let go, grandpa!

It has been six months to the day since I got to Chi Phat. So many things I have learnt, so many things are now obvious to me that were never obvious before. And yet, these last few days have taught me the most important lesson of all.

For months now we have been working on what we consider the most important aspect if our project – the handing over of our work to the local community. If have taken endless steps toward this: appointing a local (and very beloved) manager to the community center, creating a group of young (and very beloved) guides that would continue the teaching in the community center, building the reputation of the community center as a fun, educational (and very beloved) place, and much more.

But when it came to the last two months, I was under the impression it would be a great thing for this village if we built here an international volunteers program to take it to the next stage: to make sure the presence of English is permanent here, that the emphasis on education remains etc. it all made sense to me, and I didn’t think that anyone can change my mind. But they did: the first was the manager of our project, Yuval Limon. We have been talking about this project for a while now, and I knew he had many reservations, but this week he took it upon himself to give the financial backing for the mechanism we are building to continue our work, which meant that building an international program is no longer a financial must. Second was Einam, a volunteer in our delegation. When we were talking about this, she told me that she thought it was time we butt out, and allow the people to take over what we have started, just like we planned in the beginning. Third, and was Mr. Sen, the manager of the community center we appointed less than 5 months ago. With him too I talked about it for a long time, but unlike yuval, he was very much for the idea. But this week, when I talked to him again, he told me that he likes the idea, but that if won’t happen, he thinks the community center can manage just fine.

What else could I ask for? I changed my mind.

It is a lesson about trusting my counterparts here, which I always thought I did, but only now I realize that this trust would have to show itself in a painful leaving. I guess it’s kinda like when the kids leave home. You have to breath deep, hope you did a good job so far, and let go.

Maybe this family realization is why everyone in this village has started calling me Ta Gil (Grandpa Gil) lately?

Boots...

For today, we’re not gonna have a story about brave volunteers trying to save the world, but a domestic story about men and their favorite animal.

Since day one there’s this dog that spent most of her days outside, at our porch.

Like everything in our house, we’re divided into 2 groups on the two far ends of the scale.

Some of us always spoil her, playing with her, and slipping food under the table for her, while the others always yell at her: “boots – get outta here!!” (sounds better in Hebrew – “BOOTS – TAUFI”, by Einam).

There’s also the eternal argument about the flea’s origin in the house – some say it’s the dog, and some deny it and blames the maid’s kid :)

As time goes by, so does boots stomach started to get bigger and bigger. During the pregnancy period the arguments that surround her became even harder, because some of us thought that pregnant woman should get a proper treatment.

During the last days of pregnancy she started to look for a place to give birth in, and choose one of the house’s rooms, which is of course, forbidden for her.

On the last fight she was removed to the yard, far away from our cousy porch. She was screaming and yelling so hard, more than usual, and than she ran to a pre-digged hole under the house, and gave birth to 6 cute puppies. Some of us were present during the 4 hours event and witnessed the nature’s greatest wonder.

We tried to make it as cousy and domestic for her as we can, because you have to remember that in few hours her world turned upside down: she was moved away from her home, moved to the “streets” and gave birth for the first time of her life.

People from the village do not understand what’s the excitement is all about, for it’s just a dog. If you knew how common wandering animals are here: every day we run after cows and pigs to scare them away of our yard, while roosters and hens run by our side, as the dogs barking at them. And I did not mention yet the enormous amount of insects in our house, that could reach the size of a palm of a hand, the huge lizards that lives in our living room’s wall who eats them. The mice and rats that has a camp under the printer and the bee hive at the outer wall of the house.

I guess this is one of the cultural gaps that you meet when you live in another place. It’s totally legitimate to tie the 4 legs of a pig together, and take him of the motorcycle to be slaughtered. He will fall during that trip from time to time and will make the most heart-tearing shouts you have ever heard.

So today Mr. Teng, our translator, showed us that there are some exceptions in every place, while he helped us to remove the 3rd dead puppy in 36 hours. Nature can be very cruel for a dog, even right here under our house