I had wanted not to write anything regarding this. But, I just can’t believe how exciting it is to once again have a room full of lights! I was about three months ago that my room blackout. These dwindle started with my AC not working, then the bathroom lights went out, and finally, the room’s light followed. While I kept hoping for immediate remedy, the situation just got hopeless till this day, 21st of June, 2010.
There were times when I felt so sick and tired. I just wanted to go to my room and rest. But, the sauna-like temperatures of my room dictated otherwise. I spent most of those times in the office, instead.
You know me, I hate complaining. I just wanted to let everything goes and hoped things would change.
Things never did. Instead, I was provoked to send this following email:
Hi Kon,
It has been two months now with the residential Civicon Prefabs (mine included) not having power. I understand there were contractual issues and that wiring needed to be done in a proper way. However, it has come to my attention that, currently, we have an electrical engineer working on the compound. And while, I would think his priority should be fixing the problem with the power in the residential Prefabs, he was directed to work on getting the office in place. And, as I speak, am writing from the office recently installed. I would like to know, therefore, if living condition for the residents is not as important as the working condition. Or, I may be judgemental, what is the reason behind focusing getting this office done, before the residential houses? Thanks, in advance, for your clarifications!!
Panther Alier
Community Development Project Specialist, Northern Bahr el Ghazal State
SUDAN BRIDGE Program
E-mail| palier@field.winrock.org| pantheralier@gmail.com
Phone| Zain +249 91 491 6585|Gemtel +256 477 155315| Sudani +249 127 057 427
Skype| aliergaak
Website| www.winrock.org
To which I got this reply:
Dear Panther,
I hope Paul had already signed the electrical wiring contract with us and he is working on it and that is why you do see him doing working around. We cannot tell him that do it as soon as possible, since it is already electrical wiring, it needs more attention from him to make sure that connection he made will not trouble us in the future. Should we attempt to tell him that, make as soon as possible then, we will encounter electrical problem and that is not our desire. Yes, we have to push him but we need to respect the electrical law. I do talk to him that our people are suffering, can you try your best do something possible but he do answer me that I need somewhat that will last long but not possible for a while and bring you in the same trouble we are escaping now again. Me I don’t want to have power problem once he finished the connection.
Panther I knew the long- suffering you people had been in but I apologies for that and be enduring, its remain only some little time to be relief out from the power issue.
Thanks.
Whatever!
I don’t know whether he actually understood what I was saying. This email was a reply to my message sent out on the 9th of June, 2010. On it, I made sure I copied the Team Leader. Although the compound’s constructions fall under the logistician, I am almost sure the Team Leader made the decision to work on the office first, forgetting that staffs are neither happy nor productive when subjected to harsh conditions.
I suspected this because, when he came back from his leave, he shifted to a new room shortly after finding out that his prefab, which is in the same line as mine, did not have lights. Previously, he instituted policy to shutdown generator after 11 pm. That works fine with the kind of prefabs he vacated, but not so good with the new one he moved to. This new prefab has only two windows facing the same direction. This makes it difficult to get in enough air unless the AC/fan is working. There, his policy of shutting down generators at night worked against him on that particular night. The night after, a 24 hour generator policy immediately took effect. This, of course, was good news for at least those whose electricity worked in their rooms.
And for me? I had to wait for a day like this. Although my AC still does not work, I can now, at least, put on fan and there will be enough air to keep me cool. I am sorry if this particular article has been too much of things that have not gone right. It is also about new lights and hope that things are now changing for better. By the way, we just had a Team Leaders’ change. We have received a Team Leader from one of our other three States and ours will go to replace him. More will come on these new changes. Wish us the best of luck!
About Me
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Saturday, May 29, 2010
An Eye Opening Experience
I always have difficulty describing what exactly I do, when asked. Immediately after I open my mouth to mention the Sudan BRIDGE, people reach conclusions: building bridges across the Sudan. No. I build mutual bridges, not physical. I create linkages between the servants and the masters; if this idea exists in Sudan its remotest sense!
The government entities and the communities are supposed to work together, in any country in the world, to attain the highest standard of development. They must support/complement each other for the welfare of both. This concept is none-existence in Sudan’s Southern region. Here, we (the Southern Sudanese) have better excuse: the long civil war in Southern Sudan overshadowed whatever role the government’s institutions would play in the last 23 years. Only UN and other INGOs are seen as saviors of lives here. And the government is running on that propaganda: “we have no money to provide for all that is needed by a common man”! This is a song so much desired by government’s agencies here.
Now, who is responsible? This is a reason USAID came up with “Building Responsibility for the Delivery of Government Services: BRIDGE”. The BRIDGE I build stands on pillars of responsibility to deliver services to the people. That must be a new protocol. The war (I should qualify, the high level) has stopped and people must show they have fought a justified war by means of delivering whatever little they can. This is where my role becomes critical.
