Phase II

So for the first 4 weeks of my work here, I have spent most of my time organizing, training, and managing 35 young men and women to conduct field research for me. As I do not speak Af Soomali, Amharic, or Dinka, it would have required many months or years to obtain a useful quantity of information. However, by training others, I have been able to rely upon the intimate knowledge of the refugees who have lived here for many years to collect the needed data, and by providing training and management, have been able to obtain a wealth of information in a useful format.

Now as I only have three weeks left, I have begun today on Phase II. I am now spending each day within homes and among families of refugees in a much more intimate fashion. I spent this morning with a young man by the name of Amin, and with his assistence as an interpreter, have visited several Somali families to discuss the shelter needs and construction methods. This morning we also visited a block which contains the most vulnerable populations and receives additional protection from the UNHCR.
All of the homes within the protected compound are provided by agencies to those individuals who require greater protection. Many of these people were young, orphaned children or single, un-wed mothers. Although the UNHCR has taken additional steps to serve these people, they live in more distressing conditions than any other part of the camps I have seen.  In addition their homes have been inadequately constructed and due to disrepair, are in fact dangerous to the occupants. Many of the walls on the south facing side of the buildings have collapsed, putting lives in danger. In addition the foundations are eroding and sheer cracks are forming along the walls.  The block leader told me that he alerted the head of the Community Services department at UNHCR, who sent an order for it to be taken care of by a particular contractor, but that was three months ago and no one has come to make changes.

After 12:30, I spent the remaining day in the Gambella block. The Gambellans are a people who live on the border of Ethiopia and Sudan.  They are expert builders and I must admit, my favorite group of people within the camps. They take great pride in their work and homes, and consequently live in the cleanest, most amiable neighborhood. They construct their homes of earth brick, and collect different soil types to make various colors of paint to decorate the buildings.  Every Saturday the neighborhood has Sanitation Day, in which the whole neighborhood cleans the streets, burns the garbage, and makes repairs to their homes and fences. It is a great pleasure to spend time in a neighborhood which resonates with community pride, playing children, and beautiful women - the women dye their hair bright colors and enjoy looking like women with dresses and jewelry, they are not covered from head to toe in swaths of fabric like other ethnic groups practice. Tomorrow I am to return to Gambella and will be spending the day personally making mud bricks and helping a man build a house. I decided the best way to learn about construction within the camps is to simply do myself although it is exceedingly laborious to fabricate bricks, carry them to the site, and construct the walls of building under the climatic conditions of the region. 

I believe that I will have some interesting stories rolling in over the next few weeks. Yet I will likely be quite exhausted at the end of each day. It may pose tedious to narrate the adventures and still have the energy to attend to my work in the evenings. Please forgive me in advance if my writing begins to slacken, but I assure you all that upon returning home I will be more than happy to dispense a story or two.