On the day I arrived in Khimiss de Tioughza the guys in the association were playing draughts and discussing communism. I told them draughts and communism are for children and started teaching them about chess and individualism

A week or so later more volunteers arrived. One had a lot of really bad ideas including the belief he would beat me at chess. I told him 'no', he ignored me.

Then in a conversation with Lahoucine I predicted the future. And as predicted...

The leader of the association vetoed his ideas. This pissed him off. He 'secretly' organised against me. His first error was being secretive. He allied himself with the other volunteers. His choice of allie was his second error. He pushed for the election of a head volunteer. The election was his third error. And prepared the others to vote against me. His assumption that I would run for election was his fourth error. Meanwhile... I continued to conduct myself in an honest way. I continued to ally myself with the locals. I refused to put my name in the hat. I abstained from voting on any topic.

All of this helped my broader plan of organising the association to be more effective. And lead to the leader of the association and I having a philosophical discussion about transparency, hierarchy and decision making. After which there will be no more voting and he insisted that I take the role of head volunteer. Sticking to my principles, we redefined the role as planner. First, in an open discussion, we came up with goals, then strategies for achieving them. So now I'm the planner here.

I figured it would take around 3 more months for me to get things to where they are now. By providing such a perfect example of how not to do things that kid really helped me speed things along. It's weird when people can't see the obvious signs that they are inferior to their opponent in the game they are about to play.

Last night I went to Ceuta, which is Spain but in Morocco, to renew my visa. This marks the end of the beginning. Now for Phase 2!


Peace,

kowalski