The government, or whoever is able, can only do deliver only if they knew whatever it is that to be delivered. The needs must be clearly articulated, prioritized, and presented by whomever these needs concerned. I make sure the matters understand and know what exactly, or close to that, they need to be delivered.
So, I work to empower people on issues of education, livelihoods/agriculture, water and hygiene and sanitation. These are areas which I called, “citizens empowerment”. So last week, I traveled to the field to work on promoting enterprise in rural communities. The program is to support small business enterprise through either expansion of existing small businesses or opening of new ones. We were surveying, by means of observation and discussions, within market in Nyamlell in Aweil West County, when we came to a small food serving “restaurant”. It was packed with people eating delicacies (according to local standard). We got so curious and wanted to investigate more on the nature of the business.
The owner of the business is a single mom with four children and has been running the business for over six months. She has few workers, but none could read and write to keep records. To her, “it has been a profitable business”! So we dug in more. We wanted to see how we can help her business expand. My colleague, Henry Jurugo, the enterprise officer, set in with some technical questions. We went down item by item so that we better judge the profitability of the business. With the help of our Agriculture Liaison Officer, who is a local, could do a better job of interpretation, because my (Dinka Bor) language varies a little bit from that of Dinka Malual’s. The businesswoman gave us prices of item bought per day and we calculated that against the daily revenue less expenses on workers.
If she was close or exactly right on her estimations, we discovered, she was running at loss! Yes, the devil is in the details! This was an eye opening event: she said, repeatedly, that she would hire someone to keep records of her all transactions. We jokingly agreed and suggested our staff to keep the records for her at a price of a meal per a day. But, the good news is, we are working with her to expand the business and this will be one success story. This is what is meant by building responsibility for the delivery of services. This is it for now. I hope you enjoyed reading this article!!
The government entities and the communities are supposed to work together, in any country in the world, to attain the highest standard of development. They must support/complement each other for the welfare of both. This concept is none-existence in Sudan’s Southern region. Here, we (the Southern Sudanese) have better excuse: the long civil war in Southern Sudan overshadowed whatever role the government’s institutions would play in the last 23 years. Only UN and other INGOs are seen as saviors of lives here. And the government is running on that propaganda: “we have no money to provide for all that is needed by a common man”! This is a song so much desired by government’s agencies here.
Now, who is responsible? This is a reason USAID came up with “Building Responsibility for the Delivery of Government Services: BRIDGE”. The BRIDGE I build stands on pillars of responsibility to deliver services to the people. That must be a new protocol. The war (I should qualify, the high level) has stopped and people must show they have fought a justified war by means of delivering whatever little they can. This is where my role becomes critical.
The government, or whoever is able, can only do deliver only if they knew whatever it is that to be delivered. The needs must be clearly articulated, prioritized, and presented by whomever these needs concerned. I make sure the matters understand and know what exactly, or close to that, they need to be delivered.
So, I work to empower people on issues of education, livelihoods/agriculture, water and hygiene and sanitation. These are areas which I called, “citizens empowerment”. So last week, I traveled to the field to work on promoting enterprise in rural communities. The program is to support small business enterprise through either expansion of existing small businesses or opening of new ones. We were surveying, by means of observation and discussions, within market in Nyamlell in Aweil West County, when we came to a small food serving “restaurant”. It was packed with people eating delicacies (according to local standard). We got so curious and wanted to investigate more on the nature of the business.
The owner of the business is a single mom with four children and has been running the business for over six months. She has few workers, but none could read and write to keep records. To her, “it has been a profitable business”! So we dug in more. We wanted to see how we can help her business expand. My colleague, Henry Jurugo, the enterprise officer, set in with some technical questions. We went down item by item so that we better judge the profitability of the business. With the help of our Agriculture Liaison Officer, who is a local, could do a better job of interpretation, because my (Dinka Bor) language varies a little bit from that of Dinka Malual’s. The businesswoman gave us prices of item bought per day and we calculated that against the daily revenue less expenses on workers.
If she was close or exactly right on her estimations, we discovered, she was running at loss! Yes, the devil is in the details! This was an eye opening event: she said, repeatedly, that she would hire someone to keep records of her all transactions. We jokingly agreed and suggested our staff to keep the records for her at a price of a meal per a day. But, the good news is, we are working with her to expand the business and this will be one success story. This is what is meant by building responsibility for the delivery of services. This is it for now. I hope you enjoyed reading this article!!
Sunday, May 2, 2010
The Trigger
I feel ashamed and embarrassed for having betrayed your loyalty and suddenly popping up here after so long gone! This is despite so many reminders from Abel Mote that the last time I posted something was in 2009! This is true but, I have countless excuses to make: work, marriage, and so forth. And be cautioned, with too much accumulated, the theme of this article will be so sporadic: the Triggers! Never in my lifetime have I ever imagined how costly a price for a wife is! I sometimes feel I should have waited and saved enough to finish with everything at once. But, someone has advised me against such plan: “never think you have to feel completely prepared for marriage!” he warned. I took the advice and now I feel there are endless marriage problems to solve.
