More Dodo

Zebras

This one is for my Mother.

“Thief!”

I go to the window of the MACO office that faces into the alley to see what the shouting is about as I see people run by the window. The shouting is angry, and one of the people who runs by is a Muzungo with a Canada patch on his backpack strap. As I poke my head through the bars that cover virtually all windows in Zambia I see that a considerable crowd is moving down the alley to catch up with the fast runners who I had heard and seen out my window.
Shouts of “Thief!” and, “It’s a thief!” are clearly audible now and I can pick out the man in the crowd who is the alleged thief. A police officer is amongst the crowd and wields his billy-club in attempts to control the periodic altercations that erupt between the crowd and the “thief”. The muzungo recounts his story while the “thief” denies it was him. The crowd moves back down the alley towards my window. As it approaches I can hear the dull slapping noises as members of the crowd bring their open palms down hard on the “thief’s” head despite the officer’s attempts to control the crowd. At least those slaps are more an insult than the rocks that are hurled.

Do you frown upon this situation because of the bodily harm that can be incurred from a mob at a mere accusation? Or do you admire Zambians’ sense of community that a cry of “thief!” results in everyone dropping what they are doing to put the situation right – even if the victim is a foreigner.

In either case, as volunteers overseas, or even as a tourist, one has to be careful that one doesn’t yell “thief!” after someone who has stolen something worth less than potentially a person’s life.

Flower bullet points

By the way - I have NO IDEA why what were numbered bullets in Word are now flower shaped bullets on the blog. Madness.

Street in Dambwa North [my neighborhood in Livingstone]

Project Update – My Intended Add Value

So we have finished compiling the interview results from the Manyemuyemu Dam community and are moving ahead with preparations for the community mobilization meeting. This work, however, can be conducted by locals and, as you know from the last post, EWB volunteers are trying to do more than gap-fill. So where is my add-value?

I’m going to take a minute here to make sure everyone reading this has a decent understanding of the Junior Fellow program. It is an 18 month position starting when you are selected. There is a lot of “foundation learning” we do before going to that pre-departure training session. The overseas volunteering is not the beginning of our development education, it’s the culmination. But I don’t think that’s very accurate because of course it doesn’t end there and you learn a lot by being on the ground. The idea is we come overseas with minds jammed full of development theory and field techniques so that we are effective contributors to our partner organizations. The Junior Fellow program as three goals:

1. Having impact overseas, with our partner organization, host community, and Dorothy!
2. Personal learning to become effective “Development Champions”
3. Impact in Canada

If you were wondering what we Junior Fellows will be up to for the 8 months remaining after our 4 months overseas ends its sharing the experience with our chapter and community in Canada so that Canadians are aware of the development issues. As you can guess from my Motivations post, this is one is something I am really looking forward to!

So, impact with my partner organizations. What’s my add value? It may seem like I am stating that question a lot… that’s because it’s a question that haunts us volunteers. No one tells you what your add value is, its impossible to know ahead of time. It takes a good month or so of working with an organization before you can figure out where you, a young Canadian student, can add value to this organization which has been around for years. For some placements that impact is more obvious, for others I am sure they are still figuring it out. But its of prime importance so in the mean time we are wracking our minds trying desperately to figure it out as the time remaining in our placement slips by. EWB tries to push us to become the most superb agents of change possible to do this job, pushing us to identify and overcome every weakness and build on our strengths [that pre-departure training is very intense let me tell you]. One fellow-JF commented that EWB is the only place he has felt challenged and I understand why. EWB is the only place where we have been challenged to challenge ourselves. I can’t speak for the rest of the volunteers, but I certainly ever felt our work was a matter of doing a good job. You never really think of it in terms of whether you have done a good job… only could the job be done better? Could I be having more impact? Is there anything I am not doing that Dorothy would want me to do? Quickly you realize the hardest boss to work for is yourself!

