Another article by R Miller
When doing Projects for the Poor, and you are starting from scratch, and you are scratching your head,
to know where to start, then you come across some article or plan that someone else is doing in another
country, usually our first reaction is, that's nice but it'll never work here.
That's what we want to analyze in this article, there are certain principals that apply to all projects, but not
all projects are the same in each country, culture and land opportunities.
For example: In Paraguay you SHOULD NOT serve visitors rice and beans, when we went to Nicaragua, some
days we had beans Morning, Noon and Night!!! However rearranged in different forms.
So my short term of service in El Salvador was real helpful, to help keep in mind that there can be huge
differences in the possibilities from one country to another.
That's why in the future as this Projects for the Poor slowly develops, the goal is to have people that have served from each country analyze what could be done there, then this information passed on to the next
missionary. What I see happening is, one missionary goes and tries his ideas, some work and some don't,
the next one comes along and he does the same thing, some work and some don't.
This tends to be very confusing to the locals, as here these "gringos" come in and they are all enthused,
set something in motion, then poof it was a flop. Then he starts something else, wow that works, but
bingo, he now goes home, and the next one, naw that is not his thing, so now that project also dies.
So after a while the locals throw their hands into the air and say, let them come and go as they please
but they sure don't know what they are doing.
One thing to keep in mind, locals tend to think that missionaries all come from the same place, have the same
goals and will keep on doing what the previous missionary was doing, when that does not happen they begin
to lose faith in the foreign missionary, because all they can see is the disorganized way they go about
doing things.
The main goal for this discussion group is to eventually, have subgroups especially for each country,
then those groups will analyze the possibilities for that country. That way we won't bog down the system
where we will share those articles. Hopefully this will give future missionaries some helpful insights on what
has happened in the country that they will be serving.
Country Comparison Analysis
El Salvador and Paraguay are the two countries that we want to compare.
Keep in mind these are approximates.
El Salvador has 8,123 sq. miles, with a population of 6,071,774. = 748 people per sq. mile
Paraguay has 157,046 sq. miles with a population of 6,459,058. = 42 people per sq. mile
El Salvador is very mountainous and has a lot of rocks, with a low rate of tillable soil mechanically.
Paraguay is fairly level and a high percent of the soil that is tillable mechanically.
El Salvador has a climate of six months of rain and six months of dry.
Paraguay has a fairly stable climate, with not any pronounced dry season.
El Salvador has one planting season.
Paraguay has two planting seasons in one year
El Salvador has places were it is difficult to access by road.
Paraguay also has a poor road system, however when it is dry, most places can be accessed.
These are to mention a few.
When I was in El Salvador, my wife packed some lunch and I went out to help the neighbor
work in his field.
Here are some observations.
I was huffing and puffing till we got to the field, kinda felt like a days work just to get to the field.
Rocks everywhere, some small, some large, some you step over, some you had to climb over.
However, the field had a nice stand of corn.
So now how do you relate such an environment to the articles that we have already looked at.
For example: Soil preparation, we would not get to first base, trying to get the people in El Salvador
to use plows, disks and planters, it just doesn't work in all those rocks, but just suppose all of a sudden
a family moves down from the rocks, and has a fair sized plot of tillable land, but the only way he knows how to do farming
is how he did it on the rocks. He will need encouragement and teaching on how to do farming now more efficiently,
since his circumstances have changed.
This principle is very important to teach to the locals, how to adapt new technology to current farming possibilities.
What I see happening is, on the mission field the locals rapidly adapt to bad technology, such as cell phones, opps ect.
However the missionary does not take any steps to provide new available technology, and trains the locals to become
more efficient in supplying the needs that they may have, well they have always done it that way and we suppose they
should just keep on that way.
The missionary has great opportunities to interact with the community, especially giving teaching on new techniques that
are beneficial, and use that as an opportunity, to bring God into the picture.
Bad technology is sweet, good technology needs to be taught.
Submitted Mar.10, 2012
R Miller
Indiana
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