That being said, something special is here that gives me a great deal of comfort. I have finally felt self-structured. I have someone in my life that I called “sweetheart” and soon-to-be mother of my child(ren). Her name is Yom Deng Bul. She is one unique character. Her story of childhood is a testament to what I so much love about her. She lost her mother at a very early age. She and her younger brother lived unimaginable life. I am not fit to recall her story; I just hope she, one day, will be able to put it down on a paper. But, I can authoritatively say, her story is one of resilience.
On the work front, there is something to feel proud too. With the kind of work we (community development persons) do, hearing your name being praised is just priceless. If you can recall from previous articles, I assist communities to establish community-based entities, namely community action groups, to work on their community’s behalf. I visited one of the villages we work in, when my wife visited, here in Northern Bahr el Ghazal, and it was incredible to see a village chief running to greet me! Even more exciting was the presence of my wife to see, in person, the kind of work and the people I sacrifice for.
I became well known in this community, because I brought them new approach to development and new techniques to their farming systems. Well, technically, I mobilized and sensitized members to adopt new practices and the farming techniques were later on imparted on them by our agriculture team. As part of our livelihoods effort, our project (Sudan BRIDGE) works to change peoples’ attitude and give them new skills to be able to produce food and diversify their productions.
In this particular village, Majok Adim, the members adapted and embraced new approach so well that they continue to produce variety of vegetables like never before. I was humbled when one of the producer group members testified that (paraphrased) in their village, they only know of one season (rainy) for growing crops. But, with Sudan BRIDGE, they are now able to grow and harvest in dry season. This example is just for one village; there many others with similar stories. However, I must admit, not every community work in has embraced efforts for self-reliance. Others have been so disappointing: way entrenched in old relief mentality. It will take mountain to move them. Or better still, it will take World Food Programmes move away so that people think this is endless supply.
Recently, something phenomenal happened on this soil. People all over Sudan went to the polling stations to vote for their leaders. But, this article is limited to South Sudan people. They conducted elections against all odds that faced them. Chief of which was the nature of voting ballots. A voter had 12 ballots to cast. Mind you, this is a region whose major of its people have never witnessed art of voting. They all did what any citizen of any country could do, if given the opportunity to do so: voting. And if you followed the Sudan’s election, the South Sudanese voted overwhelming for their leader; Lt. Gen. Salva Kiir Mayardit for President. The elections had hiccups here and there, but I felt the completion of the exercise is just good a trigger to resume my blogging.
That being said, something special is here that gives me a great deal of comfort. I have finally felt self-structured. I have someone in my life that I called “sweetheart” and soon-to-be mother of my child(ren). Her name is Yom Deng Bul. She is one unique character. Her story of childhood is a testament to what I so much love about her. She lost her mother at a very early age. She and her younger brother lived unimaginable life. I am not fit to recall her story; I just hope she, one day, will be able to put it down on a paper. But, I can authoritatively say, her story is one of resilience.
On the work front, there is something to feel proud too. With the kind of work we (community development persons) do, hearing your name being praised is just priceless. If you can recall from previous articles, I assist communities to establish community-based entities, namely community action groups, to work on their community’s behalf. I visited one of the villages we work in, when my wife visited, here in Northern Bahr el Ghazal, and it was incredible to see a village chief running to greet me! Even more exciting was the presence of my wife to see, in person, the kind of work and the people I sacrifice for.
I became well known in this community, because I brought them new approach to development and new techniques to their farming systems. Well, technically, I mobilized and sensitized members to adopt new practices and the farming techniques were later on imparted on them by our agriculture team. As part of our livelihoods effort, our project (Sudan BRIDGE) works to change peoples’ attitude and give them new skills to be able to produce food and diversify their productions.
In this particular village, Majok Adim, the members adapted and embraced new approach so well that they continue to produce variety of vegetables like never before. I was humbled when one of the producer group members testified that (paraphrased) in their village, they only know of one season (rainy) for growing crops. But, with Sudan BRIDGE, they are now able to grow and harvest in dry season. This example is just for one village; there many others with similar stories. However, I must admit, not every community work in has embraced efforts for self-reliance. Others have been so disappointing: way entrenched in old relief mentality. It will take mountain to move them. Or better still, it will take World Food Programmes move away so that people think this is endless supply.
Recently, something phenomenal happened on this soil. People all over Sudan went to the polling stations to vote for their leaders. But, this article is limited to South Sudan people. They conducted elections against all odds that faced them. Chief of which was the nature of voting ballots. A voter had 12 ballots to cast. Mind you, this is a region whose major of its people have never witnessed art of voting. They all did what any citizen of any country could do, if given the opportunity to do so: voting. And if you followed the Sudan’s election, the South Sudanese voted overwhelming for their leader; Lt. Gen. Salva Kiir Mayardit for President. The elections had hiccups here and there, but I felt the completion of the exercise is just good a trigger to resume my blogging.
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