Defense of Personal Flaws on the Blog

Just in case some of you are thinking that it is probably not the best idea to post those personal flaws on a blog which is about my EWB Junior Fellow experience because it might reflect badly on organization, I want to explain why, though I thought that at first, I came to the opposite conclusion.

All organizations and insitutions are made up of people. And people are made up of strengths and weaknesses. That much, I think, is irrefutable. In EWB we identify our individual strengths and build on them, while working on our weaknesses. So I think it reflects positively on EWB because my sharing of personal flaws is a testament to that culture of self improvement which has made EWB one of the premier leadership training organizations in Canada.

Manyemuyemu Dam Community Meeting

Meditations on Poverty [Part 2: Concerning Dorothy]

First some Economic theory! [Don’t worry… you’ll survive it]

For all intents-and-purposes [an expression I have pronounced for years as “all intensive purposes” – one of those situations where you lean how to use a term from the context you hear it used instead of starting with the definition, but back to economics…] we have unlimited wants. I’m going to avoid the enormous can of worms that statement is because no matter how we might fight it, it is pragmatically true and is the basis of economics. Because we have a finite amount of resources to allocate to those unlimited wants, we have to make choices between them. Whatever you choose, you miss out on something else which has an inherent opportunity cost, which is to say you lose the benefits that the other option would have given rise to. An example: Choosing between a summer job in the city or a summer working in Fort Mac… the opportunity costs are numerous but the primary ones are summer earnings, a summer social life, physical health, and perhaps your sanity- I would go crazy in Fort Mac. You choose the option which has the biggest opportunity cost if you choose something else. What makes a lot of the decisions tricky is the comparison of benefits that - to be a total engineer I’m going to say - don’t have the same units. Some benefits you are comparing is amount of sleep you get, your social life, spiritual health, enjoyment factor, money, etc. etc. And for every person that will be different because everyone values, for example, sleep differently.

So that conclude the economic theory portion of this post. What am I getting at?

In EWB, and development at large there is a continual need to define what exactly poverty is. It’s a tricky one, let me tell you. There are some fundamentals like being able to feed yourself, but then once you satisfy those fundamental needs things get really fuzzy. Often in EWB we talk about poverty being a lack of opportunity, such as opportunity to work in the field you are passionate about, or work at all, or go get a post-secondary education if you so wish. One of the volunteers met a fellow who studied nutrition in school. He just loved food and wanted to know more about it and how to use it to be healthy. By what the volunteer told me it sounds like the fellow pretty much fell of his chair when he head in North America there are people who not only use nutritional knowledge in their job, but that that is there job.

I would like to add a bit to the definition, in light of the economic theory I’ve just mentioned:

Poverty is having to weigh opportunity costs between things that are fundamental to a healthy life.

To make that statement real: What is the opportunity cost of sending Jessie to school instead of Jamie. [note: these names are intentionally gender neutral]. What is the opportunity cost of feeding one of them and not the other.

Poverty is when that scarcity devours your unlimited wants and moves on to infringe on your basic needs.

I’m really not sure if that added anything at all to the “what is poverty?” debate. But in light of the economic theory I was reading I thought it was an interesting way to look at it. I’d love to have a in-depth discussion on it. Sounds like grounds for a potluck dinner party with a raging conversation that carries on late into the night – with the people who put a lot of value on sleep dropping out because the opportunity cost has been exceeded (they can get the re-cap in the morning) – and ending up with a second dinner at the Naam at 3 a.m. because we truly know very little about the scarcity we are discussing as our own scarcity permits a second dinner.

Meditations on Poverty [Part 1: Concerning the burden of wealth on the soul]

This has absolutely nothing to do with development and everything to do with how much I am enjoying my little bare room.

As I stated previously, living with hardly anything but a bit of clothing, some books, and a backpack is an incredibly freeing experience. Material possessions really are a burden that you can only begin to comprehend when either that weight is suddenly lifted off you, or you are conscious of the weight because it is crushing you.

