Dispatch: Waking up in Lagos

Waking up in Lagos is sort of like waking up in New York City. You hear the horns honking and people yelling on the street. Then comes the cock-a-doodle-doo. And you realize where you are isn't the home of Wall Street, the Upper East Side, or the Brooklyn Bridge. It is, however, home to Broad Street, Victoria Island, and Third Mainland Bridge, the longest bridge on the African continent. It is the commercial heart of West Africa and spans the bewildering social and economic complexity of Nigeria.

Honking is a language of its own on the streets of Nigeria. The diversity of moving objects on the road ranges from coach buses to motorcycles to wheelbarrows. Drivers make three lanes out of two, with motorcyclists and pedestrians cutting in on all sides; their only aim to get where they're going as quickly as possible without hitting something. Honking helps facilitate the myriad activity on the roadways. Two short honks means something akin to "On your left!" whereas one long beep is a sign of anger or warning. Honking is the mediating interpreter when traditional driving laws are not the norm and allows what developed countries might consider unsafe driving to become de facto traffic law. In Nigeria, it appears the only law is that there is no law.

The thing to remember is to do what you can, when you can. Go to the bathroom when you can, because you might get stuck in infamous Lagos traffic. Buy what you like when you can, because the next time you visit the market the vendor may be out of business. Use the electricity when you can, because it might go out before your food is fully cooked. When resources are this scarce and undependable, the power of now is undeniable. The only moment that matters is this moment. Right now. So use your iron, buy what you need, and go to the bathroom. But please, not in the Lagos Island Lagoon!

A little less text and a lot more snappin'

Just wanted to share a quick round-up of snapshots from my time in Abuja the past week and a half. I'll stop with my words for now, since these pictures should be worth several thousand of them. Enjoy!

Heartland Democracy seeking P/T Community Educator

This search announcement came across my wire and I wanted to pass it along for any interested readers and their networks. Thanks for spreading the good word!
 
Organization:  Heartland Democracy
Categories:  Public Policy, Education
Title:    Community Educator
Location:  Twin Cities Area, Minnesota
Compensation:  $15-17/hr
Deadline:  9/10/09
Type:  Contractor, 10 to 40 hours per week, mid-September 2009 through
January 2010

ORGANIZATIONAL SUMMARY: 
Heartland Democracy is a 501c3 research, educational, and charitable public interest group winning over Midwestern minds and hearts to progressive goals through regional public engagement on values, facts, and ideas.  All for One, a project in Minneapolis, is a public engagement program funded by donors and the Minneapolis Foundation.  It works primarily with African-American adults in North Minneapolis and with Twin Cities high school students who are overcoming economic and other disadvantages.  The program uses discussion and individual and group work to lead participants through a discovery of their own values, shared values, the relationship between citizens and government, and the fruits of community involvement and politics.  It aims to help inactive and young citizens become active, savvy, progressive citizens.  See www.HeartlandDemocracy.org for additional information.

PRIMARY DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:
This is a flexible, part-time, temporary, contractual position responsible for leading and facilitating adult discussion groups and high school groups.   The Educator will help design a curriculum and discussion guides, facilitate and lead discussions, and create multiple means of guiding participants through a multi-session program.  The Educator will be responsible to the President and will work with the Project Director to uphold program standards and ensure a rewarding, stimulating learning experience.  Other related duties may be assigned. 

EXPERIENCE AND QUALIFICATION REQUIREMENTS:
A zeal to lead people in discussion-based and active learning designed to help them participants discover the benefits of active citizenship is crucial.  At least one year’s experience teaching, facilitating, or leading discussions among high school students and/or adults is necessary.  Excellent communications and interpersonal skills are necessary.  A background in the Twin Cities’ African-American community would be very valuable.  A good knowledge of government, politics, and history would be desirable.  Experience with community organizing, politics, government, and/or public policy preferred.   Four years of college preferred.  Must be at least 21 years old.  Must share a progressive approach to public policy.  

HOW TO APPLY:
Email Resume and cover letter to: Info@HeartlandDemocracy.org

Citizens League Action Group: Education

While in Nigeria, I want to continue highlighting some of the great work being done in Minnesota. One of the Citizens League’s initiatives are its Action Groups, which engage young adults in developing a policy question and pursuing action to address corresponding issues. In its second round this year, there are three Action Groups focused on Education, Poverty, and Financial Literacy. This week, I’m excited to feature guest blogger, Rebecca Lahr, who shares her insights below about the progress of the Education Action Group, which she co-Chairs.

Rebecca started her involvement in the Citizens League after quitting her job, looking for a different path. Her participation in the action group project has opened other doors for her, and she is currently working part-time supporting the growth of a youth development program for Latino youth, as well as working part time as an office assistant at a specialty school within the Minneapolis Public Schools.

Our policy question focuses on the integration of civic skills into areas outside of the social studies classroom. We define civic skills in its broad sense, such as effectively communicating ideas, knowledge of the worlds’ events, and an awareness of individual power within a group. We are interested in understanding how these skills have the potential to be manifested in math and science classrooms, and undoing the common knowledge that civic education is a “unit” within social studies. It is the responsibility of every subject matter, and of the public school system as a whole, to teach these skills to students to create a responsible, capable, and educated citizenry.

