World Vision Visions

A few weeks ago I was invited to sit through a World Vision training about their sponsorship program. You know, the one that you see on TV for three hours on Sunday afternoons featuring kids with flies in their eyes and “For just a dollar a day you could provide food and education for a child.” It was pretty cool to see the ground level part of that program, having seeing the funding level part growing up. In fact, for a while when I was little, the World Vision “commercials” were the only real images of Africa I had seen. I think that could be true for a lot of people could explain people’s tendency to think that the whole continent is about to die from starvation. Nutrition is a grave issue here, but the entire population is not about to disappear. Anyway, pretty cool to see the other side of the first international development program I had ever had exposure to. Since I get pretty nutty about seeing how NGOs work, ormally I would write just about that, but during the presentation I had a massive brainstorm that I’d like to share. I don’t know what I ate, but it was one of those times when your mind seems to be working in overdrive. Here are some of my thoughts:

- Information, information, information is what PCVs have to offer. That and the time and ability to put it to use, but it is access to information that is our most useful contribution.

- The most valuable piece of information I have to share is that people in the US don’t enjoy their lives anymore than people here.

- Straight up international aid is a bad idea. Throwing money at a problem in a developing country and expecting it to solve all of the reasons why the problem exists in the first place is like removing a dictator and expecting a perfect democracy to just happen. You can’t jump too far ahead of the level that the people are at. For this reason, I prefer the type of development work where you are helping people help themselves. For me, its sort of like the approach that the martial arts form Aikido takes. With Aikido, the point is to simply redirect the energy of the oncoming person, not to fight it. I think development should work like that.

- Life is massive. That is, it takes momentum. Rarely does it change rapidly, but it is not static, like a gyroscope. To realize a change, it is better to prepare a path for life to travel down and then let it take its own course than to exhaust your energy trying to push it directly in the direction that you want.

- Good quotes are like little boxes with big truths inside that take a while to unpack.

- I relish living up to expectations, both mine and those of others.

- Development work is kind of like a drug. Its hard on your mind and body, but when it works it makes the abuse worthwhile.

- This is how I think my mind works; how I come up with ideas and solutions to problems: When I see a need or something that could be used, I note it. It then gets thrown into the mix with everything else that I know and am thinking about. Then after a while on a tumble cycle, things link up and an idea is created.

- I am improving myself to improve my life, the people in it, and everything that is touched by it. I am the one thing that touches everything else in my universe, so it makes sense to work from there.

- I like writing not for its own sake, but because it encourages and completes thinking.

All of that flashed through my mind over the course of an hour or so.