For a week the Earth seemed to be twiddling its sun in the absence of anything better to do. Meanwhile, our thumbs orbited our thumbs in a micro-mockery of the cosmic amblings. Lying in the wake of a logistical hiccup that left us without the training, which would have given us our weekly guidance, we were waiting for some benevolent hand to feed us a great big loving spoonful of inspiration. Little did we know that hand moves surreptitiously, for brewing in the primeval soup of our discontent were the ideas and will to make the project a success. These ideas are more questions than answers but, nonetheless, they are necessary for those of us who want to understand the internal mechanisms of community development and could serve as helpful pointers to the organisations collaborating on this project.
As this was the first phase of the project here in Parcila, and it being ASOMUPRO’s maiden voyage cradling gummy-mouthed, downy-furred ICS volunteers, teething problems were inevitable. With such young and fertile minds it is essential to strike just the right balance between nurture and neglect in order to produce sproglets who are equipped to fend and think for themselves.
Parenting is always a bi-directional learning process (speaking, of course, with heaps of parental experience) and I think we’ve made our wailing heard. While we may have suffered some of the symptoms of first child syndrome, future volunteers can benefit from revised child rearing methods.
Since then however, knees have jerked, socks have been pulled up and the grinding and clunking of cogs has been audible throughout the village.
It’s been hard not to swoon at the old-world romance of huge, muscular oxen hauling sand and brick by wooden cart. Equally, as construction has gotten underway, it’s been moving to see the less tangible aims of the project materialise in the forms of voluntary cooperation and the inversion of gender roles; many hands have been leant to help transport, store and construct whilst, for the most part, the men took a back-seat as a predominantly female team of volunteers built the first two pilas.
Written by ICS volunteer Sam Baron
