Sometimes WAWA was a good thing

From Rpcvdraft

We used to joke "WAWA" (West Africa Wins Again) when good idea was defeated. Who would think I was really happy to learn that a simple hand operated hydralic palm oil press had fallen victim to WAWA. This press was the greatest thing since sliced bread. I think it could squeeze out 30% more oil and produce a higher grade than a poor village woman. The Ministry of Rural Development asked me to select 4 villages to receive these machines.

Back 'in those days', I viewed myself as an agent of change. This was neither a good or bad label, it was the nature of the work which I was being asked to do in Ikot Ekpene. It seemed to me that to be an effective agent of change, my primary role should be to help villages evaluate new ideas and for them to figure out how to adapt them to their own ways of doing things. The ideas the government was promoting were allegedly about community oil palm plantations, but it was really about reform of the traditional land use systems.

I was very excited about these presses which were called Stork.

(Which reminds me of the Wawa store I first saw in Princeton.  It brought a smile. I could not figure out why Princeton University would use those initials, until I realized it was a chain of quick market stores.  Go figure).