Anyway, back to the add value! With my placement I was told at the beginning my task was to verify this manual, “Mobilizing Communities to Maintain Earth Dams”, which Nick Jimenez produced during his placement the year prior. That was all the direction that given. As you know from the other updates first a verification that it worked at Mulabalaba was undertaken. It was found to have worked the first time, so now Kantu and I are using the manual in another area, Manyemuyemu, to see if it is useful for extension officers other than Nick and Ernest and applicable to another location. So far there is very little that can be improved in the methodology. There a few areas which need adjusting, but certainly not the same contribution as creating this comprehensive, 50+ page, participatory manual. I was really aghast at the enormity of the accomplishment Nick made. We learn about participatory methodology, but to write a participatory manual… quite the achievement. But my improvements to the manual can not come close to the contribution of its creation. Where is my biggest add value? But our impact is supposed to be long-term, so the fear begins to creep in that at the end of august there will be an improved manual and it will just sit on the shelf. Will it be used? A-ha! This manual needs to be more than a manual containing a good field methodology… it has to be a useful tool! If the methodology works the next task is to make sure it is presented in an extremely efficient and use-friendly manner so that it will actually be used. So while we continue the mobilizations of Manyemuyemu I will conduct some research amongst the field officers as to what participatory manuals they have used in the past, what made them effective/ineffective, and how they would like to see this manual structured so that it has the greatest utility for the intended users. Furthermore, in the process of including a stakeholder analysis to the methodology to identify what programs other NGOs might be running in the area that could compromise our activities [this is something that happened during the Mulabalaba mobilization – an NGO was offering a food for work program to the community, paying them to do maintenance that MACO was asking them to do for free] it became clear that NGOs and MACO [the government] do not have the best coordination with each other. In fact there doesn’t seem to be an established method of communication with them despite the fact that MACO should know of all NGO activities. At one time MACO held stakeholder meetings where all the organizations working in a certain area, or maybe within a certain sector, would come together and meet so their programs could be harmonized. But organizations didn’t like this harmonizing it seems and stopped coming. As a volunteer from an NGO working with MACO who will be leaving at the end of August – I am in a very good position to do some mediating. I am planning some research – perhaps it will only be preliminary research – into identifying what communication is supposed to be taking place, what is taking place, and what the concerns and issues are – from both side’s viewpoints. Hopefully from that some groundwork can be made in terms of establishing a format for communication. It may be as simple as an organization preferring letters rather than emails or the other way around. Right now there is nothing. There are some really convenient advantages to these two [manual utility and NGO communication] activities… they don’t require any resources from MACO! My co-workers are really incredible. They have lot of knowledge and many of them have a passion and care about their work instead of it just being another job. The biggest thing hold MACO back – as far as I can tell - is how terribly under funded they are. They just don’t have the money to conduct the work they are mandated to do. This research can be very beneficial to MACO without drawing resources such as overnight allowances and fuel costs that it takes to get me into the village [we have enough of those costs with mobilizing Manyemuyemu which is far enough away its cheaper to spend nights between days in the villages at a nearby town of Zimba]. Also, these activities do not require the help of the extension officers beyond being interviewees. The officers I work with have many other tasks they are working on beside the community mobilization that my placement focuses on, and this research can take place when they are required elsewhere or circumstances out of our control [ie the fuel truck doesn’t show up so the petrol station has no gas, the electricity is out in the city, the vehicle we hope to use is needed to take people to a funeral, etc.] prevents us from carrying out the mobilization activities that day. These ideas have been met with positive reactions from my co-workers and the DACCO [the head of MACO for this district] so it appears as if this is what I will be working on for the remainder of my placement.

So, in conclusion:

1. Continue mobilizing the Manyemuyemu dam community and using that exercise to further refine the methodology contained in the manual.
2. Conduct research amongst the field officers to find out ways to make the manual as user friendly as possible.
3. Do some research [as much as time permits] to better establish modes of communication between MACO and key NGOs.

There you have it. That is a lot to do in the time remaining so I better get busy!

Rural Livelihoods

Before the Junior Fellows are sent to their host country, we go through an intense, week long, pre-departure training. One of the many things discussed is rural livelihoods. Here are some of the factors we look at:

1. Households are the unit of analysis, and gender plays a role. [Households operate as an organic entity with everyone contributing something as if it was a joint enterprise which sustains each individual in return for their contributions. This also involves a division of labour amongst the household. That is why, in development, we talk about households instead of individuals]
2. Households make use of livelihood diversification strategies.
3. People have assets and capabilities and it is important to utilize them and build upon them.
4. Religion and culture are extremely important to livelihoods.
5. Agriculture is of prime important to livelihoods [in rural communities this is often the largest source of livelihood]
6. Households are affected by macro-trends.

Each one of these factors can be discussed quite extensively but hopefully they are understood for my purpose here which is to flip them around. I haven’t fully worked out this idea, but its been interesting as far as I have taken it so I am sharing it with you…

The 6 Factors of Development Organizations!

