Field Trip

This post is a little late, but better late than never!

Maybe it was just me, but when I first started studying International Development I had a particular image about what it would look like to work “in the field”. I pictured mud houses with grass roofs and sitting out on the Serengeti under a baobab tree doing a training/assessment/something or other. I pictured doing my work in the community with people, getting to know them and getting to see how they live their lives. Putting aside the fact that I have never actually worked in the Serengeti, development work, at least for me, has not often lived up to this idyllic image in my imagination. My work in Rwanda had the occasional elements of this, although not as much as I would have liked especially since I ended up living in Kigali and not in the community. Mostly our workshops were is conference centers and town halls and my interaction with the actual people our programs worked with was limited. My work here in Burundi is mostly done from behind a desk or in meetings with my colleagues and other organizations and this is definitely not what I pictured as a naïve undergrad.

But there are those moments, few and far between, that cause me to look around and think to myself “here it is. This is what I was supposed to be doing.” Last week was one of those moments for me.

We have been given funding for a peacebuilding project from a donor with the only requirement being that we work with Youth in some way. Ideally we create a project design in direct response to the needs of a community and then find funding, but sometimes donors come to us with funding and a specific request and this is what happened here. The community we chose to work in had been severely affected by the conflict and in many ways is still deeply divided. So despite responding to the request of the donors I think the project will be extremely important to address the needs of the community as well.

In order to design a project, we first need to understand the dynamics and context of the community. So we needed to do an assessment to find out what is already going on in the community in terms of peacebuilding and work with youth. And I got to go. Seriously you guys, this is exciting stuff. First of all, peacebuilding is something I’m passionate about, and it also got me out of my office, and out of Bujumbura. I found myself leading focus group discussion with teenage girls under a jacaranda tree (prettier than a baobab tree anyway) and talking about what they saw as dividers and causes of conflict in their community, and how were they involved in peacebuilding activities. These girls spoke about how they struggle to have their voices heard in a community that pays very little attention to youth and less to girls. They are smart, articulate, beautiful young women. They are the future of this tiny country and as we sat in the shade in the early morning on the top of a hill I felt privileged to listen to them and hear about their lives. When we were finished we walked over the hill a bit to watch a football game while my colleagues finished their discussion group with some teenage boys in a school room nearby.

Later I had another discussion with a group of girls from the Twa community. They were a little younger than the first group and many of them were not in school. Sitting inside a small house made of mud bricks with a dirt floor, I sometimes had to ask them to repeat themselves because the cow outside was so loud. As the day got hotter it was a relief to sit in the damp coolness of the little house. These girls were shy and not as outspoken, but they had some good ideas.

Now I am back in the office, holding meetings, writing reports and strategizing things. And while it can be frustrating, in its own way it is rewarding too. This is important so that the ‘real’ work in the community can be accomplished. As long as I can get out of the office and talk to people under a tree every once in a while, I think I’ll be just fine.