At first I considered that it was simply an issue of “too much”. But perhaps there is not a critical mass when it comes to possessions. I think there is, but I also think there is more to the situation than that. I think material objects have weight which make it difficult to compare their influence in the same way that in economics you make comparisons using a products market value instead of simple units to avoid equating a computer to a box of pens.

My first stab at this issue has lead me to divide material possessions into three categories: something you absentmindedly own [accidental possessions], something extremely important for life [integral possessions], and something you are attached too [possessions]. I have no problem asserting that material objects are a burden, but what about my rucksack, my books, the moleskine journal I wrote this in?

Accidental possessions are just things you pick up along the way. You are not really worried about losing them and the only real burden they are is trying to figure out where the devil to put them. You would just get rid of them if you weren’t worried you would need them at some point later down the road. Which means that an accidental possession would essential become, temporarily, an integral possession. Oh my…

For the sensing people reading this [as opposed to the intuitive people on the myers-briggs personality type] I will provide some examples of what I mean. Cups are, I think, a pretty much accidental possession. I don’t need a whole set of glasses, but I have them for when guests come over [at which point they become integral]. I’m not worried if they break.

Integral possessions are different for everyone [which is where the trouble I think is, we collect possessions mistaking them for integral items]. By and large I would say an integral item is the bare necessities [which is different for everyone] as well as a few non-essential items which genuinely enhance life [these are definitely different for everyone]. Tea is an example of something I would consider integral despite being non-essential. A couple different varieties of loose-leaf tea, plus a smattering of tea bags for one loose-leaf is inconvenient, does not burden me at all [that is unless I have so much tea that it reaches that critical mass and thereby becomes a pain and I have trouble drinking tea because I have to choose between too many options. Based on what I learned from “The Tipping Point” I would expect that keeping the options limited to about 6 or 7 or – if you wanted to push it – 8 for best effect] and has considerable add-value to my enjoyment of life and general merriment and gaiety and whatnot. Music also would qualify, in my mind, as integral. But it similar suffers from a critical mass point. To illustrate this, when I was in high school and had a CD player instead of an iPod, I would bring 5 CDs [in their cases] with me to school. At some point the inherent inefficiency lead me to use a CD-wallet which could hold 24 CDs. I had the hardest time choosing something out of that wallet to listen to. Just too much choice! I couldn’t find anything I wanted. I went back to those 5 CDs because I was enjoyed at least 4 out of 5 of them that day. Freedom in scarcity. Crazy.

Now on to the really heavy ones… possessions! These are the real burdens, even in small amounts [perhaps they just have a really small critical mass or tipping point]. These are the things you experience grasping for. Things you are attached to. Those items that keep you up at night because you left it in the Civil Design Studio and if someone takes it you will be devastated [an iPod might it, despite the music being integral, the technology is not – you can live quite happily without an iPod]. These are the items you wear yourself out working too many hours so you can afford to pay for them. You become a slave to these items. Like the car you bought to drive to work, and you drive it to work to pay for the car [that’s from a Metric song]. Hopefully you get what I mean.

So therein lies the wealth of moderate poverty, or perhaps it would be better to call it moderate scarcity [this, like I said, has nothing to do with the extreme poverty we talk about in EWB]. The trick I think is to maintain this moderate scarcity - in which your integral items are kept below their critical mass, your possessions are as limited as possible, and your accidental items are minimized by simply improvisation instead of purchasing – consciously [I can never remember if I mean conscious or conscience – judge for yourself give the context] despite accumulation of wealth. That wealth can go on to be used for other purposes. There is always something more that wealth can be put towards, so why frit it away on burdens for yourself?

So that was just some thoughts. Welcome to the inside of my head. I would very much love to have a wild discussion about all this that lasts into the wee hours of the night. Instead of replacing something that is fine for something that is ideal [such as an older iPod for the latest one with all the fancy improvements], put that wealth to better use by have a crazy night of discussion at a dinner party that goes so late we end up at the Naam at 3am for a second dinner.