During outreach, we have focused on speaking to civic leaders, speaking to STEM leaders, as well as those who may have experience in integrating the two. Civic leaders, although very excited, have had mixed feelings about the possibility, some expressing great enthusiasm and some having cautious reservations. In regards to STEM leaders, there is quite an interest in the promise of connecting civic skills into STEM curriculum; the more relevant the subject is to the students’ lives, the more interest, the more connections that are made, and the more learning that can take place. In the final group of outreach, we have found people and organizations that are connecting STEM and civics on the higher education level. They have mixed feelings on the feasibility of transferring their curriculum to the high school level, as high school (and the K-12 system as a whole) are guided strictly by the No Child Left Behind legislation, as well as individual state standards that must be fulfilled.

With all of these perspectives in mind, we have decided to focus on developing a type of pilot project, which can incorporate civic skills into a math or science classroom. We are currently searching for a teacher who is already interested and committed to this idea, and desires extra resources to fully support his/her development in the classroom. In this way, we hope to partner with a teacher, and offer to connect them with Department of Education staff who understand the standards, civic leaders who can help make community connections, and also to connect them to the students’ desires through a social networking website, Students Speak Out, to create further curriculum relevance for the students. We are excited at the prospect of also closely working with the Minnesota Department of Education’s STEM specialist, who has shown an exceptional amount of interest in this idea. After the unit, we will develop a policy brief describing the pilot project, and distribute it to policy makers to create awareness on the subject.

If you are interested in learning more about the idea of how civic ideals can (and should) be integrated into classrooms other than social studies, here are a few of the general resources that we have found to be great background resources:
SENCER – Science Education for New Civic Engagement and Responsibilities
Rethinking Schools
National Youth Leadership Council
Radical Math
Pennsylvania and New York Campus Compact: service learning and STEM summit
Students Speak Out
Project Tomorrow

If you have any suggestions or comments, you may share them with me at becky_anne34@msn.com.

Don’t change lanes, make a new one!

It’s been almost a week since I first arrived in Abuja and Nigeria has not disappointed! It is a beautiful place with a wide diversity of people, languages, food, and resources. We have visited the Guara Waterfalls, Usuma Dam, and several villages, including Ushafa (also known as Clinton Village because of the former President’s 2000 visit) to learn about Nigerian culture and the country’s vast natural resources.

Along with our cultural visits and group work, we have met with groups like the Abuja Enterprise Agency, Farms to Markets Synergies, MedicAid, EWT Microfinance Bank, ActionAid, Frez Worth Investments, the Open Society Institute of West Africa, and ECWA Evangel Nursery/Primary School. Meeting with entrepreneurs, NGOs, and other organizations has highlighted a few of the distinct challenges of underdevelopment and the lack of basic infrastructure. A few energy and transportation related examples:

*Electricity can (and does) go out at any given time

*Traffic signal lights go unused due to the undependable power supply and police are used to direct traffic

*Street lights are present along the roads and highways but go unlit at night so drivers need to use their headlights and those of neighboring cars to make their ways

When this is your modus operandi, what happens? An economic analyst at the U.S. Embassy informed us in her briefing that the test of how long one has been in Nigeria is what happens during a conversation when the electricity goes out. Those who stop talking and wonder out loud what event has caused the power outage are new to Nigeria. In the event that a person continues talking like nothing has taken place, s/he has been in Nigeria for a while. Flexibility and making the best of the circumstances seems to be the name of the game in Nigeria:

*People hawk sugar cane, gum, disposable razors, bananas, and more on the street corners and along the roads in order to capture the captive market of drivers and passengers in slow-moving traffic.

*On our first day driving around Abuja, traffic slowed to a standstill on a four-lane divided highway. Waiting under the hot sun for a while, we noticed cars starting to move past us on either side, creating an additional lane alongside the two headed westbound. Then, cars started driving on the sandy shoulder of the road to the right of us as well as cutting across the highway partition to drive forward against oncoming traffic to our left. They took two of the three “lanes” on the other side (where there should have only been two lanes) and then ventured onto that side’s shoulder as well. What had originally been two lanes to each direction of traffic eventually became eight lanes, seven of which were heading west!

*55% of Nigerians live below the poverty line and 70% of currency (naira) is kept out of the banking sector. Bank branches are not located in villages, financial literacy is a challenge, and costs are high for banks to develop infrastructure to allow the type of savings rural and poor people would access. To address the needs of the middle class and poor, groups like EWT Microfinance Bank offer micro-savings, micro-credit, and micro-insurance. They provide financial services to a niche market with value-added, including financial training and skill development. Based largely on the model of Muhammed Yunus and the Grameen Bank, EWT Microfinance Bank is helping provide life-changing credit and loans to Nigeria’s middle-class and poor.

Mr. Soloman Agamah, a businessman and sought-after consultant, shared his philosophy with our group that obstacles and opportunities are the flip sides of the same coin. No power? Set up work to be done offline. Governmental policy change? Create a Plan B that allows for an easy switch regardless of what measures are changed or reversed. Frustrating commute? Sell goods to those on the road, making everywhere the drive-thru. Nigerians use their entrepreneurial instincts to innovate. They create new lanes of traffic in order to move forward.

In the midst of the recent economic crisis, President Obama’s Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel, urged that US citizens, businesses, and organizations not waste a recession. The opportunity to face challenges, overcome hardships, and emerge with new and revised institutions and practices is still afoot. Have we been able to support this mindset in Minnesota? At the first sign of a spending deficit or declining quality of schools, do we all of the sudden stand up, startled, and stop our conversations? Or are we prepared to keep working on our civic infrastructure even while the power threatens to go out? If not, maybe the road isn’t wide enough and we need to create a few more lanes.