Act 5: Progress in Adversity

Act V: Scenes I-IV

Introduction:

This act focuses on the variable nature of the team’s working days within Langrug.  It shows how one day can be a catastrophic failure and the next can be a great success.

Scene I: Babelaas Monday

Backstory:

Our group has come to a point in a project where we establish a plan for each day of work in Langrug with our co-researchers but we often encounter major problems on a regular basis and this has been negatively affecting our accomplishments.

Cast of Characters:

WPI WaSH-UP Business Operations team, Sidiniwe Savings Group, Sizwe Mxobo

Setting:

Langrug Informal Settlement; Mandela Park WaSH-UP facility

Scene:

Seeming to be a normal day in the Langrug community, our group devised a plan to conclude all discussions regarding the Sidiniwe Savings Group Constitution. Our hope was to cooperate with our co-researchers and accomplish some ambitious goals. After arriving in Langrug, we soon discovered that some of the ladies, including one of our co-researchers, were intoxicated. It was apparent that a limited amount of work was going to be achieved on this day. When we finally gathered the ladies and began our work day, our assumption about limited work proved to be right. Our first task to write a plan for the week, which normally takes about 30 minutes, lasted well over an hour. The ladies seemed quiet but the one co-researcher who was intoxicated was a consistent distraction. After the WPI Project Teams split up into two groups, WaSH-Biz and our co-researchers moved discussions to the storage room where the struggles of the day continued. The intoxicated woman disappeared from the meeting and it was clear that our co-researchers did not want to be there. As we attempted to discuss different topics on our agenda, the uncooperative nature of the day resulted in absolutely no progress.

In what seemed to be no time at all, it was already 1pm and time for a meeting of Sidiniwe Savings Group members. The expectation was that all seven active members of the group would attend but when everyone assembled, two members were missing. These two members, Kholeka and Nobathembu, were working on construction at the Zwelitsha facility and they refused to attend the meeting at the Mandela WaSH Facility. Furthermore, the five ladies currently at the meeting refused to walk up the hill to the Zwelitsha facility so that the meeting could continue there. Nicole then said to the Sidiniwe Savings Group, “Would you rather not meet at all than walk up the street to meet the ladies?” This was eye-opening for the ladies but nonetheless, they refused to move the meeting location. The decision was to begin the meeting without the two ladies working at the construction site.

The meeting began with discussions regarding payments and distribution of the stipend. Surprisingly, the meeting never progressed past this point over the course of a two hour meeting. Once again the uncooperativeness of the co-researchers on this day prevented us from making any progress.

Reflection and Learning:

Our group concluded this day feeling as if nothing at all had been accomplished. In addition, this day raised questions in our minds regarding whether or not the Sidiniwe Savings Group was the right group for everything that we were trying to accomplish at the WaSH Facility. To answer some of these questions for ourselves, our group agreed that some sort of extreme action needed to take place after Monday’s series of events.

~

Scene II: Actions Speak Louder Than Words

Backstory:

On Monday, our team encountered severe difficulties within the community that inhibited the progress of our project in any way, shape, or form. After speaking with our advisors, we made the difficult decision not to travel to Langrug the following day. We hoped this would allow the members of the community to realize their mistakes, and understand how hugely it had affected us. We also believed headway could be made in terms of paperwork and website formatting if we stayed at the lodge for the day. We were unsure what would come of the day for the WaSH-UP Services team, who made the trip to Langrug, and how our co-researchers would respond to the news that we would not be working with them for the day.

Cast of Characters:

WPI WaSH-UP Business Operations Team, WPI WaSH-UP Services Team, WPI Project Advisors

Setting:

St. John’s Waterfront Lodge

Scene:

Our team made the difficult decision to stay home for the day, hoping that it would send the right message to our co-researchers and allow us valuable time to accomplish many goals. Over the course of the morning, we were able to research several things helpful to our project, including paperwork necessary to file the savings group as a business. It was a very beneficial use of our time, but we were constantly apprehensive about how things were unfolding in Langrug. We had no idea how the community members would respond to our absence, or if the WaSH-UP Services team would be faced with a difficult situation due to our team’s decision. By the time we concluded our workday, we were hopeful that we had made the right choice and happy with the progress we made.

