafing under the older leaders' control. But it's also allegations of fraud, and our work seems to be in jeopardy. Personally, I am reconsidering everything I've thought about everything here. It's definitely more gray and complicated.
It doesn't make me like this part of Sudan any less, but makes me lose a bit of hope for the Revival Movement and the water bottling that we've implemented this week. Even the internet access is at risk - the team believes that they will lose access as soon as we leave... :( :(
Is this my "welcome to the real world" moment, at the end of a pretty amazing out-of-body-experience week? I'm checked in for my KLM flights home. Pray for us tomorrow. More meetings and then a lot of travel.
Love, Marc
PS. Turns out that we've had a team of 5 women cooking for us this whole week. We're very high maintenance. (Consider the amazing eggplant and peanut butter dish we had: just making the peanut butter takes hours to roast the peanuts, shell them and grind them with a rock. And we have fresh peanuts and peanut butter every day!). They also have to kill chickens or whatever meat and prepare them for us (remember there is no refridgeration anywhere, so the only way to have meat is fresh). PPS. Yesterday, I burned my other thumb and hand (!) when the lid came off a thermos that they were using to pour tea for me. The burn was not as bad this time. But it makes me very nervous when I see those thermoses.
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