Digging Holes Builds Character

10/11/11

“Digging Holes Builds Character”

-Warden Walker from the book Holes by Louis Sachar

Dear Everyone,         

I love the people here so much my heart hurts. Elena just stopped by with a bottle of homemade medicine, and proceeded to rub it all over our bug-bites.  She was so horrified when Lizzie came by to pick up Michelle to go bathe, that she just had to come over.  She brought her daughters, and Lizzie and I fed them the Aunt Jemima with spoons and played guessing games as the other was attended to. They each gave us a big hug on their way out, and my heart just melted.

It occurs to me that I gush about my homestay family (and extended-family) at length, but rarely discuss the work project. This is probably because I prefer writing about what I love as opposed to what is increasingly frustrating me. I came on this trip thinking it would ignite a crazy passion in me to save the world. This work project is simply making me cynical. Although the environment has never quite been my cause, I understand the necessity of our tree planting, and this is not my issue. My issue is the lack of organization with which our project supervisors are going about things. Giovanni is in charge, and though he is a very sweet man (who loves singing  songs from Grease  with us,) he is most terribly scatterbrained. When I think of all the time we waste as he changes the plans on us several times a minute, it is truly disheartening. I’m sure we’re not going to reach our 10,000 tree goal, not because we’re not working fast enough, but because we spend so much time waiting for a concrete decision from him or trying desperately to find the truck to take us to the next location. I’m very frustrated with him, but I sort of like Giovanni.

Machete Freddy is another story.  I secretly believe that he doesn’t even speak Spanish, he just mumbles to himself in gibberish all day. As much as Giovanni doesn’t speed up the process, Freddy brings things to a dead halt. Yesterday going to work we crossed the river three times following Freddy’s orders. That’s correct, we crossed an extra two times cause he got it wrong the first time.  I told Sarah that if we crossed the river one more time, Freddy would get a digger in the face. But you know where a beautifully ironic place to put a hole digger would be… Although we’ve timed it and found that I can dig holes just as quickly as the boys, the first day he proclaimed it a “man’s job,” and frequently tries to tell the girls that we are digging incorrectly. If I must have a positive attitude, I guess I can thank him for a truly beautiful cultural experience. One day  Willmar (Andrew and Ben’s homestay brother) decided to come to work with us. Freddy was going about making things difficult and we made the most amazing eye contact. In that moment I knew we were both thinking the same exact thing: I don’t speak your language, and you don’t speak mine, but in this moment, we both know that this man is an incompetent fool. One of my peers here disagrees with me, and says perhaps Freddy would be considered incompetent in the US, but here he’s a government worker. I’m just  wondering, “since when are government workers in the US competent?”

Yana Puma is the name of the organization that sent us here.  I’m curious as to why they didn’t try to find us someone more together and organized than Giovanni. This whole situation makes me wonder how many other non-profit organizations are wasting donations on incompetent workers. Perhaps the reason TBB sends us here is to make us realize that if we ever want to get anything done, we need to start up our own NGOs…

On a more positive note, after only a short time working here, I have apparently gained some serious biceps. When I braved wearing a tank top to work today, the group proclaimed that I looked like a (I’m going to censor for the adults reading this) bad a** b****. I am now learning that physical labor is rewarding in a multitude of ways.

Love,

Katherine