MJFreeze

Up at 6.15a to leave for Mbarara. Woke up sick. Ate breakfast and got on the bus. Ted quarantined me in the front. Checked into the hotel and ate boxed lunches on the bus (current note: this is the first (and last?) time I ate goat). Drove to Ruhiira Millennium Villages Project (MVP). Visiting a farmer now. Many donkeys, goats, and cows. Moved to the project’s hospital, which had a very impressive laboratory, with many tests offered. However, they don’t have much of a plan for sustainability after MVP ends (5 yr project). Saw a gift ceremony with 40 original Boer (pure) goats being given. Ate local pineapple and watermelon. Went back to the hotel at 7.30p. Ate at outside pavilion, while local dancers performed traditional African dances from different parts of Africa. We were dragged up to dance several times. After they finished, some of us kept dancing for several hours. We tried to learn the “booty dance” (current note: they called it that!), which was a very impressive hip-shaking dance that none of us could really figure out. We kept going until around 10 or 11, at which point i had to go to bed. OUr room’s shower was broken, so I sink-showered.

Current reflection:

At the top of this page, I wrote *WRITE MORE ABOUT MPVs* and I didn’t. Now, I work for an NGO that is inextricably tied with the Millennium Development Goals, as their attainment is one of the main goals of the Outcome Document of the UN High-level Meeting in September that I’ve been working. The lack of sustainability in the projects designed to bring the world up to “millennium standards” worries me deeply. To begin, I feel as if the MVPs (at least, the one we saw; I shouldn’t generalize) being unsustainable in any form is a grave disservice to the people that the MDGs intend to aid. Giving a low-income country a service for X amount of years with no intention of making sure it can be carried on after direct aid ends is irresponsible and immoral. One cannot begin a culture of dependence on a service that is in no way able to be carried on by the local infrastructure. Although it’s nice to say (as many people we spoke to in Ruhiira said) that “fundraising is underway” to continue the hospital services after direct aid ends, funding is one of the major battles in any development project. As a whole, I think the MDGs are a wonderful tool, but they must be wielded with precision and care. Otherwise, we will end up with a Millennium World for a few years, and then be stuck watching as it withers and dies, leaving behind empty facilities and dependent populations who have had a taste of what we tell them life should and can be, just to have it taken away from them. Our responsibility is vast, and from what I saw in Uganda, it is not being carried out properly. Whenever the MDGs are mentioned in the Outcome Document, I am nervous, and I can only hope that down the line we will not look back with our collective consciousness and rue the day we adopted these worldwide standards.