Planners and Searchers

Planners and Searchers

In the book White Man’s Burden, the author offers an opinion on why Western aid to impoverished countries over the last 60 years has largely failed to actually reduce poverty. He says that aid is controlled by rich "planners" who have little or no knowledge of local conditions, but more importantly, are not held accountable when their plans fail. Successful aid operations usually come from "searchers," - people who search for smaller things that work given local conditions, implement them, and find ways to make themselves accountable if they don’t work.
It was really cool recently to have a group of CRC Pastors from BC visit for 10 days or so along with Dennis DeGroot. The purpose of their trip (in short) was just to visit and learn, and search for possible ways that a partnership could happen between the CRC churches in BC and those in Sierra Leone.
Adrienne and I were able to catch them between village visits one night to hang out and chat at one of the local restaurants in town. It was really cool to be able to hear about their experiences and also to observe how thoughtfully they responded to those experiences. This idea of searching was evident in the way that they went about their time here, and I think that this relationship has a greater chance of being beneficial in the future because of this approach.
Speaking of searching, I am starting to search for ways that CRC Primary can be a blessing to the community of Kabala in more concrete ways.
I made a visit to the Kabala School for the Blind recently, and I am hopeful that a lasting partnership can develop between this school and CRC.
The School for the Blind is in terrible shape. The buildings are run-down, the well has been dry since December, and the gov’t has given them any money for almost a year. The kids live there in addition to going to school, and their conditions are pretty brutal (ie. 3 kids having to sleep on one "mattress" on the floor. – 9 kids in each small room). CITA (the NGO which Adrienne’s clinic is a part of) has been really helping out at the school by donating money for food and offering them free medical treatment at the clinic.
I’m taking my class on a field trip there next week, and all my students were energetic about bringing gifts, so we’ll see how it should be pretty interesting.