17th May 2009

One day last week, Ab was working with the labourers building the new school building, when a Priest and a few other men from the local community came across the compound. They were all very drunk, and the Priest told the workers – all from the local community – to stop work as it was a Saints Day and work was forbidden.

Ab is a very knowledgeable and observant Orthodox Christian, and knew very well it wasn’t a Holy day. However, the Church Priests are highly respected by all walks of life in Ethiopia (and in many other countries), but especially in the rural areas where they are in charge of the calendar and informing the community when it’s a Holy Day or when it’s a general holiday. So understandably the workers followed the Priest’s orders and stopped work.

Ab went to the Kebele (local council) and they confirmed that it was a working day and not a Saints Day. He even got written confirmation from one of the senior Priests from the town. Ab spoke to the local Priest who, obviously still drunk, told him he could stop the workers any time he wanted and kept repeating ‘it’s our religion!’ – to which Ab pointed out it’s his religion too!

As it was, the Kebele organised for the workers to return to work, and the incident was sorted. I only mention it here because we had a meeting with our parent’s committee today, and I just knew that this situation was something that was going to come up … probably in among the list of the rest of things that the Project do badly.

Often, going into meetings here (not just with the Parents Committee) feels like going into battle. The Project is always in the wrong – there’s always a problem with the construction, or we’ve employed the wrong people from the community, or we’re not providing the things they think we should provide, or we should be building a health centre as well as a school, or the classroom is too big, or the wrong shape, or built in the wrong place or whatever. It sometimes feels like we are just invited there to listen to a litany of complaints.

In one memorable meeting, A actually said in exasperation ‘do you think we could one day come into a meeting when you don’t spend two hours telling us how terrible we are?’

Of course, some complaints are justified – and the local community are the ones with the superior knowledge, from how to get rid of termites, to who in the community has the appropriate skills, to which quality materials are best for the building – but mostly it’s problems that have already been dealt with, or completely random issues where nobody can explain why this particular thing is a problem. It’s just something to say.

After being here for a while, and talking to various people, I understand a bit more about this.

Firstly, I’m not sure communication about what the organisation was going to do was particularly clear in its first year, and there are still problems now, to be honest. Suggestions, hopes and aims mentioned carelessly in general conversations are taken as promises, and obviously when the project doesn’t deliver, it’s then seen as a betrayal. This is something that we know we need to get better at dealing with.

There is also the fact that, rightly or wrongly, the majority of Ethiopians in areas such as the one we work in are very familiar with big NGOs and International Aid Agencies and the unspoken assumptions that go with them. In their experience, NGOs and Aid Agencies have huge budgets and will generally provide a ‘package’ of aid – water irrigation, education, health centre, support for micro credit organisations etc. This organisation is tiny, set up by individuals, and reliant on private donors and fundraising, which means it isn’t going to be providing the Agriculture centre they want, or building a Health Centre – at least not in the next 5 years! This organisation is not the norm where NGOs are concerned, and I think they feel we are withholding money (we’re not!).

The head man of the regional government (who is great – possibly one of the busiest men I’ve met, but always finds time for everyone and is well respected) explained to me there is an assumption that everyone in the community should benefit personally (in monetary terms) from the presence of an NGO. In some people’s opinion, this is an assumption which is encouraged by existing NGO practices, but, again, it’s not how we do things. Obviously, the work the organisation does is of personal benefit to a lot of people (workers, etc) but we don’t hand out allowances to everyone, or anything like that. It’s a perception and – again – communication issue.

Generally, though, our Parents Committee members are great. M and A are brilliant at helping to bridge these communication divides between the community and the Project, and W is the one who always organises everyone to look after the construction and to make sure there’s enough water to mix the cement. The other members of the parents committee are not always so visible (in fact, I haven’t even met 4 of them).

So back to where I started – the issue with the Priest, who is also a member of the Parents committee. The three of us – Ab, A and I – went into the meeting with dread, knowing that it would come up, and sure that it would be our fault somehow.

Sure enough, towards the end of the meeting, the Priest launched into a monologue explaining how the Project is a problem in the community, how it is disrespectful towards the Orthodox religion and how the local workers are made to work even on Saints Days. None of this is true, and it makes me angry and sad to listen to someone running down the staff – most of whom are very religious themselves, and wouldn’t dream of not observing the religious requirements. However, I have learnt from experience to keep out of discussions like this – I wasn’t there, after all – so I stayed silent.

To our relief, the rest of the Parents Committee at the meeting put him straight and refused to agree with his accusations. They pointed out that he had been very drunk, and he’d stopped the work for no reason as it wasn’t a religious holiday – not only disrupting the progress of the project, but also denying the local workers their opportunity to be earning a daily wage.

The Priest refused to accept this and there was an angry exchange in Amharic which was too fast for me to follow. I spent a few moments being utterly confused, as all the angry words were being directed to A, until Ab reminded me that all comments in the meeting are directed to the chair (A), even if they are meant in response to another member of the meeting. Another piece of meeting etiquette I’ve learnt!

Eventually we moved on from this subject and spent some time organising the upcoming parent’s day, discussing strategies to deal with falling attendance and asking advice on when best to collect stone to fit in with the farming calendar (if we drive the lorry around the community to collect stone at the wrong time of the year, we run the risk of damaging crops). All the while, the Priest sat with his arms folded and refused to engage with the rest of the meeting.

I’m constantly thankful (as are the community, I’m sure!) that I’m not the one who deals with most of the community liaison and engagement in this context (Ab does this brilliantly). There are so many cultural perceptions and baggage (from both sides) to untangle before you can begin to work productively, and clashes of understanding and interests are inevitable.

However, even without the issue of the Priest and his drunken interference, this was probably the most productive meeting we’ve had for a long time – and I confess, there was a slightly victorious feeling on the way home in the car.