Acts and Scenes: Our Observations and Reflections

In order to most accurately and honestly document our daily activities, thoughts and feelings, we have compiled many short narratives of events, or “scenes”, into several “acts”. The acts are grouped thematically based on the development of our overall project in Langrug and span from periods of two days to a few weeks. This method of recording our experiences and perceptions is meant to serve as a journal where each scene was written shortly after the actual event occurred. The narrative may include misstatements or misconceptions about things we later learned to be untrue.

Within these acts lies a truly captivating story of misfortune, collaboration, progress and hope. Our time in Langrug began with an overwhelming introduction to the poverty of an informal settlement as well as the many challenges of working in a partnership between the government and a desperate community. There were long periods of uncertainty as we tried to navigate this partnership with the goal of implementing one or more projects which the community deemed a priority. Out of these frustrations came incredible amounts of shared knowledge, strong connections and eventual construction of a WaSH facility. To begin experiencing this challenging and triumphant journey, start reading Act 1.