Projects

As an American abroad in a poor nation, there are two stereotypes
that are hard to shake - (1) that of being a spy and (2) that of
being rich or having access to other's riches. The latter tends to
make if difficult to explain that I'm not, in fact, rich and cannot
just magically generate thousands of dollars through the internet to
build a new school or buy a car or increase everyone's salaries.

However, there are certain funds and grants about which I have a
greater degree of knowledge than the average local, and some folks
here are anxious to take advantage of this. For example, my host
mother in addition to working as a Russian teacher in the local high
school, also works for the local TV station. Yes, we have a local TV
station, but it has no programs, no office that anyone can stay in
longer than 30 minutes on account of the cold, and no real staff. It
does have a video camera, but it's broken so we sometimes use one
guy's private video camera when he decides to show up to film
something. Anyway, my host mother keeps asking me to help her find
money on the internet so she can buy the necessary equipment.

At first I thought there are far worthier projects than an improved
TV station, but she's started to convince me that an independent
media would help improve other areas of the community - nothing seems
to propel change like the spotlight of public scrutiny. My concern,
though, is that even with new equipment it would only be used to show
that everything was AOK here in Copceac. For example, I went to one
of the schools with my personal video camera to help my mother with a
TV project, and the director of the school had all the students
remove their coats and hats and scarves that they were wearing in
class so that it looked as though they were happy and warm on the
film. Then as soon as I stopped taping, they put all their layers
back on. So, would my mother really have the courage to direct her
camera to the areas that need improvement - transportation,
unemployment, alcoholism, trash, corruption, bureaucracy, etc. - and
to use the media in an unbiased manner? I guess that's where I would
come in, to make sure it happens. And another question - why not
just have a newspaper, which involves a lot less cost and technology
than TV? Anyway, this needs some more research on my part.

The other example of folks trying to extract grants from the "rich
American" comes from both my mayor and one of the school's
directors. School #2 has a concrete floor while School #1's is
tiled. Apparently this inequity is irksome to those in School #2.
Granted, the floor is not pretty and it's uneven, but it functions.
No one is falling through the floor and getting hurt. Anyway,
they've both been trying to pressure me to help them pay for a new
floor with pretty tiles, basically because they are embarrassed by
the look of it. I know that no one - or certainly not Peace Corps -
would pay for a project to put in a new floor simply because the old
one was ugly, and looking back on my service 2 years from now I would
feel pretty badly if I caved to their pressure on this issue. So I
told them point blank that I don't mean to offend, but I don't think
this project is necessary and that there are many other more worthy
projects in the village that I'd be happy to help with - like
internet for the schools, better heating and insulation, a new
community center, a better library, etc.

I also said that I'd like to do a survey of teachers and students in
the school to find out what they think they need. The school
director quickly jumped on this idea and said, "And what if they all
say they want a new floor?" [I could see the wheels turning in her
head about how she would tell everyone they had to put down that the
most pressing need was a new floor...] Again, I told her that if the
grant was going to go through me, I would not work on a new floor.
She was welcome to find a grant without me that would help with this
issue. Hopefully this debate has been put to rest. And I'm a little
proud of how I stood up to their pressure.