1. Organizations are the unit of analysis, gender plays a role. [This is way more obvious than households. Organizations are, by definition, a joint enterprise between a number of individuals to achieve something and thus we discuss development agents in terms of organizations]
2. Organization make use of funding diversification strategies [non-profit organizations need to get money from somewhere, and those sources are not always reliable so its important to draw upon numerous sources as well sources which do not hinder your work by various requirements]
3. Organizations have assets and capabilities and it is important to utilize them and build upon them. [A lot of these organizations have existed for many years and have a great deal of experience and knowledge for their respective fields. It’s important not utilize those skills and not simply to try go around them because you think you can do it better despite your inexperience]
4. Organizations have foundational values and an internal culture which affects how it operates, how effective it is, and how efficient it is. [anyone who has had more than one job knows how different work places get be, how expectations and interactions change depending on the corporate culture, and how that culture can affect the work that is intended to be achieved]
5. Donors are of prime importance to non-profit organizations. [Though obvious, this is really key. It is quite common for an organization which wants to work in one area of development, such as HIV/AIDS, having to compromise its goals because they can’t find donors because people want to sponsor sanitation projects. Also donors usually require tangible deliverables - such as number of latrines installed – which may force the organization to work ineffectively as it is trying to meet the demanding requirements of their donors – non-profit is a highly competitive sector, there is only so much money to be had – instead of making sure that their work is having impact. How many people are still getting sick because they are not properly educated about hygiene aren’t something the donors necessarily are worrying about.]
6. Organizations are affected by micro-trends. [as stated in factor 5: the sponsors go through “fads” where everyone wants to tackle HIV/AIDS or water/sanitation or food security and if your organization is working in that area you have to change or give up. Other macro-trends also affect organizations. Perhaps this point could also be switched to micro-trends affect organizations and you could look at how differences from one group of beneficiaries to the next can compromise the replicability of a successful project.]

Something I have really learned from my volunteer experience – which I knew ahead of time but there is no learning like from experience – is that development is extremely hard. There are so many factors working against an organization. Just like the root causes of poverty exercise we do in EWB, where we list all the causes of poverty we can identify in a case study and try to link them in terms of causality – I bet you could do the same thing with development organizations. The root causes of organizational ineffectiveness.

This, seemingly obvious, reality is being pointed out to you so I can better explain what I see as the role EWB is [increasingly] taking on in the development sector. This is what I have seen and not the official word from the National Office. But as volunteers we work, mostly individual, within partner organizations and try to help them. We try to avoid positions that would lead us to be gap-fillers [doing the job that any other local worker could be doing] but search for places where we can have the most add-value and help the organization build its capacity. These leads to very diverse volunteer placements because there is no one thing we do. We try to identify areas where we can add value and then try to make it happen. So ultimately what we end up doing is not working on the root causes of poverty but the root causes of organizational ineffectiveness to help the people who do have the experience do their job better. It seems that is where EWB has found its greatest add value to the sector as a whole is.

Faith

This post is an outgrowth of a conversation I am having with Michelle Murphy, last years EWB UBC President and now EWB journalist running around visiting all our volunteers so that EWB can get more information from the field. Many the ideas I throw out here are hers that came up during our ongoing discussion.

What is the role of Faith in development?

I feel much development tries to completely avoid the subject. We are not trying to develop people spiritually, they have material needs and rights which are not being met and that is the crisis we are trying to remedy. What place has faith in that? Ultimately though we are trying to achieve behavior change. Whether its changing farming techniques or implementing some new technology… behavior change is the goal. Humans are not material beings though. We need more than food and water and warmth. There is an intangible portion to us. You can label it and divide in many ways [intellect, emotion, spirit, soul, heart, mind, etc.] but its there. People have their beliefs, and often the less-economically-developed world is where you find very devout faith.

[as a side note: if you read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance you’ll likely see that everything we “know” is a belief, even what we think of as reason is just a creation of the human mind and so we cling to our beliefs – such as the laws of physics – in much the same way as any devout religious person clings to their beliefs]

Yet most development organizations don’t address this. Or, even worse, they address it by providing material aid in exchange for conversion to their faith which is, in my opinion, immoral spiritual coercion. I wonder how those groups see it though. After all, in their view they are saving people’s souls and bringing them unto God.

We prefer to view people as economic maximizers. Everyone does what is in their best interest [this refers back to that bit of economic theory I mentioned a couple posts ago]. Everyone weigh their opportunity costs and goes with what comes up being most beneficial. Then, some, balk at people going to Church when they could be earning more money. Watch people give money to their faith when they don’t have enough for themselves. Watch their productivity be interrupted by prayer. And be shocked and frustrated by this. But these actions, which may frustrate a development worker, should not surprise us. The frustrated development worker has just failed to wrap their head around the idea that spiritual activities such as prayer and charity add value to ones life. That individual weighed the opportunity costs and decided to be a little hungrier than to not practice charity.

