Presentation to volunteers

It's Sunday, September 27. It's volunteers' first day of training. About 30 volunteers have gathered to understand the project and their role in the project. The plan was to share the whole project with the volunteers, discuss it's social and environmental implications, and answer any questions volunteers might have. Almost all volunteers are under the age of 30 mostly between 20 and 25 years. Our auditorium was open street in front of El Hadji's house. Volunteers were seated in the chairs on the sandy street with enough room for pedestrians to pass through. Everyone was excited to be the part of this presentation which they want to convert into a movement.    

At dust the program started. El Hadji pulled out his brand new Epson projector set on a small table. The wall between his front door and window became our screen. It took me about 20 minutes to go over the slides. I spent most time on the slides that depicted the model in action. PowerPoint's animation can really bring boring slide into life. After the PowerPoint presentation, it was time for question and answer session. I was not expecting many questions.But contrary to expectations, I was showered with questions. Volunteers were not taking my presentation at it's face value. They was excited but interrogative. How do we know water is clean? How will you check the quality of water? What if someone accidentally takes a sip of the processed water? Is there any bacteria in the clean water? How can you so sure about the quality? The questions kept coming..... One would think that in a neighborhood where people don't have even many basic necessities, they may not care about these environmental and health issues. This was an eye-opening experience. At the same time it was gratifying to see that people do care about their communities and their health. They may not have the means but they are fully aware of environmental issues. Their enthusiasm and desire to come and participate is a sign that the good times are ahead of these neighborhoods.