After returning from my visa run, a week of snow and ice kept us grounded. I busied myself around the office, and prepared for a new project by studying hydrogeology, aquifers, cones of depression, and well physics. By midweek, I was really itching to get back to the two villages.
Over lunch, dinner, and two meetings, we tried everything. Nothing worked. We listened to their thoughts on the materials, and then told them what we knew to be true from experience. We showed them samples, and showed a simple budget comparison based on our measurements. PE would require 200RMB from each family, steel required 700RMB. We explained that we didn't want to waste their money on a short term fix, and that we wished for lasting health for them and their children. The leaders wouldn't budge, and we were left wondering why. A few reasons help to explain the stubbornness:
1. They are accustomed to getting handouts from the local government
Last year during a drought, they ran out of water and it was brought in on trucks every day for three months. Then, the government gave them steel pipes to connect to two new water sources, but never taught them how to use a straw material that keeps joints from leaking (like Teflon tape). This reliance on outside help caused them to see us much in the same way, so they never were prepared to pay a buck. No wonder the budget comparison fell on deaf ears.2. Election day was coming soon
Over dinner, Village Director Bai Fu had a little too much white liquor, and blamed his villagers for being too ignorant to understand PE pipes. In our discussion, he let a telling statement slip: “Kao, you have to understand a difference between China and America – here, our leaders have to be voted in unlike in your country, where they can lead if they have money.” I couldn't help but laugh. The US does have its fair share of corruption and flaws, but he had it backwards. I was ready to launch a full on defense of our Democratic system, but would have been pointless. More important was the point he was making: he feared that if he pushed for PE over steel, his “wen mang” (people with no education or culture) would never re-elect him to another 3 year term.3. They simply didn't trust us
This is what it really came down to. To them, we were outsiders, no different from government officials who usually have ulterior motives for working in the villages. They simply could not believe that people would put up money and give suggestions simply for their good of other people. They blocked themselves and their villagers from getting the help they truly needed.
"What we do is so little that we may seem to be constantly failing... And why must we see the results of our giving? Our work is to sow - another generation will be reaping the harvest."
My goofy team |
This makes me wonder if there is a way to "trick" the villagers into believing the changes you suggest came from within, rather than from some outside group which they don't trust.
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