So how are development workers supposed to come in and treat a spiritual community as if they don’t have beliefs and meet any kind of success? What are the other options though? Do we have only FBOs [Faith Based Organizations?]. Should the area an FBO can work in be limited to the extent of the people who already believe in it so that a Muslim development organization can not come to Zambia – a Christian nation – and do development work? Do we add yet another skill requirement to the development workers who are already in need of such incredible and diverse skills that you might think to do their job you have to be super-human? Not only do they have to somehow satisfy contradictory requirements from the head-office [who may be just passing on the requirements of the donors] - such as gender equality and respecting traditional values and social structures – as well as being multi-disciplinary so that they can tackle issues from all the different angles from which an issue needs to be tackled… but now they have to understand the spiritual practices of each group of beneficiaries and tailor their work so that it meets the communities spiritual needs?

Contemporary development rhetoric demands that development be conducted in a bottom-up [as opposed to top-down] way. Is our secular development pushed upon spiritual beneficiaries bottom-up? Seems top-down to me.

Or is making your development work spiritual manipulation? As an example, with my project, I had the idea that if you are having trouble getting a Christian village community to do maintenance on an earth dam which provides water… well there is certainly more than a couple verses of scripture that pertain to the sacredness of water. What if we involved the community’s pastor/religious leader in our project and have sermons that are timed effectively with our dam community meetings which focus on the sacredness of water and the importance of appreciated that sacredness. But, as I said, is that manipulation? Yet if we are trying to cause behavior change… is that not manipulation?

Does not every development worker take his beliefs into the field with him/her? Does that mean that organizations need to employees of certain beliefs?

There seems to be infinite questions that spin of this fundamental concept:

People have spiritual and material needs, and you are trying to change their behavior to satisfy their material needs… how do you incorporate the spiritual? Does this problem contribute to the lack of progress development, which has been going on for decades, has made?

What is the role of faith in development?

Culture Conundrum

I have a passionate love for many foreign cultures. I love the myths and sagas of Scandinavia. I love the food from many places around the world, particularly India. I enjoy music from all over. I am passionate, some might say obsessive, about beverages: all types of tea, espresso beverages, cappuccinos, real Chai, Turkish coffee, Artisan wine and beer [though I’m done with that now]. I really enjoy smoking hookah, especially at in hookah bar with middle eastern décor or in my home decorated like I am Indian. I think food is much more enjoyable when eaten with chopsticks. Poetry, paintings…. ART!

I must make a refrain here, because these things that I love are not, in fact, culture. They are part of culture, but they are only the very visible surface aspects. I’ve started to think of them as manifestations of culture. This opens up a huge can of worms in terms of what is culture? It is so innate in us that we can’t escape our own culture and if we can’t escape our own culture can we really understand what it is to be a part of another culture? I am living in Zambia for the summer. Do I know what it is to be Zambian? To think like a Zambian does? I am just trying to begin to understand how Zambian culture views things. Can we really experience other cultures when we travel? What is Canadian culture? As a Canadian does that not make all those things I mentioned above Canadian culture?
See what I mean? Can of worms! But that isn’t what I am trying to tackle in this post.

One thing I have personally struggled with in Zambia is that the culture here does not seem to have these things. I have tried and tried and tried to find Zambian art but to no avail. There isn’t art in Zambian homes. There isn’t art anywhere. The poetry I’ve heard is just about child-trafficking and HIV/AIDs. The music is mostly heavy beats that remind me of American Rap music. The food is largely based on nshima – which is like thick mashed potatoes made from maize [corn] flour which you grab small chunks of and make into sort of the shape of then end of a spoon and then use that to scoop up some “relish” which is any of the side dishes. There are virtually no books here. That isn’t true actually – there are tons of books. They are just all bibles. There isn’t even the traditional style of dress you find in West Africa.

I came to Zambia looking forward to discovering what Zambian art was, or even African art because I did not know much of it. I wanted to come and appreciate Zambian culture the same way I have been appreciating other cultures, through their manifestations. But I haven’t found any of it here. This may seem like a small matter… but I found it huge. It starts with puzzlement, and then like a painful whole in a tooth you keep poking at it. I started to search for this missing Zambian art. The biggest lead I had was the University. Of course that’s where the creative energies of Zambia would be focused… nope. No visual art whatsoever. It was driving me crazy. Right up the walls. How can 10 million people in Zambia, and likely other poor countries in Southern Africa, not produce any artwork?