Oh and while I am on the topic of nights of incredible discussions at dinner parties, and to continue the confession of major personal flaws: I am a selfish person. I never was good at sharing candy as a child [part of that might be due to the outrageous Algeo sweet tooth]. Right here in Zambia I am inclined to have three cups of tea for myself made from the satchel of milk I bought instead of having one cup of tea and sharing the milk [I bought it after all…]. There is a part of me that shouts, in response to this idea, that the single cup of tea is much more enjoyable than 3 hoarded cups, but there is that really annoying part of me that isn’t convinced. I suspect that selfish part is tied in somehow with the ego. Too bad a war is being raged against it. In line with all this thought on poverty and the issue of the ego I’ve decided to experiment with a philosophy I am calling [in my head – but if you haven’t noticed anything in my head is effectively transferred to this blog] poverty of charity or poverty of generosity. What do you think? I probably should call it scarcity instead of poverty as it isn’t real poverty in the sense that I see all around me here in Zambia. To explain first I have to back up. I love hosting. I am hardly happier than when my house is full of people [I am sure I inherited this from watching my mother be such an excellent host while I grew up]. Because of that joy I try to create a house in which people want to come over. To do that I try to keep the house stocked with stuff [food and drinks] so that I can accommodate guests –forever afraid of being a bad host, but also wanting to hold back so that I personally will never be without. Damned selfishness. So, the plan is to share until I have nothing to share, and being okay with having nothing to share, even if it means I don’t get to enjoy a reserved cup of tea, cappuccino, or candy because enjoying something with friends [or even strangers who can become friends] is far more grand [or so that other part of me tells me]. That might mean I can’t offer as much when I am hosting, but it also means I will have a budget less out of control and allow the opportunity for other people to step up and contribute [why would they before if the house was already stocked?].

Thoughts from “The Critical Villager”

While you are all trapped in my head, you may notice I am very influenced by what I am reading. Many wonderful things happen at an EWB retreat, and one of those fringe benefits was cutting my hands on a copy of the Critical Villager: Beyond community participation, by Eric Dudley [a book which is intermittently in print purely because Parker Mitchell, co-CEO of EWB, orders so many copies]. So here are some quotes and thoughts from reading it…


[This is not Engineers Without Borders or even just my project… this is thoughts on development in general for the development minded person]

“It is common to find middle-class urban aid workers, children of the mobile society, lecturing to close-knit communities of villagers about the need to work together.”

It is pretty ironic how “community participation” is a recent buzz word in development. I guess all aid was conducted in a way that people saw no value in the indigenous institutions and knowledge, after all… if they knew what was good for them they wouldn’t be poor right? Wrong! There is a pretty well universal quality about people: we act in our best interest. If you put yourself in Dorothy’s shoes [does Dorothy have shoes?...], you’ll see that whatever new product or knowledge you are trying to convince her of is just one of the options she has available to her. She doesn’t fall back on traditional practices because she is stupid, but because she knows the extent they work and even if that extent is small, its safer than something new which could not work at all [and development has a history of that]. After all, Dorothy is not risking a life of luxury for a bit more luxury, she is just plain gambling life… and that is not something you take lightly.

This next one is actually a quote of Robert Chambers from within the Critical Villager:

“ “However much the rhetoric changes to ‘participation’, ‘participatory research’, ‘community involvement’ and the like, at the end of the day there is still an outsider seeking to change things. […] – who the outsider is may change but the relation is the same. A stronger person wants to change things for a person who is weaker. From this paternal trap there is no escape.” ”

This unfortunate reality really sucks. Development tries to be as grass roots as possible, but to pretend we are doing anything but trying to impose change is naïve. We have to come to grips with the fact that there is no escape from this paternal trap. We have to come to peace with it. Is it really so bad to be that outside trying to enforce change. Well enforce is too strong of a word, we are trying to coerce. We don’t want to think of it that way, but we are trying to create change.