When the WaSH-U- Services team arrived home, we discovered that far more had happened during the day than we anticipated. We learned that they had been in complete shock at our absence, and were slightly confused by our motives. Members of the team explained our reasoning to them, and they were extremely sad and disappointed in themselves for making us feel so unhappy. From there, the day took a dramatically different turn. According to WaSH-UP Services, Sizwe then led the entire group of people, WPI students and community members alike, through a conversation. During this conversation, the team was able to learn the somewhat horrible backstories of many of the community members, and understand how those past events influence their current behaviors. We sat around the patio table at the lodge listening to WaSH-UP Services regale us with the story of their day, and we couldn’t help but feel sad that we missed out on such an amazing experience. But at the same time, we felt that if we had been present, the same conversation would most likely not have even occurred. It was incredible to hear that something so great had happened, but so surprising at the same time because it was not at all how we expected the day to go.

From here, the conversation took a different turn. Our team is not one of speaking as much as it is one of action. This is how we operate as a group. So when we heard WaSH-UP Services’ story, we simply sat, thought about what they were saying, and said nothing. This unfortunately was misinterpreted as disinterest and ungratefulness for WaSH-UP Services’ assistance in progressing our project dynamics. Although these were definitely not our intentions, it was portrayed as such and in doing so, it brought up a lot of other emotions and problems between the two teams.

Reflection and Learning:

Over the next couple of hours, we tried to discuss it, but we were all unsuccessful. Later in the afternoon, we sat down to a meeting with Scott and Steve, and we were able to put everything out on the table. The meeting was uncomfortable at times, and emotions ran high, but it was incredibly valuable and eventually led to a positive outcome. Evidently, both teams had issues bothering them about the other team, and in most cases, it was caused by an action that was completely unintentional on the part of the team. By bringing these issues into the light, we were able to discuss them and work through them.

It had been planned for a couple of days for both WaSH teams to go out to dinner together and going into the meeting, several of us were dreading the awkwardness that we assumed would follow. However, we left the meeting with a heavy weight lifted. We had discovered new ways to work well together as a cohesive unit, and also how to work as individual teams without stepping on each other’s toes or being unintentionally insulting. We went to dinner together and there wasn’t a single hint of hostility or awkwardness. We shared a great meal and came together as a group, forgetting for a moment all the issues that had burdened us for the past day. Although the majority of this scene did not directly impact our work being done, it was the first time our team had really encountered team dynamic issues. By working through it, we were able to come out stronger and in the end, being a strong team is how you are able to make a strong impact.

~

Scene III: Water Works (Literally)!

Backstory:

Coming out of a rough start to the week, our team was very apprehensive going into the Langrug community on Thursday. We knew that the WaSH Services team had a very powerful and emotionally draining day with the community on Tuesday and that a very tense community meeting was held on Wednesday. Therefore, we were not sure what to expect upon our arrival. We were nervous that there would be more tensions in the community and possibly anger toward our project team for our action. The following scene describes the unexpected day that ensued once we arrived that day.

Cast of Characters:

WPI WaSH-UP Business Operations team, WPI WaSH-UP Services team, Sidiniwe Savings Group, community members

Setting:

Langrug Informal Settlement; Mandela Park WaSH-UP facility

Scene:

When both WaSH teams loaded up the bus in the morning there was a little bit of apprehension in the group. We were very much unsure of what we were going to walk into once we arrived at the facility. Much to our surprise, when we pulled up to the facility we were greeted in the most unexpected and wonderful way possible! As soon as we opened to door we could hear loud, joyful singing radiating from the facility and we all ran inside to see what all the excitement was about. We were beyond happy to learn that after many weeks the water had finally been turned back on! All of the ladies were dancing and singing around the facility, throwing water playfully at one another and happily cleaning the facility. Everyone was smiling and laughing and right from the start the positive energy was just overflowing. It was clear that this was going to be a great day.

 

Once the excitement calmed down a bit and the facility was cleaned anew, the team was ready to sit down and discuss the events of the past two days. We began by asking the co-researchers what their thoughts were about how the past days went and what problems they were able to address or solve in the community. The ladies began by offering their deepest apologies and relaying the fact that they were so sorry that they had acted inappropriately and more so that they disappointed us. They also informed us that the community had discussed a lot of the money issues that had been affecting their work and how they proposed to solve them. Overall, we finally seemed to find a middle ground and had a mutual understanding of each other’s expectations. We left this discussion with a positive outlook and excitement for the continuation of the project.

