Punctuation on the Project/Trip

I spent the last 40 hours in Transit, waking up this morning in my friend’s pent house flat over looking down town Manhattan. A little bit of a contrast.

As we reflected as a team we concluded that it seemed as though we had been in Matoso forever, while it also flew by. The goal of the trip was to show how much could be done with so little money and so little time. Mission Accomplished.

Because we were working with and through the community as opposed to alongside the community we were able to magnify our labor base, our support base, our organizational base and our base of implementation.

The last several days were just like the first two weeks... More success. The crowning day of the entire project was Friday. Friday was a relatively well planned out day consisting of two major community events.

The day started out by slaughtering a cow at six in the morning. If you have never been a part of something like this, I recommend it, it help you to appreciate where your beef comes from.

They we began gathering the children. We had plastic bags, gloves and prizes ready for them. We gathered together about 40 kids and explained the rules. Pick up three bags of trash and bring them to the landfill and they would receive a new piece of clothing. (Some of which we brought with us and others that we purchased there.) Off they went. We knew as soon as the other kids saw what was going on they would want their chance to get in on it, so within twenty minutes we had about 120 kids out there picking up unprecedented amounts of trash.

They lined up single file (with some coercion) we recorded their names, we emptied their bags into our newly completed landfill and gave them back their bag and sent them on their way. Bag of trash after bag of trash after bag of trash... about 400 bags of trash later we stopped the event. We gather a crowd of at least 100 adults plus all the kids. There Maurice spoke, his two assistants spoke, I spoke and we had organized the girls to sing for us. We taught the community why and what this waste management system was all about. We told them where the trashcan were placed in their community and how to effectively use them: three physical waste and three for biological waste. There had been a lame girl who had fought hard to gather trash that day, despite her extreme difficulty in walking. I brought her up in front of the community and said that if she could fight to clean up Matoso, then why not everyone. The event was a huge success and in the next couple days to follow we heard people say, and I quote, "Matoso is clean now." They had a vision, a leader (Maurice) and a plan for success. As we walked around the beach area and the center of the community which used to be covered in indistinguishable wrappers that had been baking in the sun for years, disintegrating discarded clothing, abandoned fishing nets and all the biological waste from the last several days, now was clean and pleasant, and we could not walk around without having to stop for a second and just stare... brimming with joy.

We handed out all the promised rewards and headed back to Maurice's compound. Woman had gather to assist in preparing the meet for several hundred people... turns out you can feed about 250 people with one lean cow, as long as each person get three pieces only. We had arranged for a meal for our guests. Around 1:00 people from Matoso as well as leaders from other areas began to gather. We sat in a circle and ate sugar cane and listened to them debate this or that in their native language. By 2:30 a sufficient crowd had gathered and we began serving the food. Once the multitude had eaten we began our program. There in front of our center we had an opening celebration. Maurice spoke, William spoke, and several other community members spoke. We sang songs and watched the teen choirs that we had organized sing and dance for us. We had a couple musical numbers, a little guitar-off between the man who will be teaching at the community center and myself, African music vs. Western. The crowd enjoyed both. I was able to be one of the concluding speakers and as many of you know I feel more alive inn front of an audience in a speaking capacity than in any other time in my life. Being in front of my team, the community we had grown to love, many community members I had still not met, and leaders from other areas desirous to see what all the commotion had been about,... in that moment I realized that our dreams had come true and we had fulfilled our mandate. The audience was receptive and engaged. You could see a certain excitement, hope, confidence and sense of renewed commitment in their eyes. They now had access to a new waste management program, a community center that will be teaching computers, music, chess, drivers ed, health and much more as we continue to evolve. They have a new hope that they will soon be able to follow our guidelines in order to qualify for a loan that will certainly give them an opportunity to change their lives and their children’s lives. They have a new hope that Matoso can and will be something that none of them may have ever imagined. My speech was followed by the Assistant to the regional Chief. He spoke for a good length of time, validating our organization, our project and demanding that the community work to be able to ensure its success

As a result of a successful event as well as some meetings with regional leadership, we have been asked to duplicate our project in other areas near by. At the meeting were six members of West Kadem who had been chosen to for a committee in order to prepare the way and be an interface between us and the communities of the region. Following the event this committee met for the first time. Maurice was titled chairman, we chose a secretary and treasurer and I was given the title of project director within this committee. We discussed a proper sequence of focuses and what we would be able to do in the short term and in the long term. I have already made a commitment that I will be back in the next several months in order to help break ground. The great thing is that now we have a very intelligent, capable and prominent team, with government mandate to assist us from here on out.

There were many who wondered if we would be successful. We had basically no experience and no money and very little time. We have a beautiful new community center with an extremely capable hired full time manager. We have a growing loan program for the community. We have a new waste management system and more to come.

I know that we were successful because of the feelings of love and appreciation that we felt as we were gathering our things and preparing to leave. This was the most interesting and rewarding thing that I have ever done in my life.

If you are reading this right now please consider visiting www.schap.info and contributing, even if you have already. We raised $20K in the last six months and we need to raise $100K in the next six months.

Thank you for taking the time to read this blog about our travels and projects. The words of JFK can be applied in so many regards... and now I challenge you to work with us and so many others across the globe to reinforce an absolutely critical paradigm: as not what the world can do for you, but ask what can you do for the world.