Time

I remember Sarah Lewis (a returned long term volunteer with EWB) once said that the biggest difference between her first four months in Ghana and her first year was that she learned who her real friends were. I wouldn’t say I’ve had exactly the same experience during my first six weeks here, but I am beginning to appreciate how understanding grows and changes with time. Looking back at my previous perceptions of life in Ghana, I find them riddled with flaws and misconceptions. I’ve also come to recognize that I felt this same way after two weeks and will almost certainly feel the same way after three and a half months.

In a way it’s a bit like calculus. If we let variable U represent understanding and variable t represent time spent in Ghana and consider that understanding is a function of time we obtain:



If we then realize that the more time someone spends in Ghana the closer they come to obtaining perfect understanding, but also that it is never possible to actually achieve perfect understanding, we obtain the function:



In short, I’m starting to realize how very very important it is to spend time. I suppose this idea applies to any field, but I think it’s particularly relevant to international development. Of course there’s never enough time and there’s always an opportunity cost to spending more time. Individuals and organizations hoping to create positive change have to find a balance; what portion of their limited resources do they spend trying to understand their intended beneficiaries and what portion do they spend trying to help them. Anthropologists obviously focus on trying to understand and occupy one end of the extreme, whereas the well intentioned eighth grader organizing a Christmas cheer box full of toothbrushes, plastic dolls and crayons occupies the other end of the extreme. I don’t think either approach is particularly ideal, but feel that generally there isn’t enough emphasis on spending time to understand.

So what’s the right amount of time? I’ve been grappling with this question ever since arriving. On the one hand I want to know that what I’m doing is actually going to have a positive influence on the poor in Ghana, but at the same time recognize that this concern can be paralyzing. While I don’t want to leave having spent all my time working on a project that isn’t addressing the real causes of poverty, I also don’t want to leave having spent all my time questioning and not doing. Eric Dudley in The Critical Villager says something along the lines of “you have to dream for success while looking back and being critical”. For me the toughest part is truly believing in that success and not getting hung up on the obstacles. Of the many lessons I take away from Ghana, I think one of the greatest will be that of accepting imperfection and learning to embrace small achievements.