Using the Old to Make the New Happy!

This post is about something fantastic that I had very little to do with but I think everybody should know about. The real stars of this story are my lovely sitemates Ashley, Lauren, and Helene who at a dinner party I hosted (see, I did something!) came up with this idea: making mobiles for the cribs at the orphanage. Helene and Lauren volunteer at the orphanage and described how the babies can have very little stimulation, especially when they are lying in their cribs. We talked about how to do something low cost and tossed around the idea of using recycled goods like plastic bottles and bags (naturally I was all about that, tree hugger that I am). Then we decided to pitch the idea to Club GLOW, a local leadership group that Ashley and Lauren oversee.

The GLOW leaders quickly took to the idea and incorporated it into one of their goals, writing a grant proposal. I played a bit part here too, giving a mini-tutorial on grant writing and the leaders put in a proposal for $30 to buy fishing wire, beads, and other materials needed to fully execute the mobiles. The grant was awarded and the girls bought/collected everything they needed and they scheduled 3 sessions for the club members to gather and make mobiles.

Hats off to Helene for her artistic talent, figuring out how to iron together plastic bags and then cut them into fun designs. The teens from GLOW did an amazing job of creating unique, eye-catching designs and we all had fun unleashing our creativity.

The mobiles were delivered to the orphanage this month and as you can see, they make a big difference and the babies seem to be gaga for them (bad pun, I know). Credit to Ashley for all the photos here and this blog title. I think this project was the perfect way to celebrate Kennedy's founding of Peace Corps, perfectly embodying the "Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country" ethos. Thanks to my sitemates and GLOW for being such an inspiration!

Hanging the mobiles

Babies wondering what the heck is going on

Whoa, what is that?

This craziness is making my hair stand on end

I think I can get it...

Goodness, what is that?!

Helene and friend

Ashley with her hands full

GLOW member Tea finds a buddy

Project Czar

Every year, Lake Superior State University puts together a list of words that should be banished due to "mis-use, over-use, and general uselessness"; if I were to banish a word right now, it would be project. In Macedonia, everybody likes to talk about "making a project." Correctly said, they want to do a project and by that they mean figure out some way they can get money, write that idea on paper, and then try to get somebody to hand over the cash.

Some of these projects are legitimately good ideas related to an organization's mission and should be funded, but all too often it's a way for them to pay for something entirely unrelated to the stated project. Or an organization that works on a topic like healthcare will apply to do something entirely outside their stated mission, like homeland security, just because there is project money available.

Lately I have been helping people write projects. It is my sincere hope that they will use the pointers that I offer for genuinely needed projects and so far, that seems to be the case. I collaborated on grant applications with two Peace Corps volunteers to renovate a firehouse and to build a language library in a school, valuable additions to their respective communities. With local teen girls who take part in the Girls Leading Our World (GLOW) clubs, I gave guidance on designing successful projects, meaning projects that are truly valuable and then thinking about how to get resources needed to do the projects. I know I say it over and over, but the kids here are amazing. I thought I was an all-star in high school but I wasn't spending my Saturday in grant writing workshops conducted in a foreign language.

The systemic problem with projects is that they imply something short lived--we are handing out fish*, not teaching people to fish. But teaching fishing is hard--you have to find people who want to learn, gather rods and bait, find a place stocked with fish, etc. As Peace Corps volunteers, we are fishing instructors but sometimes you give somebody a fish so the have the energy to keep learning to catch one themselves.

*In Macedonia, the fish carp is (transliterating the Macedonian) called "crap." This makes me smile every time I see it on a menu.