Learning my ABCs (and Ds) all over again...

Warning: this post might bore some. My dad wanted to know what I’m learning in class. So here you go Pops!

Well, I arrived in Chicago on a rainy Tuesday afternoon and settled in a hostel with the 40-or-so other GESI participants. I’m in a room with about 8 other girls, the majority of them going to Uganda with me, and some going to India. We had a brief reading assigned that night by Professor John P. Kretzmann, founder of the Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) approach and Obama’s recommendation letter writer for law school. The article proposes that identifying the capacities of communities is favorable to needs-based assessments (which basically just offer really gloomy statistics with no explicit plan for improvement) or service delivery (temporary problem-solving like the establishment of soup kitchens), which seem to function on the assumption that deteriorating communities are just big lumps of deficiencies. In his lecture on Wednesday, he mentioned that the problem with “do-gooders” is that they tend to view a community’s social problems as the WHOLE truth. The media generally operates under the principle that “if it bleeds, it leads.” Academics love studying urban problems. Politicians like to talk about all the problems they want to solve, so they can make themselves into the solution. Professor Kretzmann said that instead of instituting leaders who magnify inadequacies, it’s better to look for natural local leaders … the woman on the block who all single mothers turn to, the guy who can paint beautiful murals, religious figures who inspire and comfort. People, instead of programs, are the answer to community issues. The goal of ABCD is empowerment instead of service, investment instead of charity, and treatment of community members as citizens instead of clients. So … I think GESI brought him in to humble us and set our mindsets in the right direction: we are not going abroad to solve anything. We’re going to help community members realize that their talents are valuable, and can be used to address context-pertinent issues. If everything goes perfectly, my Uganda group will combine our goals, interests, and common values with the intentions and assets of our host non-profit organization St. Francis Health Care Services AND the interests and passions of the community to create a sustainable project. Sustainability, we’ve learned, is defined by competency development. Tomorrow we’ll take a fieldtrip to two communities on the west side of Chicago—one African American and one Latino—that have implemented successful community-based revitalization and development projects.

On lighter subjects, my Uganda team is pretty interesting. All five are from Northwestern. Three are pre-med, two are aspiring engineers. Everyone has pretty distinct personalities, but there are already some commonalities emerging: we all love traveling and outdoorsy stuff. We’ve got some sailors, speed skiers, and mountain bikers on the team. Being such an active group, we decided that we would like to exercise in Uganda (which I heard is kind of taboo … women’s knees are highly offensive, so I’m going to go shopping for some yoga pants before heading out a week from today! Plus, exercising for fun is just weird). My roommate for my Uganda homestay, I discovered, is from Singapore, so this will be a cultural experience x2. Speaking of homestays, it was suggested that we bring small, meaningful gifts for our host families. My mom and I had a fun time at Kansas Sampler picking out memorabilia that excessively glorifies the Sunflower State: a heart-shaped door blessing made out of wheat, a stained-glass window suction thingy with an illustration of windmills and sunflowers, and a picture book. I also took a trip to U.S. Toy to pick up bubbles, finger puppets, mini-pinball games, and kazoos for street kids I meet. Ugandan parents will probably hate me for that last toy.

Although I feel like I’m learning very valuable information about team dynamics, how to ensure feedback and accountability in our project, and how we should go about deciding on a project when in-country, I’m already getting very antsy. I can’t wait until these posts become less hypothetical and more observational!