It seems as Project Somos develops in its depth and width of activities, the quantity of competing priorities intensifies. This is not as easy to sort out as financial capacities or targeted and committed priorities, but has a complexity exponentially complicated by the human factor of families with mothers and children.
On a daily basis, I have to prioritized my activities and some days I feel like an air traffic controller bringing in the airplane/task that has been circling for days/weeks and nearing an empty gas tank. Of course we have predetermined weekly meetings with the therapist, the mothers, my foreman, social worker, and interns, which assists in keeping the train on the tracks. But we also have unscheduled meetings with our lawyer, accountant, family doctor, local mayor, school principal, teachers, our mothers, community leaders and people from far and wide wanting tours.
As well there is flow of phone calls that arrive all the time from all locations. Antolin, our foreman calls me at least 5 times a day and I call him at least twice that many. Alicia and I need to implant earpieces, like the CIA, so we don’t need to constantly be answering each other’s calls. And then there is the messaging back and forth and back again. Emails, well, as you can imagine there are a lot, everyday, all day.
But the cause of all of this flurry of activity and competing priorities is human generated and actually very beautiful. The cause is the mothers and children that reside at Project Somos. We have just received another mother with two children and one on the way. This addition should up all of the activity mentioned above and the families make all the administrative suffering worthwhile and gets me out of bed in the morning ready to face it all.
Although there are moments of overwhelm and feelings like we are not doing it fast enough, good enough or for enough families, there are the sweet moments. The moments of seeing the mothers and children laughing in the security of knowing they are loved, they are safe, they have a bright future. There are moments when I can see the big vision unfolding and realize, everything is as it needs to be for now. For me, this is the priority that wins every time.
-Greg
So lovingly put Greg. Your ability to prioritize and keep us in the fold of what is happening on the Finca is an incredible feat.
With Heather at your side, you’ve managed to plant a farm, teach grown ups to cooperate, share your vast knowledge and most important, I feel, teach the staff and the mamas and kids that everyone deserves a chance to experience a wonderful life.
Thank you for all you do, and for being so honest about how much hard work it is to be a loving and compassionate Project Somos Director.
Love to you dear friend.
Tia Gin
Thanks Gin. Sometimes it is difficult for people to really “get” what is happening here. Aside from all the organisation activity, the underlying reality is that this is a place for mothers and children to recuperate from the trauma of poverty and domestic violence and move forward into a positive future. There is a lot of infrastructure to support it and there are many very wonderful people who assist in the work. I am grateful for all the encouragement and support as it would be an impossible task to do on one’s own.