Crossing to the other side – episode 3

Labour

The bank manager has jet black hair and is good -looking and well-groomed, very Colombian. She is also very pleasant.

But she is not going to give me any money.

“The papers are all in order and the accounts are activated. But the cheque needs the Foundation’s stamp on it,” she says with a glowing smile, which in other circumstances would warm the heart.

At work in Salento

I don’t have the stamp with me and I have been in the city for the past six hours trying to get my hands on some dosh in order to send 505 snacks for the children and parents in the five municipalities in which we are working. We don’t yet have permanent solution in place for provision of the food supplement as the company we contacted for the contract sent the quote three days late and when we received it the price was too high. It’s the 3rd time I’ve had to run around buying hundreds of milk sachets and biscuits and taxi-ing them to the bus station to dispatch them up the mountains.

I know, I know, it sounds terribly disorganised, and it is – we should have got this sorted earlier. But when you consider things like having to spend a whole day trying to cash a cheque, maybe you can understand why there are some rough spots I haven’t quite managed to iron out yet!

And every step in this process has been a bit like a difficult and painful birth. I get one problem solved and three more appear. Every week I think: “Next week things

Solen's brain imploding

will be calmer, I’ll be able to get some back-burner jobs done – or even spend some time with my kids.” But something always comes up. However hopefully next week – after I have got some important things done like finalizing our teams’ work contracts and ordering the didactical materials – I will be able to go and visit the towns where the real work , the essence of the programme, is happening.

I have faith in our resourceful and creative teams of teachers and assistants and their coordinator

Our teams are working hard, still with very limited resources, because the government funding has not yet come through., being as creative as they can with what is available to them. In four of the towns, we have decided to hold one of the weekly meetings in village or hamlets at some distance from the main town. This means that children who would not otherwise be reached by any programme can attend, thus getting the attention they need. It also means, unfortunately, higher costs and that the materials we can buy with our limited budget will have to be spread more thinly.

However, I have faith in our resourceful and creative teams of teachers and assistants and their coordinator. I’m sure they will manage more than well to magic up a fun learning environment for the little ones. I need a breath of fresh air after battling with banks, Ministry databases, insurance policies and invoices – and before starting the anxious wait (who knows how long it will be?) for the first government payment, supposedly at the end of the month, which will allow us to loosen our collective belt a little.

I need to see the children’s smiling faces, hear their laughter and cries, get my clothes paint-stained with their sticky fingers, chat with their carers and hear about the reality on the ground from our staff.

So here’s hoping that next time I’ll be able to tell you something about the real stuff!