Workin' Man

This week has had a few worthwhile events. I've decided that I can't stand not being productive, so I have decided to start 'work.'

In my earlier posts, I had mentioned a group of young girls who are apart of a larger NGO called 10,000 Girls (www.10000girls.org/). This goal of this NGO is to promote young girls and maintain their education, which is why for any girl to be apart of the NGO, they must both be in school and working, neither of which is easy.

The sect of girls in Koungheul have had a restaurant business in the past, but have decided to close it as the highway construction through downtown Koungheul has caused a detour, though the highway reopened again yesterday. I have to ask what the girls planed to do about the restaurant. But they have plans to break into the Fabric and couture production. Currently, they are waiting for the sowing machines to arrive from kaolack, which are just sitting in a storage closet

My decision to start working came from a visit to the headquarters of 10,000 Girls and a conversation with the founder and leader. Prior to the visit, my counterpart and I were frustrated at the delay of the equipment promised to the girls, so I said I would pay the NGO a visit when I was in Kaolack again. Well, I ruffled a few feathers and probably made a name for myself, but I needed to know what was taking so long. To make a long story short, the issue is with the money from USAID and Aid to Artisans. With American grant money at hand, the funds appropriation must have professional approval, and that is where the delay is. The is a stipulation that the girls must have a room with a bathroom, water, and electricity. That is not easy to find in the market and has forced my counterpart, who is responsible for finding the room to search in the residential areas, far from the centralized market.

Because of the delay in funds, the available room my counterpart had found was rented to family and the NGO, for good reason, won't send the machines because they have no where to go in Koungheul. Also, I saw a series of emails that indicated that any funds would arrive no sooner than January.

So I decided to make the best of this lull...

In the first meeting I ever had with the girls, I had asked them what they wanted to and I just got a bunch of this and that and other ideas. Nothing really concrete.

So Tues the 15th I called a meeting and said I wanted to discuss their ideas concretely. Although this was the primary goal of the meeting, the idea of teaching costing came to mind and I put together an activity for them to do that would both map out in separate graphs the materials necessary and their costs and the time required each step in making the item.

After talking with them about their products and what they hoped to sell, I busted out the costing activity and said that this activity would help them better understand their business and that plans like this will help get funding. It was a big hit and there were excited to do it.

I was so relieved. I had no idea how far I could push or where my limits were, so I was happy to see them eager to do it. We did a few examples so the girls would understand and then said we could come back two days later to see if they had any questions.

Two day later and the moment we showed up they still hadn't done anything. I knew this would happen, which is why I said I wanted to see them in two days. Motivation is not a big deal here. So my counterpart and I stuck around to get the girls started. I knew they would need to be pushed to get started, but what surprised me was the level of frustration I saw. At times it seemed like they would give up at the slightest challenge. One girl couldn't spell out a French word and another couldn't correctly COPY a graph that was right in front of her. When anyone, not just myself, attempted to correct them, they seems offended and patronized. I think this is related to the fact that everyone is rough when correcting or teaching to the point of belittlement and that everyone has such different educational levels that when one is placed next to another more educated person, feelings of inferiority come out.

Anyways, we got the girls started on the costing activity and told them to do both graphs for every product they want to sell and every product they think they may sell. The last thing I said as I left is "I hope to see many many products list in your notebook."

On Tuesday, we are meeting again to see what the have accomplished and I want to give them an activity on indirect costing. Though I don't know exactly how to do it, as there is not a room yet and salaries are not established. Though, I think I will just have them guesstimate and use it to teach them how to consider all their indirect cost, like rent, water, and so on.