* Not a 100% of the time but I am somewhat sure that at times
a Peace Corps Volunteer has … The Perfect Project.
  I was a volunteer that engineered ‘the perfect project’ right
here in town. Yup, it was genius, an unparalleled thought
process that would result in a giant step forward for development.
  A description of the project goes as follows. It is that of
supporting young intelligent poor Rroma children. It was to
specifically address the problem of lack of funds, opportunities
and general support, from an environment that as of yet, does not
realize the importance of an education in this new evolving global
world.
  The goal of the project was to give a child who wanted to go to
school an opportunity to work a few hours a week in a somewhat
professional environment. Places like the local library, cultural
house and so forth.
  My counterpart, me and the Rroma representative sat down for
hours developing a strategy that was for all practical purposes
bullet proof. In fact I will be redundant and say that it was purely
perfect.
  We had this young Rroma girl named Romina that was first in her
class and was actually from one of the poorest families in town.
Despite the fact that the family was poor, they are just plain quality
people. Very nice from the father down to the youngest child. This
girl was going to be the pioneer for our project.
  So we had our first candidate for our ‘perfect project’. We went to
the local library to solicit the head librarian’s support. The Rroma
representative and me sat with the librarian and negotiated for
‘the perfect project’.
  Everything was set and Romina was ready to begin her new part
time after school job. Right here I have to explain that here in town
it is absolutely rare that a school age kid works a part time job or
a full time job, even during school vacation. So for Romina to get a
part time job after school in the library to make some money that
would help her and her family, is what I would consider … a pretty
big thing.
  The actual core of the project was to give support to a young
deserving student in the Rroma community. Give them a job that
is better than cleaning streets or the like. Also one of the other
basic reasons was to help integrate the Rroma into the mainstream
community. For Romina herself to help build a little resume that I
don’t want to say is exactly correct but … as her being of the
Rroma culture, would probably help her to be ‘better’ than
another non-Rroma applicant in a future job search.
  It also was a incredibly inexpensive project that would cost nothing
more $15 a kid per month. Not a bad investment for the future of a
deserving young mind. The project is easily duplicated and for it’s
intended goal (not to bore you with this phrase again) is ’the perfect
project’ for this town and the Rroma community.
  It is true that history repeats itself and when I was in El Salvador
we did a similar project. Two girls from the village I was in would
receive enough money to continue their education. In El Salvador
(as in Senegal) a girl in the villages I was in didn't have much
problem attending school until they completed the 6th grade. After
that it is a rare treat to see a girl continue on. The reason is that the
parents usually can’t see the benefit of sending their girls to
school. This all goes into the category of cycles. It is one of Newton’s
laws that states that an object will stay in it’s state (as far as motion
goes) unless affected by a force. In other words if something is
sitting there it needs someone or something to push it into motion
so as to change it’s state.
  That is similar to these cycles of poverty, non-education … etc. So
projects to help poor boys and especially girls continue in school
are the way to go in regards to breaking that cycle.
  In El Salvador I wrote a recommendation for those girls that
almost had the GAD committee crying.
  Gad is a Peace Corps (in the respective country) committee that
works on gender issues.
  The two girls wanted to go to school so bad (or so they said) and
they received the scholarships and things went well … for about
2 months. Then one became pregnant and the other … get this …
took off with a guy on a horse (yeah, really). Then she came home
about two months later. So as you can see that in El Salvador it
didn’t work.
  Which is the reason why I mentioned that history repeats itself
as as you can probably get a hint as to that in the case of Romina,
it didn’t either.
  Last night the Rroma representative gave me the news that
Romina went off and got married.
  So much for ‘the perfect project’ … huh?
  Wouldn’t it be totally hilarious if Romina and her new husband
left on the ‘iron horse’ (train) that runs from town. I actually
doubt they did but that is one of the first things that came to my
mind.
  Romina is 16 years old and I think that she wasn’t forced to
marry. It is again, the result of being poor and kind of getting rid of
a mouth to feed ( I am not sure, probably just being a little negative
at this point) but also it is part of the old Rroma habits of marrying
off the young girls. I am sure that even though Romina wasn’t
forced she wasn’t discouraged to get married either.
  It is hard to argue against stereotyping when things like this happen.
  So, the best is yet to come as me and the Rroma representative
have to go to the librarian next week and tell her what happened.
Romina didn’t tell her so she is probably expecting her protégé to
show up sometime this week.
  The Rroma representative mentioned that it is going to be
somewhat of an embarrassing experience seeing as we basically
pleaded for the librarian to give Romina a chance to … make it in
life, with her support.
  This isn’t the first time I’ve had to deal with this type of disaster
as it is somewhat similar to the El Salvador attempt. There I had
to return all but two months of the money that the girls used.
  But what is making me kind of giddy and I wonder if it is part of
my coping mechanism is that unlike El Salvador where the girls
lasted two months, Romina lasted only six weeks. I am wondering
why I think that that is funny.
  Well, I am not the only Peace Corps Volunteer that has these
types of stories. To tell you the truth I am not disappointed as I am
looking at it as another story to tell the grandkids.
  So there you have it … a perfect ending to a perfect project.