[June 23, 2010]

Earlier this week marked the first visit to the field – to actually meet members of 3 different support groups and understand their environments. It’s one thing to talk about owning a pig, and another to step foot in a piggery with this gigantic hog digging into the dirt in the corner!

In each of the villages, all of the community members were so kind in their welcoming. They provided us with chairs and benches, sitting around us to catch our every word. (Well, hearing us through Angela, the facilitator of the Support Groups who deserves a tremendous “Thank You” for acting as our translator and interpreter.)

In the first village (named Geni), after an initial conversation where group leaders provided us with some background on their community and answered some questions regarding their current business practices, the group members then led us on a tour through the village. We saw gardens of vegetables, fields of tree saplings, and collections of animals like fowls and pigs that could be sold. We spent the most time that day at this first village, trying to take in everything and ask as many questions as we could. I could sense so much happiness and excitement from our visit. As we walked, a group of women followed us and sang beautiful songs. Children gathered around us, smiling and waving frantically (and also yelling “Mazungu,” which we have gotten a lot). And as we departed with words of our intentions to help with training in business management, they even gave us a round of applause. The community members were so respectful and appreciative, and all I could think about was how honored I was to get to work with them.

The subsequent village visits to groups named Tidziwane and Namitete were a little more condensed, but followed with similar events. We had accidentally spent too long at the first village and were only able to talk a little with the other group members and take a short tour through their gardens and fields. Nevertheless, I felt more confident the second and third times around, as I knew what questions to ask and concerns to address with each meeting.

These three support groups are, according to Angela, the best of them all. They’re the most stable and organized in terms of group management and using their St. Gabriel’s starter packs. However, I noticed that even among the three, there were still very different levels of progress. Two wanted to draft an action plan. One had a budget to show us – though it was hard to follow and did not seem to track expenses consistently.

Next week, we’ll have the opportunity to make another trip to the field and visit support groups from the middle and bottom tiers (groups that are not as stable and possibly have had starter packs revoked from misuse). With the variation across the groups from just today’s visit, I have no idea what to expect. All I can hope for now is that they are operating within the realm of our help – and our potential training lessons wouldn’t be so out of context or inconsistent with their current activities. Until next week!