At one point Dudley refers to what I have been calling the development sector as the “compassion industry”, which I find hugely interesting. It’s a fairly apt title. I was astonished to come here and so how enormous the compassion industry is. In many developing countries everyone wants to get a job with an NGO because those are the best paying jobs. Development started as a small, pure concept… lets help people who are in need. I find I readily available parallel with another industry: music. Same thing, a simple pure concept: lets make music. And now you have this mega industry that some would argue no longer has any soul and perhaps go so far as to say it eat souls. But we are talking about development.

“The successful field worker who is capable of stimulating and supporting well-rounded, community-based, integrated rural development has to be a kind of renaissance generalist. Over-stretched and under-resourced, the field worker must juggle the issues and strike pragmatic compromises between policies which tend to come to the field in the form of contradictory messages. Policy may decrease that community participation, self-determination, and village-level democracy are essential while at the same time holding that ecological considerations and the use of indigenous technologies are paramount. Policy may demand the emancipation of women while insisting on respect for traditional cultural mores and institutions. The field worker… is left to the task of resolving the unresolvable while keeping his or her employers happy.”.

How true that is. The field workers are the unsung heroes of the entire compassion industry. I want to expand on this… but I struggle to do so. He said it all right there. The requirements they shoulder contradict each other, they don’t have the resources they need to things properly, they may have to compromised their techniques to fit the donors requirements, etc. etc. As a development challenge, maybe you guys could offer suggestions on how things could be changed at the upper levels so that the field worker doesn’t have such an impossible job.

“In theoretical discussion, people will readily agree that failures are an important part of the learning process.”

“Meaningful evaluation and institutional learning are obstructed by a conspiracy of success. Success is rewarded while failure, however potentially informative, is not.”

“The knowledge of the nature of failures, the very information which could allow intervention policy to be improved, is lost.”

Here again is a huge disparity between the is said and what takes place. What makes development hard? IMPLEMENTATION. All the theory is great. That’s what makes the field workers job so impossible. Again… anyone want to suggest some solutions?

Dudley pairs a lot of development theory down to two core concepts:

1) The goal of aid is change.
2) Change is going on all the time!

What does that mean? Well…

“Technical aid interventions are more likely to be successful if they share characteristics with the indigenous processes of technology change.”

The book is basically all about technical aid as opposed to material aid. Dudley discusses why material aid is so unsatisfactory, but I won’t bother explaining that because most of you [those involved with EWB anyway] will already think that and I would just be preaching to the choir. But how much do you know about how a rural Zambian adopts something new [whether it be a new crop or a new tool or a new technique of farming]? How incredible a difference it would make if were offering [possible] improvements in a way that was the same as how Dorothy looks for [possible] improvements.

Anyway those are just some thoughts from the introduction. As the book tickle’s my brain more I will keep you guys involved.

In a more light-hearted development challenge: find a plastic tub 2.5 feet in diameter and 6 inches deep, fill it with water that is not necessarily cold but far from hot, and have yourself a bath… welcome to the satisfying shower many people in the world have! I’m serious: try it. If nothing else it will be good for some laughs and make you appreciate your hot shower a lot more.

Motivations

Disclaimer: This post is purely about my views that cause me to be involved in EWB and what I see as my biggest character flaw. It will have little relevance to you if you do not know me or work with me, but you may find it interesting none the less.

Motivations:

The new Cap’n of the UBC Chapter of Engineers without Borders has asked me, as a returning Junior Fellow and Director of Fundraising, as well as the individuals fulfilling the other core positions, to share our motivations for involvement with EWB to further increase the tight, high-performance team that is the chapter. I am just enjoying this blog business so much I thought I would go ahead and do it on here, (plus some additions reasons you will see below) instead of an email.

