Competition!

Wednesday, 5 March 2008

I finally got back to my village last night after being gone for a few weeks for vacation, and this morning my counterpart came over to catch me up on what I've missed in the village while I've been gone and to talk about what activities we'll do over the next few days.

The big news: Kinkeliba, a private French hospital a few kilometers up the road, has hired and trained "relais" (health educators) to do health education classes and baby weighings in villages in the area, including my village.

This is exactly the same as what I'm supposed to be doing here, and as what volunteer relais trained by Africare, an American NGO working in the area, are supposed to do. Which brings me back to the question of what exactly is the point of me being here? And how is my counterpart, a volunteer relais trained by Africare, supposed to stay motivated to do health activities while he is not getting paid for it and someone else is? Should we just give up our activities and let the guy who is getting paid for it do them? Or continue our work, and compete with the other guy for popularity in the village?

However useless I feel, at least I can be pretty sure that health activities in the village won't just stop when I leave. Hopefully the village will benefit from all this competition between Peace Corps, NGOs, and private organizations.