Glitches and oops! And Everything was going so well….
It came as a shock to us that on getting to the village today, the president walks up to us with the phone in its carton; and held it like a prized possession only just pulled out from it’s hiding place. She tells us that the phone is not in active use because they have not succeeded in mounting a pole. For all we thought we knew, this phone had been used to call us a fortnight ago because the antenna and the connector enabled the women receive signal and reach us; apparently not. We are told that when they reached us on phone, they situated themselves on top of a hill where there is full service reception and after the calls were made, the phone and the women returned to their respective places of abode.
A few young men pass by and tell the women to get serious. They brag that if the project was given to men, every ‘pole’ would have been in place by now.
So we ask what the situation is with the pole; why has the pole not been mounted…and we are replied with silence and murmurings. I go to the house of the sole administrator and he promises to help us buy a pole tomorrow so from the women’s weekly stipends, they give him 2,500.00 Naira; approximately 15 dollars for the purchase and ‘installation’ of the pole.
The meeting turns into a sermon under a tree so to speak; we preach to the women on not relenting in their efforts to make this project work. Soon after, the secretary, Naomi Bamaiyi, hands us the minutes of the previous meeting along with the names of the registered members. We promise to call the women just to make sure the phone is working actively and also to keep them abreast with new developments.
In spite of the little setback, the minutes of the women’s meetings show that they are up to some good. Within themselves, they have started an “adashe” which is a local savings device. In addition, the president informed us of their meetings that hold fortnightly with or without our attendance….way to go, ladies!
Reported by Seember and Binta