I would call my motivation a simple sense of altruistic responsibility. Prior to my involvement with EWB my extent of development knowledge and experience was the World Vision commercials on TV with African children with flies in their eyes. I was right with the majority of Canadians who think that all these NGO’s and FBOs [non-government organizations and faith based organizations] are, in fact, making the world a better place for those who need it most. I thought that building wells and schools and clinics and all that was a great contribution [they are a contribution, but I don’t think the most pertinent one, and also they hinder the pertinent contributions that need to be made]. Thought those second hand clothes sent over were helping out [they actually undercut the local textile industries which can’t compete with free clothing]. What I am getting at is that I wasn’t always development minded, however I did have some more general opinions with regards to altruistic responsibility.

The basis of this responsibility arises from art. I think art is an abstract concept which runs considerably deeper than is regular talked about. There are the obvious forms of art, such as painting, sculpture, carving, drama, poetry, writing, music, etc. But then there is the other side of art, which, for lack of a proper term, I will call the lay-man’s art. Any contribution to society, or the world as a whole, can be viewed as art. There is an art to the work of a plumber, a carpenter, a chap who just runs a little store. There can be an underlying spiritual essence to their work too. There is certainly the beauty of underlying form with the trades, and the elegant dance of business. It’s all art. Everyone contributes somehow [this notion coincides rather nicely with the Baha’i requirement of engaging in some trade or profession and prohibition on monasticism as we should be anxiously concerned about our fellow human beings – also, while I am on this tangent, in the Baha’i faith, work done in the service of humanity is elevated to the rank of worship right up there with prayer. That effectively makes this a summer, as a Junior Fellow, a summer of prayer for me… which is an interesting concept to think about.], and to not contribute is to live, ultimately, a self destructive life which doesn’t really get anywhere.

Beyond the obvious contributions to society each vocation makes, there is also the more altruistic spin that can be made. Maybe you passively run a small bike store – just because you like bikes, or maybe you are actively promoting a more environmentally conscious lifestyle [utilizing your passion for bicycles to help shape a better world]. Maybe you just run a coffee shop, or maybe you miss out on an extra $60,000 annually because you choose to sell Fair Trade coffee – not because there is a good market but because you believe in the cause. These small pushes for an improved society may seem small, in the same way that choosing to walk an extra block each day to get to a coffee shop that sells Fair Trade is a small contribution, but the world is nothing but a vast collection of small contributions. Elections are nothing but a series of individual votes [a tangent: the United States was not too big a fan of the British after independence with the war and all. They had a vote as to which would be their official language: English one by a single vote over… German. Imagine a world with a German speaking U.S.]. A business is nothing but a series of small transactions. You may think your individual purchase doesn’t make a difference, but that business survives on such small purchases. And your purchase is saying that you endorse that businesses practices and principles. Whether you like it or not, capitalism is a democracy where you vote with your dollars. Sadly there is no efficient way to look into the business practices of every business you ever come into contact with [hopefully one day their will be], but don’t get discouraged because every little bit counts – remember one vote separates us from a world with a Germanic U.S.

So to bring this back to art. Not everyone can be a great artist. Not everyone can be Jimi Hendrix or Henry David Thoreau. Not everyone can be Rumi or Whitman or Bob Dylan. But similarly not everyone can become a doctor or lawyer, which takes a lot of natural ability same as the obvious artists, not to mention the luck of being born into a support system [i.e. well off family or a country with support such as student loans] that is capable of putting you through the necessary schooling. Not everyone can work with children handicapped by mental illness [I wouldn’t last 2 minutes], and not everyone can become an Engineer. Seeing it this way I find it puts a lot of pressure to not only become a good Engineer because I can, but also to use that vocation to contribute to society.

The obvious artists have been, and are, making their contribution, why would I, a lay-artist, not make mine?

