poor folks have poor ways

volunteering back home is straight forward. you understand the needed advancement, the hunger to abate, the thirst to quench. you grow up as the hero, knowing where the dragon lies. salvation armies and desert industries can point them out to you.

on foreign soil, the story fades. what is hunger? when is one scorched by thirst? in a land of environmental hostility and a sheer lack of resource, what dragon can you handle with no sword? there is no equivalency in the tales of home. people here speak of new paradigms.

as the questions mount, i find i push further into the fundamental pieces of my life. as interesting a subject as is politics, it falls quickly aside. history and philosophy become worn. engineering capability hardly applies to a place without steel and cement. my life, as a building, is reduced to a slab, a simple solid foundation. is that enough to be of any help?

it does not take long to see the value of such a foundation, especially in the heat of the current day. so many children pass in and out of my courtyard with no mode to take charge of their lives. i cannot feed them all. their need for resources, i cannot satisfy. all i have is a start, my foundation.

what is this solid structure that i find at the core of my life? a simple, yet strong, idea given to me by my parents; responsibility. be responsible for not only your actions, but for the progress of your life. in any given situation, there are a million reasons not to move forward. there are difficulties aplenty. when you take on the responsibility for your own life, those difficulties no longer become overwhelming, instead they are merely obstacles.

i often demonstrate this to my classes by putting complex problems on the board. immediately, everyone complains that it is too hard. they are left staring blankly, hopeless. i then write another problem on the board, much easier, and they quickly calculate the answer. again, i write another and another. watching them as they figure each out quickly. then, it is back to the original question. the stares start to go blank but are shaken when i tell them the answer has already been calculated. piece by piece, i write the other problems' answers inline with the original problem, explaining each step again. the complexity falls away. the kids find it an interesting game, a trick i've played on them. if i could only get them to see that this is the core of life. take responsibility for the first step, move one calculation, one step, at a time.

i grew up in a family unlike many i've seen globetrotting. my parents were not well-to-do. we did not have money when i was a small child. quite the opposite. did i ever know this? partially, but i never really felt it. why? endurance and clarity in the face of struggle are my parents greatest assets. whether it was abusive parents, lack of resources, glass ceilings, degrees never obtained... they found ways to meet the current challenge and continue on. no problem was solved over night. there was no jump to the good life. every piece, they have earned and i cannot think of anyone more deserving. now, can i give this to those around me?

it would be easy for me to say, be like my Mom and Dad. they are the example, not me. after all, i could never compare to all that they've accomplished. i could tell stories and let it be enough. but it isn't. so, after so many years of independence and seeking my own way, i find the greatest good i can be in my life is to be what my parents were to me, role models. true role models.

there are dashing heroes in the world. knights slay dragons. emperors conquer wild lands. politicians make grand speeches and debate over vast laws. all have their interesting, captivating side. yet, all require more, something much more basic to truly make a difference. from my parents, i was given a true example of lives well lived, of making a difference in difficult circumstance by standing on firm ground and taking a step forward.

i may go and slay dragons one day. i think it might be fun. but fun is hardly the essence of my life. being a good man, that is much harder and more fulfilling. there is a saying in my family, "poor folks have poor ways." it is well understood amongst us that it is not a slight against the poor. it means instead that we find ways of doing what we can with what we have, even if it isn't the established way. no greater example is there than my parents. no greater role models. i can only take a step towards being one myself, whether i ever make it... we will see.

currently, i am working on a number of projects with the children. first off, we work on school material. obviously, there is the time when i am teaching in class but also we have the evenings when children huddle in my courtyard. i often find the evenings are more important. it is one on one time for detailed explanations (and a few jokes).

also, i'm trying to develop certain individuals into tutors or leaders of their class. students that can extend my reach farther by assisting others with exercises and explanations when i am helping others or gone from country.

thirdly, there are projects to start their creativity. whether that means taking photos and developing them or writing stories of our creation in english and translating them back to french. (i get a kick out of genies, aka bush demons, that they all talk about here. apparently, they eat children. everyone has their fairy tales) i've even thought about what can be done to get them involved in using the computer and simple electronic equipment. perhaps making a short video with the digital and showing them the editing process might help.

finally, we've talked about building a kid based library, where kids are the ones to introduce material (either developed by them or about them) which they can take responsibility for. kid content and kid resources pooled together. back to the basic idea of what is a library.

what comes of these small projects really doesn't matter in the grand scheme. a story here and there means hardly anything. but, the foundation that we can build for understanding how to elevate yourself and change your situation is worth every frustration and setback. speaking of which, i have devices to go fix. must find the ductape. after all, poor folks have poor ways. just ask my folks.