The rest of the day continued to carry on the high spirits and positive energy. A lot of physical changes were made! The first coat of paint was laid on the outside of the facility, the shelves for the kiosk were painted and materials were purchased to finish the construction of the kiosk. To end the day, the group met as a whole to eat lunch and watch a special video of the progress made in the project thus far. The day ended in the best way we could have imagined possible. We left the facility smiling and laughing, ready to accomplish a lot in the coming days.

Reflection and Learning:

This day represented a huge milestone for the WaSH Business team. Up until this day we really hadn’t experienced any deep emotional connection with the community members. But today was a day for celebration and happiness. Today we were able to overcome the problems of the past weeks and come to a mutual understanding.

Through the past four days of this week our team learned that sometimes actions speak louder than words. By making a decision to make a statement of silence to the community we were able to make a bigger impact that we had ever imagined possible. By making that one decision we got the time we needed to reflect and gather our own thoughts, as well as provide a catalyst for the community to have a very important conversation that was pivotal to their progress. At the end of this day it finally seemed that the team was one cohesive unit. We all were happy to be working together and we were on our way to achieving our common goal.

~

Scene IV: Work and Play

Backstory:

This week had been a troublesome one for the WaSH Business team.  It had started out on an unusually frustrating note which had led to some drastic but, necessary decisions.  While some of these decisions led to the team being absent for some team bonding, it ultimately led to a refocusing and overall better performance by all parties involved.

Cast of Characters:

WPI WaSH-UP Business Operations team, Sidiniwe Savings Group

Setting:

Langrug Informal Settlement; Mandela Park WaSH-UP facility

Scene:

The group arrived on Friday ready to do some major work on the facility.  We were armed with all the supplies we would need and had all the support we could want.  Immediately when we arrived, we had a short sit down with the ladies to go over our plan for the day.  After that, we worked in conjunction with the ladies to continue our overhaul of the facility in order to revamp the image and hopefully increase visibility and traffic through the facility.  We started by finishing painting the exterior of the facility and the storage bungalow.  While this work was not exactly the most enjoyable, the ladies and ourselves made the most of the nice weather and just got it done.  We then went about repairing doors in the facility along with finishing the painting of the kiosk area.  After that had been completed, the ladies were extremely excited and happy to see these ideas coming to fruition and yielding visible results.  While this wasn’t the first day that we had been doing this kind of work, it was almost certainly the most significant day in terms of progress we had made.  It was a milestone day in so many ways for the team and the community members involved.

After a long day of hard work, we began winding down and cleaning up the supplies.  As this was happening a large number of children came by because they were out of crèche for the day.  When this happened, almost all progress was stopped as these kids stole the show.  They were so energetic and their being there led to more community members showing up and noticing the facility.  This helped the team bond with the community and also gain some public visibility.  It was a wonderful way to end our week because it also provided some much needed stress relief to the team after what had begun as a pretty dreary one.

After we had gotten over the initial shock of the number of children at the facility, we decided it would be a good time to hand out the t-shirts to the community members.  While this was a small gesture, the ladies were beside themselves with excitement over the gifts.  They were singing and dancing and having a great time over a seemingly small gesture.  After this we took our team pictures, along with about a million others, with our new shirts on.

Reflection and Learning:

In this day, the team made extensive strides in so many aspects of our project and in terms of connecting. Giving this facility was one of the most important ways to initially help this facility. When imagining our project form back at WPI, we did not think about the renovations too much. However, after being here and hearing the ladies input, we realized that it was of vital importance. This represented a change in the mentality toward the facility, the management, and the savings group itself. The new aesthetics of the facility instilled hope in all of the members and gave them something they could look at and be proud of. This point was reinforced when the children were drawn to the facility now that it looked nicer and more vibrant. Along with this, the chance to showcase the facility to the community was a wonderful experience for the team as we were able to show everyone the progress we had made. In the middle of painting the storage bungalow, a random woman approached us and said, “Nice bungalow!”. It was a simple statement, but it meant a lot to the team and motivated us to continue our work.