On top of all that, with the state of the economy in Canada currently we are in a more powerful position than we [I am speaking mostly of engineers now but the sentiment can be applied quite widely] have been in the past. In my parent’s generation, or if not them then my grandparent’s generation, you didn’t turn down a job. That was just inconceivable. If you were offered a job you took, no matter what it was, because you had to. You had a family to support. But things have changed. We have choices not only in where we spend our money, but where we work. In a field [engineering] where students [at least at UBC and UoC] are approached before they graduate by companies – the jobs are now coming to us! – we have an incredible power to influence. I can choose to not work with a company because I disagree with the way it is run, or the principles it is based on. What an incredible thing!

I think everyone has their burdens. Here in Zambia, a lot of people are burdened with trying to find any job. Burdened with the daunting task of feeding oneself and one’s family. That is the burden of scarcity. But I would argue there is the burden of wealth also. Obviously it’s a good deal less arduous than the burden of scarcity, but it is a burden none the less. When you can meet your needs and still have wealth to spare, then you have the burden of figuring out how to best utilize that wealth, hopefully for the benefit of others as well, because [and here’s that Baha'i business coming in again…] the gaping disparity between the extremely wealthy and the extremely poor is morally wrong.

Now to make sure I haven’t painted myself as a saint, I would like take a moment to point out these are all ideals and aspirations which I struggle to enact in my own life, but, more than likely, fail at it. I’m loaded with flaws, and that is why I decided to use the blog for this, to call in the reinforcements to help… you guys! I would argue my biggest flaw is my ego [maybe not a surprise after all that has been written so far]. If it is a surprise to you that’s just because it is such a problem that I fight with my ego all the time, and the problem is a huge embarrassment to me which I try to hide with abandon. I’m egotistical. It has been pointed out to me that everyone has an ego problem, but I think I have a bad ego problem. My close friend was commenting on why his mother isn’t my biggest fan and he said that she thinks I am egotistical. I was taken aback, but not so hurt [again, it was my ego that was hurt] as when he defended her comment by saying she is a good judge of character [ergo my close friend was confirming the comment himself]. In hindsight it was rather strange to feel hurt at all, as I agree with them. To give a concrete example: Coffee to End Poverty. I freakin’ love the event. It combines many of the views I have stated above. I hear from the EWB National Office that this year’s massive outreach event is taking a lot of inspiration from the event and they need our Africa latte art images for it and my gut reaction is damn… now it’s no longer my project. Well it never was my project in the first place! It never was mine at any point. Stupid stupid ego. I am constantly fighting it with one hand and feeding it with the other. I think too highly of myself. And that is why I wanted to do this on the blog, to call in the cavalry, the crack team. You guys [aka family, friends, peers in EWB and UBC]. The only way I can conceive of any success in battling the ego is to humble myself before you all, throw off the illusion I try to maintain that it is not a problem so as to gain your respect, and have your help in dealing with it.

To capitalize on the emphasis EWB places on feedback, I am requesting you guys keep an eye on me and when my ego is getting the better of me… call me on it. I’m going to be honest, I am more than a little intimidated by all this. It is, in my eyes, my worst flaw [feel free to also let me know if I missed a bigger one], and putting it out there for you guys to cut me down by is quite the vulnerable position. Terrifies me actually. But ultimately I feel this is for the best. And I really mean this. Call me on this stuff. Don’t hold back because you are worried about hurting my feelings. I am not sure how effective this will be as it is largely an internal battle, but having other people looking out for it should help. Any small help is welcome.

The ego serves nothing but itself and detracts from the benefit of the self and others around you. Any pleasure the ego feels is short lived and it always is left hungry for me. Instead of trying to privately fight my ego so that I can hopefully preserve your respect by trying to create the illusion that it is not a problem, I am bringing the problem into the public forum to truly confront it. In an attempt to be a better person and contribute more to Dorothy and the world, I hope you will help me battle my damned ego.

