Forging New Paths

My first initiative is kind of a cherry on top of a recent expansion of the health clinic. It is a new path leading from the road to the health clinic. Through collaboration with David, the health clinic staff, and several higher-ups from our partner school, Arlington Academy of Hope, the plans were hashed out over the course of the week. The old path was small, had funny slopes, and was often slick and muddy... easy to fall and not ideal for sick patients or for mothers carrying sick children. A new path was ideal for me as a first project because it is simple enough, it involves a lot of interaction, it's highly visible, and people agree that it's a good idea.

Once the plans were complete, I reached out to a local character named Alex Shizense who, according to David, can "smell out work". He's lovable and endearing in that he often does work that needs to be done, but nobody asked him to do. He'll then approach multiple people and say, "look at this hard work that I've performed. My stomach is hungry." He's a nice man and I look forward to giving him odd jobs.

"Smelling" my plan for the new path, he was walking by on Friday around noon. I walked up to see him (we had met a couple of times before) and brought a local with me to be translate. Shizense speaks SOME English, but I wanted to be clear so I brought our volunteer coordinator, Peter. We worked out the details and I left to run an errand. When I came back less than an hour later, Shizense was already hacking away with a hoe, forging the new path. No contracts, not signatures, no red tape... just a plan and a man named Shizense.

The photograph above is the man himself standing proudly on day one of construction with our health center in the background