Work

I haven’t posted much about my experience at the Elyon Rock Foundation because every day I leave with a different feeling. In reflection I never really know what to make of it. I guess I can elaborate on the complexity that is the work situation here in Cameroon. And I mean work in the broadest sense because the problems facing this NGO are present in every single business in this country. Work, for people here goes like this:

Every morning I wake up and go to work and there’s really no problem if we are ten or twenty or thirty minutes late because I think everyone is. And if not, then somehow being temporary unpaid international interns in the foundation makes us impervious to rules which might apply to employees. We never knowingly take advantage of these relaxed rules, but I think we are late more frequently here than we would be at home becsue its so acceptable. I actually have a hard time accepting my own tardiness because I know I am on some level not contribution my very best here, but the climate of mediocrity (when it comes to productivity ad output) is so pervasive that the other two interns and I are just trying not to get completely swept away in it. I guess I can some it all up this way: it feels like I am 60% on vacation and 40% here to work productively. And I would add that that’s on a good day.

It’s tough because I’ve reserved making judgments about the African work ethic due to the economic situation here. What I see (or to be correct what I used to see- let me get to that later) in the office are two employees, Pam and Sammy, Bill in his office and two to four volunteers who after three months of “probation” have the potential to be paid. They are all idly pecking on computers or reading reports that have been re-written literally four times. Bill funds this very nice third-floor office and underlying two-story school facility with his family’s money. Bill’s parents are a chief and a princess, his brother is a neurologist in Italy, his sister a fashion designer in Washington state, and his other brother is somewhere else abroad making a ton of money. So he gets money from the fam; probably from his siblings as a thank-you for staying home to take care of their mom, as I think she’s pretty sick. Bill’s dream is to create movies, and as he is very religious and sensitive to the social inequities here he decided in college that he would create socially-relevant films and pioneer the Cameroonian film industry. I wish he could have just stayed with the one consolidated dream and go after it, but I think he began an NGO because that’s how someone with limited means can start a company here, call it an NGO, do some charitable things, get some foreign funding and you’re all set. The only money seems to come from outside Cameroon. Spoke with a recent graduate from the University of Buea last night (an AIESECer of course) and he said that the only way to get employment here is to start your own business. There are no jobs to be found for even the most qualified individuals. Either start your own here (somehow) or get out of the country.

I will try to get to the point here: the reason everyone is so non-productive is because there is only enough money for rent for this space. There’s no money to advertise the upcoming Shalom Academy enrollment period in which we need ten students to enroll in all of the following schools: Business and Management, Social Studies, Creative Arts, and Information Technology, in order to actually break even. There’s no money to pay the promised and to-be publicized scholarship in tuition for qualified staff members of community-based organizations and social rehabilitation groups, as well as current students. Thus we have empty promises and cannot fund execution of this project which has cost Bill so much money that he hasn’t paid Pam and Sammy for three months. But this is a viscous cycle, just keep reading.

So he’s sunk all this money into the first financially sustainable dream he’s dreamt (among MANY unexecuted, poorly-planned dreams) and he can’t get the return because we don’t have money. And he’s relying on his three interns to get donor funding before enrollment ends in October and theoretically classes begin. But no Foundation will ever give him money because it’s not viable.

Poor Bill has given assignments to his volunteers and Pam and Sammy in hopes that they can pull together a budget and prepare us with the logistics we need to write these proposals. Sometimes I write bullshit about what I think they should do, for instance to evaluate the success of Shalom Academy by holding board meetings and feedback session with faculty and handing out evaluation forms to students, and then he’ll read it and say, “that’s a great idea, we will definitely do that.” So that part has been fun. But as far as receiving any hard information on logistics, the most I have gotten is a problem tree (e.g. economic hardship leads to illiteracy leads to unemployment and Shalom Academy will solve that), addressing none of the budgeting or logistical concerns. I am not even convinced that we have teachers still on board to teach in October.

So today Laura, Aya, and I walked in and no one was here but Bill. My heart sunk because Bill is an awesome guy and although he lacks practical business skills he has a great heart and it’s sad that his unpaid team had no choice but to desert him. But no, Pam and Sammy did eventually come to work, but the rest of the volunteers have left. It’s funny because in all the proposals I have still been instructed to write that the staffing of Elyon Rock Foundation is “composed of the senate made up of eight staff members, the committee of joint heads made up of six staff members, and general members and volunteers”. I have no idea if they’ll actually make me write the names of former employees and volunteers, (as there have been many) or if they will eventually realize that that’s illegal. Maybe I’ll have to remind them…

In comparison to the output of the staff here the interns are this organization’s life force. We are teaching HIV/AIDS classes (completely funding transport and materials ourselves, but it’s so cheap and there’s no point to ask for money) every morning reaching 200 students overall. This month we’re going to try to reach 700 in conjunction with other AIESECers working in other NGOs. After the morning classes and lunch we come back to work and write inquiry letters and proposals. I hope to get them all sent before the end of next week so that if any reply positively I can show Pam what we’ve been doing so she can execute the full proposal and maybe get some money.

It’s just this dismal cycle that I could analyze for a long time… they have no money, they must spend time trying to find it but also show donors that they are viable and productive and already self-sustainable. Yeah right. And then they can’t do much without money in the first place and what they could maybe fund should rightfully be the employees’ salary… and when the employee’s aren’t paid of course they are going to lay their heads down on their desks and take naps and download pictures and songs and do NOTHING PRODUCTIVE AT ALL.

So to wrap this rant up, this experience overall has been very illustrative and leaves me realizing the importance of development from inside a country, the power of strategy and logistics, and how lucky I was to be born in a place where all this stuff had been streamlined a long time ago- above of the curve globally-speaking. Development is on the other side of that curve here in Africa and it’s personally enriching for me to have to deal with it.