1) Chris Blattman with a critical analysis of food riots in Mozambique and another reminder that the simplest explanation is usually not the right one.
2) From my fellow Fellows in Burundi: Simone’s reflections on courage, Gerard’s first day at Kigutu, and Fidele’s story of his own recent experience with health care in Bujumbura. So very fortunate to be here with them!
Filed under: Development, Global Health Corps, Leadership, Public Health, Words of Wisdom
God bless the GHC staff for providing a tiny notebook at the start of training; mine was my constant companion for most of the two weeks . . . paging through it, here were the thoughts that moved me enough to take note – if not to always write down who said them. Quotes have a high rate of human error – I haven’t learned shorthand yet – but the gist is hopefully captured.
Deogratias, founder of Village Health Works: Where people are dehumanized by misery, they are dehumanized and can act like animals . . . you need to address the root causes of misery, not the consequences.
Deo also quoted FDR: . . . the test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abudance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little.
Ed Cardoza urged us have a “hermeneutic of generosity” for one another, that is to trust that “every human is trying to be a good person doing a good thing.”
“Be aware of how people survive.” Unattributed – I’m not even sure what session it’s from – but lovely to me.
Lenny Mendonca of McKinsey & Co told us to be “tri-sector athletes” – to be fluent in private, public, and non-profit sectors to work well in any one of them.
Rebecca Onje, Founder of Project Health: Nothing drives me crazier than people elbowing each other out of the way to serve poor families . . . like we’re running out? Like there’s a short supply?
Condoleezza Rice: It is an enriching experience to consider why you have so much, rather than why someone else has so little.
James March, Professor Emeritus at Stanford GSB, on the message of War and Peace: Heroes only imagine that they accomplish things. History is created by millions of little people doing their jobs (well).
Filed under: Global Health Corps
I intended to writeway more about Global Health Corps training as it happened. Ooops. 2 weeks. 6 staffers. ~40 fellows in two person teams (each team is one person from country plus one from out-of-country). Suffice to say the following:
California is lovely, and Stanford is a lovely bubble. I’m not sure going to Stanford even counts as going to California, in the same way that going to Disneyland doesn’t really count as going to Florida. So I spent a little time in California, a lot of time at Stanford. Approve.
Other fellows are AMAZING. Twelve hours in I was internally cringing and wondering why the hell they had selected me and hoping no one would notice I had snuck in and send me home. Around the end of the second day I realized that many if not all of the other fellows felt the same way, and confidence, energy and general mutual admiration-fest followed. It’s really helpful to carry that into what will sometimes be a lonely year, I’m sure. I feel not just supported but actually loved by the staff and other fellows (and I love them right back).
Speakers were incredibly generous with their time and energy. We had a lot of phenomenal people from government, private sector, non-profits, and the academic world. We threw a lot of questions at them and they impressed me with the breadth of knowledge and articulate nature. Also, no one talked down to us. We were partners, and they were sharing what they knew.
Finally, I felt a little of my optimism return w/r/t the possibility of the future actually looking better than today. The concentrated energy and intelligence and community, the spirit of sharing across disciplines and between the fellows from host-countries and from other countries AND between the more experienced workers with us relative newbies – it felt like I was part of a force to be reckoned with and that maybe, cumulatively, we can shift the balance. It’s not a pragmatic shift; Either way I’ll do the work that falls to me, and trust the rest to other people’s hands and God’s plan . . . but internally there’s an energy and an internal lightness to optimism that I had missed.
So, yay. GHC. 8 days to take off.
For the duration of the fellowship, I’ll be writing occasionally on the Global Health Corps blog. Check out what other fellows have to say too (right now more interesting than me, since they’ve mostly left for their jobs already while I’m in upstate NY for two more weeks, reading about development and enjoying the comforts of home and family).
Good intentions are necessary, but insufficient.
For those who don’t read development blogs incessantly, there’s been a furor lately (or maybe I’ve tuned in lately) about well-intentioned but somewhat ignorant people getting involved in international aid in one way or another. Sending stuff instead of cash to Haiti, when it clogs the ports and creates distribution nightmares. The later flashpoint of 1 Million Shirts, whose goal was to collect a million tshirts and send to Africa, despite potential disruption to local textile or clothing markets. The overall idea that humanitarian aid is something that can or should be done by everyone, rather than experts (well argued on the blog Tales from the Hood).
Anyway, absolutely valid points made regarding the need for better, smarter aid, and better education of people who want to help – but! – it veers into a snobbish disdain of the intentions themselves at times. The post I wrote is a response to that. Enjoy!
These are the concerns that have appeared in my addled brain since finding out I’m spending next year in Burundi. I should add that the primary emotions are firstly gratitude and secondly excitement but it’s really more fun to explore the multitude of ways in which my mind has freaked out, in roughly chronological order:
1) That it was all a mistake, and would shortly be revoked.
2) Death, dismemberment, disease.
3) That elections would go badly and I wouldn’t be able to go for security reasons.
4) Being so bad at my job that they send me home.
5) Tearing my ACL playing frisbee and not being able to go.
It’s comforting to see that most of these actually have to do with NOT actually going to Burundi, although maybe I’m cheating with the consolidation on number 2.
Now that my bosses and landlords and whatnot know, the official news is that I’m leaving Boston in July and (after a brief training/orientation in Palo Alto), departing to spend a year in Burundi. I’ll be working for Village Health Works, through Global Health Corps, a US-based fellowship program.
Preparations include reaching out to people I know in the region, picking the brains of more experienced professors and friends, spending a lot of time reviewing French (and buying a Kirundi textbook), tracking the local news (esp around the elections which stretch from last Monday into September), and being alternately terrified and encouraged by the advice I’m getting from friends and colleagues wishing me well. Also, ideally, writing up some basic info for you on where I’m going and who I’m working with.
So that’s the news. I’m going to go ahead and count this as #14.