Now to bring this all back to the original topic (motivations)… My desire is not so specifically to contribute to the end of extreme poverty in Africa or anywhere else in the world. My intentions are more general than that. I hope to contribute in anyway I can, in whatever way I am best suited. I got involved with EWB not because of my desire to work in the development field [you think I would have with all that development knowledge I had from those World Vision commercials…], but out of a desire to use my Engineering degree to contribute. EWB just happens to operate in the development sector. Hopefully that doesn’t disappoint anyone. Directly contributing [in the overseas volunteer sense] was the secondary motivation for why I applied to be a Junior Fellow. The primary one was to have this experience which would allow me to contribute to the awakening my fellow Engineering students [and the wider public] to their greater potential contribution to the world. I think this placement is the best way to go about doing it, particularly as EWB views the Junior Fellowship position as an 18 month role whose primary impact is back in Canada. But don’t get me wrong though, I am overjoyed to have the opportunity to help out Dorothy directly! But this more general motivation is why you may witness my fervor with Coffee to End Poverty [conscious consumerism] and my desire to become a Civil Engineer to work on “green buildings”. [By the way, I have successfully managed to switch into the Civil Environmental option – way to go Clare Donaldson for helping me out with that!].

So yea… that’s my thoughts on motivations and flaws. This all is a continually changing dynamic process and whatnot so please feel free to engage me in an intense discussion about all of it. This is just a snapshot of my personal views at one point in time [it will all be slightly different tomorrow]. Send all intense discussion and [preferably constructive] criticism to me at tyleralgeo@ewb.ca.

My African Haircut

My hair got too long. Its unavoidable. I had gone previously with Katalausha when he needed a haircut, and his barber had assured me he could cut my hair also. I didn’t need it at the time, but now that I’ve been here a while I did. So off Katalausha and I go to get my hair trimmed.

Sitting in a little tiny room that exits onto a cement courtyard where some people are playing pool [there is a tiny bar across the courtyard] and others are disassembling or assembling [I can’t tell] massive speakers, I am face to face with my long hair in a mirror which has seen better days [you have to understand though, a mirror is a pretty novel thing after you’ve been here for a while, especially one this big. Someone where my host family’s house is a broken piece of a mirror that is the only one I have seen other than this one in the barber shop]. I’m feeling pretty good about the whole situation. Then Katalausha’s barber starts fiddling with his shears and asks me which size guard he should use. That’s when it hits me… there is no scissors in this barber shop…

I guess its really not necessary to have scissors to cut African hair. I felt pretty bad though listening to his shears try and get through the thick mop of hair I genetically inherited from my mother’s father [of German decent]. It took a while… but he finally got through it all. My hair is refreshingly short. I think the part of my beard that is right under my lower lip is actually longer now than anything on the top of my head.

In My Head

Not all of these posts are necessarily development related, as you may have already noticed. I could just simply write about the type of food we eat here [I promise I will write about food at some point, but there always seems to be more pertinent things] or what I did today even when it is not thought provoking [analyzing results from our interviews at the Manyemuyemu Dam community]. But this blog has taken a very personal turn. I mean what we, as Junior Fellows, are supposed to write on a blog is not defined [that would stifle creativity!], so I have been free to go which ever way I want. As a result, I have been writing about whatever is on my mind. Hopefully that doesn’t bother those who are actually reading the blog. But, in truth, I think this is a much clearer picture of the Junior Fellow experience. The experience is less about the little day to day differences one experiences when living in Africa and more about what affect those little differences [and the major differences] have on the individual [me!]. So while I am trapped in my head without anyone around to communicate to on a deep level [refer to what I wrote about different cultures being totally different worlds which make deep, meaningful conversation all but impossible]… you trapped in there with me! Well if you are reading this you are. I have no idea who you are or what you read and don’t read. So don’t feel you have to read every post if you are only interested in the development side of things. I won’t notice. I’ll try to keep the DISCLAIMER warnings up so you know something might not interest you.