Not a #USAID story but an adjacent story I’m thinking about tonight: In my 20s I was in the Peace Corps in the Kingdom of Jordan. My assignment was a big healthcare facility in the middle of the country, one that had had the distinction of hosting four Peace Corps volunteers before me. 1/ - ThreadSky

hardleeric.bsky.social • 19 days ago

Not a #USAID story but an adjacent story I’m thinking about tonight: In my 20s I was in the Peace Corps in the Kingdom of Jordan. My assignment was a big healthcare facility in the middle of the country, one that had had the distinction of hosting four Peace Corps volunteers before me. 1/

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hardleeric.bsky.social•19 days ago

This place — a “markaz” in Arabic — housed people of all ages, literally babies to senior citizens, with developmental or mental health problems that their families couldn’t stay on top of. So they’d been sent here. There they were watched over be a few dozen staff, mostly local women, and 2/

hardleeric.bsky.social•19 days ago

a “mudir”, a director, who was a bit of a local bigwig. Treatment of any of our residents, such as it was, was a bit of a shambles, though there were some valiant efforts, especially in arts and music classes. Mostly they sat in a classroom sunup to sundown, with breaks in a big central courtyard 3/

hardleeric.bsky.social•19 days ago

It’s mayhem 24/7. So one day a few weeks into my 2-yr tour I go to the mudir in his huge office to one isolated side of the center. I drink the proffered tea and at one point as I remember it he literally parades some other local elders through to see me. Takes a while to get to business there. 4/

hardleeric.bsky.social•19 days ago

When we get to business I say, sir, what am I supposed to do? This is a “needs assessment” and “listening to the locals.” The training has a lot to say about those. “A project (burnamaj)?” he says. Yes, a project. Ahh. He says, a playground. You could raise some money and build us a playground. 5/

hardleeric.bsky.social•19 days ago

Then he takes me to a window of his office and pulls aside a curtain. And there, on a side of a he complex no one has ever gone, no one is allowed to go, but perfectly visible to the mudir’s visiting dignitaries, sit 4 perfect untouched playgrounds. One from each previous volunteer, side by side 6/

hardleeric.bsky.social•19 days ago

And that’s development work. In what we were told was the 2nd most developed country with a Peace Corps program (we were told Romania was first) at the time btw. A country whose leaders went to Sandhurst and speak better English than me and get [gestures] all of it, better than any of us. 7/

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