October blog post: a surprise visit to France, more orders and filming in Kongo

October started with a surprise. I was asked to replace Kingsley, co-founder of KoCDA (our local partner and host organization), at a conference for host organizations of the EUAV programme under the SUDHAV consortium. Kingsley’s visa to France was unfortunately rejected, despite him having been invited by an EU initiative. So, together with Victor, Kingsley’s father and co-founder of KoCDA, we traveled to Paris and from Paris airport by train to Lille and further to Roubaix, where ADICE, the lead partner of SUDHAV phase 1, hosted both sending and host organizations for a one-week conference on capacity training.

Topics discussed included the importance of the on-arrival training for new volunteers, how to formulate new vacancies to attract volunteers, problems and challenges that came up with volunteers, the progress of ongoing projects and general project administration and finance issues.  It was really interesting to attend the conference as a volunteer and see the other side of my work, namely the planning and organization/mobilization of volunteers. There really is a lot of pre-planning put into the EUAV initiative as well as preparing host and sending organisations on how to receive EU aid volunteers to support them to meet their NGO’s/CSO’s objectives.  

I met a lot of interesting people from around the world, working tirelessly for noble causes, such as child trafficking, desertification, integration of Syrian refugees, peace and reconciliation and community development from three different continents. Although there was a language barrier, the mix of people all dedicated to building resilient communities in their home countries led to interesting discussions over a bottle of red wine at dinner and fun memories.

Upon coming back from France, I supported the weavers cooperative to complete and ship out a big order for a client in Canada. Sometimes we get delayed due to other simultaneous orders, illnesses among the women or funerals in the community, which were all the case for this order, but this one in particular had a problem with the money transfer, which delayed us even further. Nevertheless, we managed in the end and the baskets arrived in Canada just in time for an important market fair, where the client was showcasing Yen Pang’s baskets.

The women are all subsistence farmers and many the sole bread-winner of their families. The salary they earn for the baskets they weave is existential and thus, they cannot afford to wait for a payment or in many cases save up for a larger cause. Weaving is a great opportunity for these women, but it’s still not enough to cover all their needs. The majority that I ask say that the money they earn supplements the food they buy on a day-to-day basis, or pay for the school fees of their children.

At the end of the month I welcomed the film crew of SUDHAV2, Kelli and Martin from Estonia, for a one-week visit. They came to film the volunteers for a promotional video of EUAV to be used by SUDHAV2. I was not too excited upon hearing that they would focus on me, since I do not like to be infront of the camera, but rather behind it. Their visit though turned out to be quite nice and fun actually. The week they were here coincided with a festival and also happened to be a really busy one with many invitations and on two occasions we enjoyed dinner with the fathers and sisters at their homes. It is nice to be invited-it makes you feel like you’re part of the community. Kelli and Martin were extremely kind and made me feel comfortable right away. I was happy to show them my home of four months and the amazing women at Yen Pang and Nongtaaba cooperatives. Showing them around offered me a good opportunity to reflect on my time and work here.