At the Finish Line

My son’s words over text this morning helped me shake off my self-absorbed gloom and shift my perspective -  “Sounds like a tough thing to teach people who aren’t used to thinking a certain way and its harder when you can’t communicate with them. What you’re doing is cool and challenging for anyone. I think everything will turn out good.” I was reminded that this project isn’t about achieving a specific outcome, but listening to what the women have to say.  Deep breath. It’s all good.

All of the women arrived at exactly 1:00 PM for today’s meeting (I may have admonished them just a bit yesterday). The translator arrived 30 minutes late. Once we all convened the women were given the task to categorize all the photos into the categories. I had taped the five categories on the wall and given the women five photos (not their own). They then taped the photos underneath the category that best fit the meaning of that photo. Once all the photos were categorized (and some discarded as not applicable) they worked as a group to condense the total number of photos down from 50 to 25. This resulted in a lively discussion in which everyone was engaged. Of course I understood nothing of what was said! However I strongly emphasized to the translator to make sure that all of the women were voicing their opinions and it was not only the strongest personalities deciding. After about 45 minutes of conversations/debate and some herding back together they selected 25.

This was the best part of the whole project! It was exciting to see them all engage, express their opinions and advocate for their choice (even though I could not understand them the body language, tone and volume spoke clearly).  This was the fruition of all of the training, the discussions and time in the field.  I watched them like a proud parent. They may not have picked the most applicable picture or put it in the category that made the most sense to me, but that was irrelevant. 

During the last hour of the day we talked about solutions to the barriers they had identified. During the one on one sessions we had discussed solutions to each of the photos. I gave them each a paper with de-identified solutions that were suggested by the women during these sessions. We determined as a group if the solution was institutional (build a bridge, build new clinics), community (community meetings, church counseling) or individual (advocate for sick person). My goal was to help them to look for solutions within their scope and control. It would be easy to put all responsibility on the government to fix these large infrastructure issues, but my hope is that a few of them will accept my challenge and think about how they can do be a part of the solution.