africa
so after several shots in my shoulder, swallowing a couple of pills in advance and 24 hours in air or transit areas, i'm here, again. after of a couple of months of working routine, now i'm again close to really see what is and what is not important.
it is important to know how to save peoples' lives. the best is to make life saving course. no, the best best is to be a nurse, to be on duty all the times. then i would just scream - stop that car. we were passing an accident, a child - girl aged about ten - lying on the road, on one of the worse parts from an airport to a project place, in strange position, and arguing people around, an older african woman surprisingly sitting on a front seat of a not so old 4wd. i could just check her heartbeat... but i just looked, hearing mumbling of the driver, guide and my colleague, mmm what we can do. stop that car, was in my head long after i convinced myself that now it's too late to ask them to stop that bloody car and go back.
it is not important to look after things in africa, it's people we're going to look after. a new car will become older anyway, and a couple of little fingers drawing on car's cowling won't send it to wreck earlier than a few hours.
it's important to slow down. it takes more planning, and for new comers it means to be late often. one has to plan better, because even the same distance takes five minutes in europe so fifteen minutes should be okay, another five minutes would avoid taking over a truck overloaded with people and throwing red soft dust in their faces with big wheels of our a/c off-road limo.
it's important to surround with same thinking people when doing development work. in some way, the best could be the same age group. i don't want to generalize, but it seems with an age people tend to become less willing to share and more comfortable. sometimes even selfish. experiences are not the only curriculum.
i'm pleased to link my friend ester's blog and photos. she's going to africa soon and so far her posts are promising to have very interesting point of view.
it is important to know how to save peoples' lives. the best is to make life saving course. no, the best best is to be a nurse, to be on duty all the times. then i would just scream - stop that car. we were passing an accident, a child - girl aged about ten - lying on the road, on one of the worse parts from an airport to a project place, in strange position, and arguing people around, an older african woman surprisingly sitting on a front seat of a not so old 4wd. i could just check her heartbeat... but i just looked, hearing mumbling of the driver, guide and my colleague, mmm what we can do. stop that car, was in my head long after i convinced myself that now it's too late to ask them to stop that bloody car and go back.
it is not important to look after things in africa, it's people we're going to look after. a new car will become older anyway, and a couple of little fingers drawing on car's cowling won't send it to wreck earlier than a few hours.
it's important to slow down. it takes more planning, and for new comers it means to be late often. one has to plan better, because even the same distance takes five minutes in europe so fifteen minutes should be okay, another five minutes would avoid taking over a truck overloaded with people and throwing red soft dust in their faces with big wheels of our a/c off-road limo.
it's important to surround with same thinking people when doing development work. in some way, the best could be the same age group. i don't want to generalize, but it seems with an age people tend to become less willing to share and more comfortable. sometimes even selfish. experiences are not the only curriculum.
i'm pleased to link my friend ester's blog and photos. she's going to africa soon and so far her posts are promising to have very interesting point of view.
