This Saturday was the Grand Opening of the Family Art and Literacy Center.  Very exciting.  The Center had been open for business before, but it was only with the prospect of having 75 people visit the Center that the construction was finally finished.  When we visited two weeks ago, there were no cabinets for the art supplies nor were there shelves for the books, which were being hastily housed in a toy box.  By the opening though, all of the art was hung in a display of the artists’ work, the children’s art room had tables for the kids to work at and cabinets to house supplies, and shelves had been fully installed so that the books could be displayed.  Amazing progress in two weeks!

I met some really great people at the opening who will be fantastic networking opportunities over the next couple of weeks.  Jane Hale, the Brandeis professor who has been instrumental in this Center, is a phenomenal woman.  I had a great conversation with her and a Peace Corps Volunteer about the merits of different philosophies of development.  It centered around the book, Mountains Beyond Mountains, the story of Paul Farmer.  Farmer has set up world class clinics in very rural areas, proving that it is possible to bring the best health care to the poorest places in the world.  The Peace Corps Volunteer, Madeline, was very supportive of Farmer’s work, while Jane was more reticent to agree with him.  Madeline liked Farmer’s idea of “common humanity” and that those with more resources should share with those who have less, which translates to bringing expensive medical technologies to places that could otherwise not provide those services.  Jane countered with the observation that while Farmer has done great work, it’s not sustainable without large investments and donations from international organizations, and more importantly, Farmer’s philosophy doesn’t encourage poor people to innovate and effectively use the resources that the poor do have and instead propagates a system whereby the poor establish a reliance on Farmer and his clinic.

I tend to agree with Jane, but I really haven’t done enough reading to give an educated explanation of my own views.  Many of the books that are frequently the topic of discussion are on my to read list as soon as I get back from Lesotho.

I tried uploading pictures from the opening, but apparently Ann is the only one who can get the uploader to work for her.  Sorry!