Unintended Legacies

After almost two months of being “alone on the ground,” the President/Country Director of WPE (Ben Schwartz, Dartmouth ’06) arrived for an indefinite stay in Ghana. For a little background, WPE was founded as a result of Ben’s experience here at Manye. During his Junior Winter, he worked through a volunteer organization and happened to be placed at Manye Academy, a small school of about 30 students.  Ben was so affected by his time in Community 25 that he applied for (and received) a Lombard Grant to come back after graduation, during which time he taught in the primary school, and tried to help Mr Kabutey make positive changes to improve the quality of education.  This still wasn’t enough, so upon his return, he worked with some other Dartmouth students who also volunteered here at Manye to set up World Partners in Education. Since then, WPE has sent more than 10 volunteers to Manye, in groups of three or four, to work on projects with the kids. 

Fast forward to September, 2010 when Catherine and Jamie arrive to serve as WPE’s first set of Educational Consultants at Manye. As consultants, we’re supposed to be separate from the school – we’re here to empower the current stakeholders, not do their jobs for them. Another important part of our work here is working with WPE’s Monitoring & Evaluation Committee for data collection, so that we can actually make sure that our projects and interventions are doing some good. Unlike the volunteers, who immediately jumped into doing Creative Arts projects with students and tutoring those who had fallen behind, so as not to waste a day of their 2 months, Jamie and I were instructed to take things slow, to focus on building relationships with all stakeholders, not to jump into projects just because we’re touched by the hardships the kids here face.  Along these lines, it was also expressed to us that it’s not our job to shower the community (or the kids) with presents; we need to navigate power dynamics, and spending lots of money could be a challenge to that. From my (limited) experience with international development, this is a pretty standard policy for NGOs, and since my income for the year is zilch, I had absolutely no problem adopting this philosophy.

But here’s where things got tricky. Because Jamie and I were the first ‘consultants,’  we were also the first obrunis at Manye who weren’t there to spend all their time playing with kids, buying them biscuits, or showing movies on Friday afternoons. The first couple weeks we were there, it was unbelievable (to us) how many of the younger students, who didn’t know our names, would come up to us and say, “Madam, buy me biscuits”.  One day, when I was wearing a headband to go jogging, I was shocked when a girl who happened to be a favorite of the summer volunteers, looked at me with a straight face and said, “Madam, when you leave, you give me your headband.” My immediate reaction was “Hell no. Not when you ask like that.”  But no worries – I didn’t blurt that out. I managed instead something much more neutral and noncommittal, like, “We’ll see”. 

Because is it really their fault? What else could they expect, when for the past couple years, groups of young, enthusiastic obrunis come over for two months at a time. And what are they here for? They’re here to experience Africa, to learn about international development, to make a difference in the lives of kids. And I have no doubt that they do. Because for every few of the annoying “Madam, buy me biscuits,” I encountered a “Madam, will you send this letter to Madam _____?” And on opening these letters to scan and email them to former volunteers, I see notes of labored English talking about how they are working hard in school and how they are reading better and how they miss Madam ____.  So I’m not condemning volunteer programs; I really do believe that individual relationships can make a difference in the life of a student, and I really do think that the kids here deserve to be treated special every once in a while.  And to be honest, part of me wants do be the one to do that. I want to connect with a child, to develop a close relationship, and know that I’ve made a profound difference in his or her life.  I mean, let’s be real… who wouldn’t want that?

But what I’ve realized here is that the quest for those relationships, and the more tangible effects of those relationships, have side effects. The intention is to make the kids happy, to open their eyes to the potential of a brighter future. To show them what life could be like if they study hard, do well in school, and stay out of trouble.  But the unintentional legacy is the common belief that every obruni (especially us younger ones) is here for the same reason.  And even if most are here trying to create a brighter future, we’re not all trying to do it by buying presents or even teaching kids how to read.