Lack of coordination = FRUSTRATION

Today I was supposed to go to this community with the nutritionist from World Vision to help give a nutrition workshop, but then we just ended up talking about the fact that they aren't gonna work there because the government is already doing a nutrition program there. I feel like this is the story of my life in Ecuador for so many reasons.

First - we were planning on leaving at 9 to get there, but the nutritionist went and to go to talk to the doctor really quick, but he just wanted to talk for ever (instead of attending to his patients) so then we were late getting to the community. However, once we got there we just ended up waiting for like an hour and a half until we talked to the people. I know everything here runs on "Ecuadorian time", but a lot of times it feels like everyone is always so busy and in such a hurry just to sit around and wait. Another example of this is when you are getting on or off the bus, lots of times they don't even stop all the way for people to get on or off, but then the bus is always running late anyways.

Second - so many times people plan meetings or other activities, then just completely forget about it and make other plans. When we got there the parents were all in another meeting planning the activities for Christmas and almost left right when we got there to do the nutrition thing even though we told them a long time ago we were coming today. This has happened so many other times too, which was frustrating but now I've kind of gotten used to it. It just doesn't make sense how everyone says they want to work on this or that project, but then when we actually are gonna do it they don't show up.

Third - there were 3 organizations that were going to work in this same community all pretty much on the same topic, but they weren't coordinating at all and didn't realize until today that there are other communities where no one is working. Between the large number of programs run by the basically socialist government, and all the NGO's and other organizations here, you'd think there would be more progress than there has been, but with the lack of coordination it's just not gonna happen.

A while ago I remember someone asked me "why are the people there so poor?" I thought about it, and I couldn't really come up with an answer. However, now after situations like the one that happened today and after learning more about how things work here I think there are lots of different reasons why there is so much poverty here. First (and most basically), there are not many jobs that pay well (hence why so many people go to the cities or emigrate to other countries leaving their families behind) and also the land isn't as good as it used to be so they can't even depend on agriculture. Also though, I think all the bureaucracy in the different ministries of the government is a factor because they all have good objectives of helping the lower class, but there are just too many and they don't coordinate with each other like they should. Again with the NGO's and stuff too, the people have gotten used to having stuff given to them and a lot of times they don't even seem to care about improving their own quality of life because they think other people should do it for them. When they show up late to meetings or don't show up at all, that doesn't show me that they are actually interested in whatever type of assistance they were going to receive. I also think the poverty has a lot to do with the lack of education. You can set up as many meetings as you want to give out information on nutrition or whatever, but when the parents can't read and didn't go to school and can't really even understand new concepts like that, its hard to teach them new things. I think the people realize that, but they still don't put much importance on their own education. (For example - classes at the high school were cancelled today so the band could rehearse for the parade we are going to do for World AIDS Day later this week. It's important for them to practice, but I don't know why they can't do it after school so everyone doesn't have to miss out on classes. There have also been so many times where the teachers just don't show up so classes are cancelled, but usually no one seems to do anything about it.)

I've kind of just now gotten a hold of the reality here that as much as I want to change something, if the people don't want to change it they are not going to. I haven't lost motivation and I still hope to do something in these two years that means something to the people here, but it's not going to be as easy as I thought. Not that I was expecting it to be easy - otherwise it would have already happened and I wouldn't be here at all. I'm just starting to realize that there are so many people involved in development work, but the most important people are the ones "being developed" and how important it is that it all starts with them - but often they don't even know how to start which brings us back to where we started. Such a difficult cycle to break.

In happier news, it's been a rainy afternoon here today so I have just been sitting in my room in my new bean bag chair watching movies and drinking hot cocoa. It's been a good day overall.