Housing and Security

I am slowly moving into my 4th week in Ziguinchor and nearing the end of the point where my employer is able to support my residence in a hotel. I came across a colossal house on the edge of the river with a magnificent roof top terrace that is about the size of my entire house in South Bend.  The ultimate venue for an outside salsa party.  I was very very tempted to take it, when two things emerged.  

Almadie house in Dakar

The first was the rent.  It is about 1,200 dollars a month. Not a whole lot when you compare to prices in the Almadie neighborhood of the capital, Dakar, where a three bedroom house can go for as much as 3,000 dollars a month.  But it is miles above any rent here in Casamance.  Most of my staff pay only 30 or 40 dollars a month for a three or four bedroom house - more if the house has ceramic walls and floors - a real good idea for this climate where moisture gets trapped and turns your house into a haven for mold.  I looked a few apartments for 120 dollars that were more than large enough to suit my needs, but the problem is finding an apartment that is available for long-term rent.  Most are looking for temporary arrangements as tourists move through town looking for alternatives to the hotels.

Image and peace work

 

The other dilemma with the house is that it sends the wrong image.  It screams "here in this giant house abides the rich American spending his way into a peace agreement."  The subtle more humble approach that we have adopted clashes with the lifestyle that this house displays.  So, I am off again in search of alternative digs.  I will try to convince one of the apartment owners to give me a chance ti be  long term renter if I pay a supplement.  The one apartment that really peaked my interest is attached to a house where a mixed Senegalese couple live with their infant child.  He is an artist and she is a humanitarian worker.  They both seem very nice and it is located in a very family-oriented part of town.  It is poor but calm and social with kids in abundance playing in the streets, women doing one another's hair, and just a good vibe overall.

The three main components for remaining safe in a conflict environment are acceptance, deterrence and protection.

Acceptance is by far the cheapest and easiest to develop early on.  It is finding a way to communicate the work that you are doing in a way to get the acceptance of the community and the principle actors in the region.  Sometimes it is just a matter of sitting down with a community and hearing what their concerns are and then saying that you have heard them and will be respectful of their views.  Other times it means hiring staff from the local community or perhaps even placing a number of local youth, women, and elders on the board that evaluates the decision-making process in the development of projects in the area.  Living in a house in that community sends a particular message about my approachability and offers a chance for me to have easy access to community concerns.  If someone should intend me any harm, acceptance offers little defense except the support of the community that may speak on my behalf.  In places like Darfur, we used acceptance as much as possible but had to rely on deterrence to great degree as well.

One major form of deterrence is decreased accessibility. It means getting a ride to work with the company vehicle and changing itineraries on a regular basis.  It also means living in a house that has walls high and reinforced enough to make an aggressor think twice before attempting to breach it.  It means having an unarmed watchman in front of the house day and night. And it means having a well lit compound for obvious reasons. It also means traveling in unarmed convoys with other NGOs who are traveling along the same path with a similar or same itinerary.  Thankfully, conditions in Casamance are such that deterrence has not proven unnecessary measure, thus far. I pray that it never will. One thing to remember with deterrence is that it reduces the risks, but not the threats, by reducing vulnerability.  The threats remain the same

Protection is the measure of last resort.  Very few NGOs are willing to operate in any environment where protection is a requirement for their presence in the area.  It requires deterrence in the form of armed guards, armed convoys, and more rigid requirements for movement and lodging.  These conditions night apply to NGOs operating in places like Iraq, Somalia, or Afghanistan.  It is costly both in terms of actual dollars and also to the integrity of the program.  The success of a program relies, in part, on building a level of trust between you and your target community.  If you come with an armed escort, live in guarded compounds, and remain totally inaccessible outside working hours, you place yourself outside the reality of your target community.  They do not have access to such protection.  There is not real sense of communion.  Why should they take the risk when you do not.  Protection is by all means a necessary evil in areas where food and medicine are inaccessible and must be delivered by any means possible.  But no one has any illusions that a protection security model is conducive to peace work at the community level or even at the track II level (civil society).  Protection reduce the risks by containing the threat with a counter-threat.  Peaee dialogue and threats of violence are mutually exclusive in my mind. 

NGO convoy

Not too long after I started writing this blog, I got a call from my staff that they were on the road returning to town from their field mission.  It has been slow going.  But we have been putting in place protocols for keeping in regular contact and establishing standards of procedure to stay informed, make smart decisions in the face of armed confrontation, and above all preserve life.  The caller indicated that he was on the road with a military convoy.   

A What?

It went against everything we have discussed thus far about neutrality, acceptance, and image.  Apparently another group of foreign NGOs had formed a convoy and invited our group to join accompanied by armored military vehicles.  It is possible that the escort was necessary for reasons my group decided not to mention.  Those reasons notwithstanding, I advised that they politely excuse themselves to address other unfinished work in town.  It only takes one misstep to tarnish the image of a group like ours. Monday morning promises to be very interesting. 

Stand at the Regional Social Forum

While my team was out and about, I was attending the test run of the upcoming World Social Forum scheduled for February 2011 in Dakar.  During its tenth anniversary, the World Social Forum is going to try a new format. In 2010, social movements and civil organizations are going to organize all over the world their own forums in order to debate alternatives to the civilization crisis that ravages the human kind.  Not sure if South Bend is on board to prepare their own but seems like a worthy cause to me.  Getting all that positive energy going in the same direction at the same time can't be a bad thing.  My group sponsored the trial run here with participation of groups from Guinea Bissau and Gambia as well as from various parts of Senegal.  The meetings had a lot of logistical obstacles to overcome before the forum actually got underway - about 3 hours later than planned.  But once we were in the flow even the frequent power outages did not deter the group from holding the first forum of its kind in Senegal.  The speeches were varied and ranged from frustrations over the lack of alternatives to violence, to talks of increased roles for women in the peace process, and the dissolving of border imposed by former colonial masters.  The entire event took place outside instead of air-conditioned conference rooms as is the norm here with such an intellectual crowd.

Taxi station

After my share of ant, fly, and spider bites each day I retired to the office to check emails and update whatever files were needed in Dakar.  The office 4x4 vehicle is on the road,with the team, so it has been taxis to and fro.  Taxis here are a story of their own.  Rickety, doors barely hanging on. dashboards decorated with Mother Mary statues, Sponge Bob Square Pants, and even pictures of favorite football players.  Never a dull ride. They do have seat belts but hard to imagine the car resisting a crash.  We never actually move more than 5 miles an hour because of the deep crater-like pot holes that are sprinkled throughout town.  Sounds irresponsible to even get into one of these vehicles but it is part of the social and physical reality.  Everyone else is doing it.  That'a good reason, right?

A long weekend ahead.  A text message just came in on my cell phone.  My group arrived safe sound. Tine to work on that Power Point for Thursday's meeting, look for a house, maybe skip lunch today and grab a snack as an excuse to talk with the ladies selling peanuts in the market. They always seem to have the latest news and unique insight on the situation as it evolves in this area.

Peace to my friends and family.