Immersed in Middle-Eastern Culture
In December 2017, 27-year-old volunteer Johnny Fang landed in Jordan. A few days later, US President Donald Trump declared that America would be recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, an announcement that ignited demonstrations across the Middle East. Even Jordan, which normally sees little in the way of civil unrest, experienced a noticeable rise in tensions.
While having such a bombshell hit so early into his stay left Fang feeling uneasy, at no point did he consider sounding the retreat. He was very well aware that there are risks in being in any country. A few months earlier, he had been to the Dominican Republic on diplomatic substitute service, and while muggings and gang violence were commonplace, he remained fully committed to his work helping to develop the bamboo industry there.
His volunteer work in Jordan ran for three months, aiming to use market research to understand the views of farmers in the town of Azraq on the construction of compost yards. The conditions there are naturally unfavorable for agriculture, with summer rainfall scarce and winter frosts damaging to crops, while the use of chemical fertilizers by local farmers has begun turning the land barren. On top of this, in recent years refugees have poured in from neighboring countries, their settlements generating large amounts of trash. Finding ways to turn that trash into fertilizer and help address both the public health and soil issues has become a pressing issue.
With a background in business studies, Fang first consulted with local groups before designing a survey to get a grasp of the basic stats of local farms (size, crop types, number of workers, etc.) and farm owners’ views on compost yards. Using a digitized version of the survey, Fang had respondents answer on a tablet, which not only streamlined the interview process, but also made later data analysis easier.
Conducting interviews and surveys may sound like an easy task, but Azraq is home to some 600-plus farms, some of which are situated in rugged mountains where Internet reception is weak and Google Maps can be unreliable. In addition, the roads there are rough and the area vast, which means traveling can take quite some time; visiting three farms a day was the most he could hope for.
After three months, the team had visited 73 farms, collecting the results in report format as a reference for the next step of the project. “But the real challenge was yet to come, and ultimately we hoped the locals could be self-sufficient,” says Fang. The surveys were but the first step; they would be followed by the formation of a cooperative to help with the creation of the compost yards, development of a profit model, and future work toward sustainable operations.
Johnny Fang believes that unlike tourism, working on the ground in a foreign locale lets one enjoy the process of building something from nothing. He plans to continue volunteering overseas in the future. (photo by Kent Chuang)