Missions

You know, I am starting to see missions from the other side. The side of the people who are here before teams come and after they leave. I have observed that a lot of American groups come with the idea that they are going to come and save the world; fix everything in sight. Then they rush around for 10 days or so and are gone. The Zambians are not like that at all. It is all about the relationship. They don't care so much about how much gets done; they are more interested in who you are. They spend a lot of time talking not just being busy. Because of this people think that the Zambians are lazy. They just talk and nothing gets done. But I have observed that that is not the case necessarily. The Zambians I work with definitely are not up to American speed, but they do work hard on their own time and schedule. The man that was helping me with the bathroom project started work with about 07:30 and kept working until 18 or 19 hours., and he did a good job. The big difference difference between the two groups is what is they find is truly important. For the Americans that come it is what was accomplished. So they can go home and say we did this and this and this. For Zambians it is who we got to meet or got know, or who we talked to. So it has been interesting trying to bring these two sides together. How do you bring these polar opposites together?

Pictures of Bathroom Project - Work in Progress and Finished