Getting to It and No Booze домой

Last Friday was the first day of actual getting down to it at the Alpine Fund. Basically, many areas for improvement were revealed by the expected arrival of a volunteer for which the Alpine Fund seemed quite unprepared. This was similar to my arrival. But I will be here for six months. This volunteer will be here for two or three weeks and apparently he thought we would be able to occupy most of his time here. Somewhere there was a miscommunication that might be better characterized as a non-communication. So that is one thing to do better: communicate accurately with potential volunteers before they arrive so that all parties are prepared. As of now The Alpine Fund is a part time NGO run by a dedicated and responsible law student. She does a great job with limit time and resources.

After a stop-and-go meeting with the new volunteer, it was the perfect time for Arianna and I to hash out exactly what the Alpine Fund does and how it does these things. I then asked her some questions about the organization and, when appropriate, offered some ideas from the PSO playbook. There is also a lack of delegation or division of administration for the related-but-distinct activities of the Fund. Thus we discussed officially delegating and separating the weekly classes, the trips, the special events and the administration. Naturally there will be overlap and people need to be flexible, but having a good idea or who is responsible for what will help give me direction and keep me from feeling overwhelmed. Otherwise there would be a danger of being overwhelmed by possibilities, none of which are urgent and then stalling in confused discouragement.

As I wrote in an email to a friend, I have arrogantly begun not so much restructuring as just structuring the Alpine Fund. Inspired by God, I first considered trying to structure the administration in my own likeness. I fear, however, that the human form makes for a poor administrative body. I am making things like “data bases,” a “volunteer placement form” and a “master calendar.” I have to say that my crowning vainglorious achievement, however will probably be trying to put a dollar figure on the joy of orphans when they go to the mountains. Yessir, nothing sucks the humanity out of an NGO (to make room for new grants) like a little old-school econ101 utility maximization formulae.

There are lots of little things to do also, basically the goal for me will be institutionalization such that the Alpine Fund can survive being jostled between competent hands in a regularly unsynchronized fashion.

On the home front, I have discovered what I suspected after our big feast; no one in the family drinks (certainly none of the women and certainly not at home). I can see why people would shun the drink. When unemployment, corruption and poverty are high, drinking is often a sad, forlorn and helpless affair. The resignation to despair that only reinforces this downward social spiral is an ugly thing.

Then there is the scene which I am more familiar with, the Young American/Anglo Party Drinking. Far from despair, this manifests as revelrous delight and vainglorious pomp. It’s usually fun and it smells of decadence.

Of course often the two intersect. There is the fun for moment which veils underlying sadness, depression, soul adrift. Sad all day, happy when they drink.

And there those who wash away the phony smiles of the work week to wallow in despondency. Happy all day, sad when they drink.

In those terms, there is not much good to say about drink. Indeed it is fair to say that alcoholism is dumb and that it sucks. This sucky dumbness seems to me most acute in rural areas where other flashy distractions of civilization do not exist. Alcohol is the only route for the weary escapees.

So, why did it bother me somewhere far back in my mind that the family complete rejects drinking? Now, my dominant rational self hold no grudges and think nothing less of my wonderfully hospitably host family for their adherence to values that have clearly led to general happiness and success. But I will not lie to myself, nor to anyone else, rejection of drinking entirely out of hand strikes me as a bit drastic and a small voice inside protests. Maybe a little decadence and despair is healthy. For me, it has given life a flavor that puritan living would lack.

It’s that precocious Golden Mean. A little excess, in moderation, allows us to see our faults and potentials all the more clearly. It is never good to obsess over either, but keeping ‘em in mind can’t hurt.