Project Ups and Downs

Things at my NGO are relatively stagnant right now, despite having received that grant a week ago. There have been no preparations made yet towards re-opening the preschool or the OVC center, even though we now have funding for petrol and food for the kids. (In fact, I have written an entire volunteer policy and contract using Botswana's employment law policies so we would be ready for when we opened back up but no one in the agency has reviewed it yet, let alone started implementing it. Things here take far too long for my liking sometimes.) Not only that but for the last few weeks, even months, I have been having trouble getting the Center Coordinator to sit down and strategize for proposals with me, thus making it even more difficult to get back to full programming. We have a lot of opportunities, however, in the way of potential funding from UNICEF, the Embassy of Japan, and a number of other foundations and domestic organizations. We should be going after them now (now now) but there has been little movement in that direction. What does this mean for me and my idealistic pursuit to help the kids of Kumakwane? Well, I have decided that I am going to push on and get it while the gettin's good (or so they say)! What I mean is that I'm going to start designing programs that I believe will be beneficial for the orphans, vulnerable children, and youth in the village and then write proposals to fund those programs and then implement them with fellow PCVs and community members who also believe in the programs (and hopefully with the support of the NGO staff). For example, I have a vision to put on an OVC retreat and a youth leadership workshop. I am also starting to work with another PCV to get a playground built for the orphans and other kids that stay in my ward in the village so they have someplace to go and to play. There is a lot that we can do here if people are motivated to see things through. And I am motivated. So it seems that when one door closes (in this instance the doors to the NGO) another one opens (opportunities to do even more). Just another example of the extreme highs and lows and frustrations and potential of Peace Corps service...