prepare for impact

With the trip coming closer and closer and school now being out, my mind has totally switched into EDGE project and summer. Paul, Karla, and I are getting pumped about traveling but also a little nervous for our work on Lingira. Previously, the trips to the island have been with around eight people, which allowed for much more work to be completed. Despite our small number though, it seems that our work on the island is going to be narrowed down to one major project with a few on the side depending on how much time we have. With the three of us, it will be difficult to spread ourselves too thin with our work. We are mostly going to be working on the secondary school garden and tree nursery, which will be a lot of manual labor that will ideally have some visual positive impacts. The garden and trees, along with a manual water pump will hopefully resemble a well-planned project but to be honest, a lot of our work is going to resemble game time decisions and audibles. Our play-it-by-ear strategy wont work if we don't do some hard planning on this end though. We have to prepare for the worst of circumstances (i.e. we're not allowed to start the secondary school garden) but hope for better ones.

Our biggest challenge is to actually have some sort of impact on anybody, to put it bluntly. As of right now EDGE stays in contact with key members of the community but we have trouble connecting to the general population on Lingira. Earlier in the semester, Rick Brooks came to speak to us about a similar thing. Richard is an outreach program coordinator for the University of Wisconsin and talked to us about different approaches we can take when working with Lingira. He stressed how we should really try to get into contact with everyday people, those who live amongst the rest. He also presented a new type of approach to the community development world, which involves getting members of the community telling you what they like best about Lingira. He explained how so many international development projects aim to fix the bad parts of communities or the parts that people see as limiting factors to development. His ideology looks at communities in an opposite way. Through targeting communities' positive aspects, one can truly empower a person to feel good about their community. This way, the EDGE project can learn about Lingira and focus on the good in order to reduce the bad.

I have been thinking of other small projects that we can do on the island that allow for creativity from the children that allow them to express their favorite parts of their home. Following Rick's thoughts and my love of maps, I want to see how the people envision their home. I can have children draw the island and show parts that make them happy and equally interesting, parts that make them scared or angry. Showing where their homes are in relation to the school will show how many children have to walk long distances to class every day across the rocks. I basically want to see the island from the inhabitants' perspective since all I have is EDGE's perspective and Google's big brother satellite. Another event that Paul and I are hosting, is going to be a "guys night" with the secondary school guys. We plan on just simply talking about what everyone wants to talk about. Opening up the discussion to opinions and questions. We want to hold a program that is about manhood. Bringing in different and new ideas of what it is to be a man.We can read and write some poetry, dance, play some soccer, and talk about sexual awareness. Basically having a guys night and talking about the other aspects of manhood than patriarchal assumptions and dominance will open them up, and myself, to view gender and families as sensitive concepts that should be respected in every way.

As Paul and I make our way into the world of EDGE directorship, we find ourselves struggling to provide new members of the project with moral to continue working. It's difficult for anybody, including myself, to research and put enormous amounts of time into a community that you have never been to. My traveling in a couple weeks is obviously for Lingira, but also for myself. I find myself needing a way to personally cap off my work for the EDGE project and traveling to the island is the only way to do that. I would feel some sort of empty if were to simply stop working on the EDGE project without ever coming into contact with the people of Lingira. Right now, I want to make a solid video with interviews of people and other footage of Lingira to be able to show to new members and current members who haven't seen much of the island yet. It will be a good way to personalize their work for the island and hopefully keep them motivated knowing that this place is much more than a dot on a map.

This weekend, a handful of members and I are going up to my families cabin. An EDGE retreat, if you will. It will be nice to get away from Madison for a few days before we hit the books and computers next week before flying out. Peace out ninjas. Always remember, don't put the cherry on top if you haven't any whipped cream.