There are currently two other groups from Simmons College here in San Juan del Sur. One, from the school of health studies, is here working with medical clinics in San Juan and the surrounding countryside.
The other is a service learning class led by Simmons English professor David Gullette. This class has been traveling around learning about a variety of health and human services-oriented activities in the area. I?ve tagged along with this group for a few of their activities. Yesterday morning they went out to a local school with the Movil project. The school itself had Massachusetts connections ? it was built by the Newton/San Juan Sister Cities project, and was named after David Gullette himself. School is not currently in session, but the Movil project is making special runs for kids to check out books over the break. Because we had such a large number of volunteers, we also did a number of other activities with the kids ? reading ?The Little Engine that Could,? playing Frisbee and catch, blowing bubbles, etc.
The Simmons group has also spent some time with the ?Appropriate Technologies Workshop? which is funded in part by the Newton/San Juan project and is run locally by Fidel Pavon. The workshop has two primary ?products? ? EcoStoves, which allow people to cook without filling their houses with wood smoke, and BioSan BioSand Filters, which allow the filtering of well water on a small scale. The workshop has also been involved in the installation of new wells and water pumps, and the creation of composting toilets.
The general philosophy of ?appropriate technologies is that solutions deployed in a community must be adapted to the needs of that community. To take an example from our previous experiences in Nicaragua, there is little point in deploying a computerized library automation system in a location that lacks electricity half of the time. Jane?s card-based checkout system is an example of an appropriate technology, because it is adapted for the real-world needs of a community.
Yesterday, I went out with the group and spent the afternoon helping produce BioSand filters. The filters themselves are cast from concrete, and are then filled with gravel and sand. Once they are filled with water, a protective layer of bacteria and algae form on top of the sand, eating the parasites in the water (?animalitos,? or little animals, as Gullette calls them in Spanish).
We spent the afternoon painting the outside of the filters a brilliant blue, and sifting soil scraped from a local streambed into 55-gallon drums to produce the fine sand needed for the top layers of the filters.
There have been some interesting discussions within Gullette?s group about the use of these ?appropriate? technologies. There is no question that, when used, they can offer health benefits to local residents. But in some cases the filters lie idle after being installed. This led one student to question whether the technologies were really that appropriate if they weren?t always being adopted.
The group asked Fidel about this during our trip yesterday afternoon. He gave several answers, with the simplest being a Nicaraguan saying ?La costumbre es la ley? ? the custom is the law. Many Nicaraguans, especially those of older generations in the campo, are inherently conservative, and are not quick to adopt new ideas and technologies. But he said that, in general, when individuals or communities purchase their own filters or stoves, they tend to use them intensively. When the units are donated or purchased by a school or institution, they tend to be used sporadically. Jane has found similar things with activities conducted with the library. Outsiders, no matter how well-intentioned, can?t force new ideas or technologies on a community that doesn?t see the need for them.
This is a key point for those involved in development projects anywhere. Local involvement and support in the decision making process is crucial. Outsiders can be helpful in providing new ideas and resources, but ultimately local decision-making and control are extremely important. Without this, the projects are unlikely to reflect the true needs of the community, and are likely wasted effort.
After we finished working with the filters, we accompanied Fidel on a trip to a small community deep in the countryside. Currently several households are sharing a single bucket well. We listened to Fidel pitch the idea of a communal pump and tank that would allow the households to share the pumping effort and then have running water to their houses. While Fidel’s workshop, Simmons students, and the Newton/San Juan project would likely help out with implementation on this project, it was made clear that this was a communal effort, and that the households involved would need to make the decision, do much of the work, etc. This was not to be a workshop effort assisted by the community — it was to be a community effort assisted by the workshop.
Fidel Pavon’s involvement is crucial. He was raised in a campesino family in the countryside, and he understands the land and its people in ways an outsider never can. And he is a natural-born engineer, devising solutions to problems he sees in the real world.
The lessons of local involvement and support for development projects are as important for libraries as they are for wells and water filters. Without local involvement at all levels, a library becomes a useless apendage to the community, not an institution at its heart.