On any given day I am called on or I myself call on the mayor, the head doctor of the health clinic, the health inspector, or the directors of the primary school and high school. These are my primary counterparts. While it all sounds very impressive, it is quite normal for a volunteer working in a municipality of just over 2,000 people. These people are a network of leaders who, surprisingly, are not always on the same page. And then there are those days where I am surprised when they are all on the same page and I seem to have missed something. In any case, my job as I see it is to network with them and my resources in the United States to get projects done for the people of the community.
It struck me how grown-up and beyond my years it sounds to work like this. Things like the head doctor of the clinic to knock on my door to make sure we can arrange the mayor’s car to take us to pick up medical supplies from an NGO that contacted me to let me know there were supplies available. I made the call, the mayor agreed. The mayor on the other hand is waiting for me to set up an appointment with the Rotary Club to come out and survey a site where they are looking to drill a well for a small village of 20 families who are without water. Wells don’t get drilled without NGOs like Rotary Club. The director of the school is waiting different Rotary funds I solicited and was lucky enough to receive to buy a new AC for a classroom which will be a multi-purpose meeting room and library. Right now, if there is a meeting at the school the kids must take their desks to the main hall and have class outside while their room is being occupied by school directors and other adults.
I know I have said this before but I now find much of my excitement for public policy in health care. I have no idea how that will hold up in the United States where it is a different world entirely but we shall see.
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