But then I decided I couldn’t really blame them for this. I mean Zambians have gone from tribes in villages to colonial exploitation to independence [still largely in the villages], with independence largely bringing the pursuit of western lifestyle. As far as I know, there have never been any might civilizations in Southern Africa and it is those civilizations that produce a lot of the cultural manifestations I love. In fact, in anthropological terms, art work is an indicator of civilizations and societal wealth. When artifacts go from clay pots to intricately carved or painted pots [in other words, more effort is put into things than their practical purpose requires] it means that society is wealthy enough to support artists to do that work. If everyone is poor no one is going to pay for something artistic. And that is where the nickel drops.

A revelation occurs, that in hindsight seems so obvious. In EWB we call them “a-ha!” moments. A-HA! Of course the arts have never flourished here… they have never had a chance…. Zambia is too poor! Things start to fit together now. The curio markets which I felt indignant about, the markets where they sell “African” carvings of zebras and giraffes and carved masks that have nothing to do with Zambia but its what tourists want to buy. Those markets are full of art, the art for the only market there is… tourists. With most of the country living on less than a dollar a day, who are you going to sell your art to? It is not that Zambians don’t have any creative energies in them, they have never had the opportunity to unleash them!

A whole vast new perspective stretches out before me, but it goes much much further than this. I guess you could say the nickel keeps dropping…

There is 10 million people in Zambia and not much art is happening. That’s 10 million people that could be making enormous contributions to the world of art. What poetry and visual art, what music and literature could be coming out of these people. They are of a whole different culture [now I mean real culture, not just the surface stuff]. How much more would there contribution be simply because little has come out of Zambia before. But it doesn’t stop there. Science, engineering, medicine, politics. All these things are moving forwards without the innovations of this group of people because they are too busy trying to overcome poverty! Maybe one of the minds that are extinguished by the AIDS pandemic - or taken down by a meager illness because famine and malnutrition has left their body defenseless – maybe in one of those minds was the cure for cancer. The cure for HIV/AIDS! Suddenly the vast expanse of individuals whose lives are little more than desperate struggles to survive and offer their children better lives than they had – a struggle against factors we have the power to help overcome – are not only a tragedy because these people have the same right as you and I to live a happy life full of opportunity, but because those minds are millions of points of light from which contributions in every field of human endeavor could have sprung! Holy sweet mother of pearl. What are we losing because so much of the world is poor? What illnesses or diseases have affected your family that might have been cured? What art – whether food, visual art, music, etc. – is not enriching your life. What whole new systems of organizing society that we never thought of are being lost forever like so many lives. Out this enormous frustration with Zambia has blossomed a whole new sense of urgency about development. Is it not ironic that while being concerned for the lives of others in Africa seemed like the big picture, the BIG picture – of humanity as a whole – comes from realizing what its costing us to keep much of the world poor!

Perhaps they should be into account in our opportunity cost decisions.

The Gender Issue

So it has been requested that I say some things about the gender issue here in Zambia. One of things EWB would like to see is gender equality which is not necessarily prevalent in the less-economically-developed world. So I don’t have a lot I can say on the issue because I haven’t seen much of it. Within the MACO – which is the government – there are high powered women and there are low powered women like the secretary. The DACCO is male, and I suspect most of the really important positions are exclusively held by men. There is definitely the idea that women are equal in what goes on. The development sector is a major industry in sub-Saharan Africa, with many of the best jobs in these countries found with NGOs, and with gender equality thoroughly embedded in development rhetoric – which maybe a problem if it is not looked at as in issue in itself no one will take responsibility for seeing that it happens.

What I am trying to say is there is gender inequality, but the whole scene seems to be moving towards equality. Its in the minds of the development workers, and it can be seen in the villages. One of the questions we were asking during our interviews was “How many women are on the dam committee?”, and “Do you think there should be more? How many?”. Women definitely have their own ideas and want them to be heard, but there is still an ingrained hierarchy. In fact, much to my surprise 50% of the women we talked to didn’t think there should be more than the two [out of 16] women on the committee. That doesn’t mean 50% said there should be, only 38% said there should be more, the rest “didn’t know”.

Talking with Besta a Lweendo, both are going to school and want to get good jobs. Lweendo has actually gone up to the Copper Belt to work in the mines because she doesn’t like the hotel industry here in Livingstone. I don’t know how I feel about that, but I don’t really know what it is like to work in the mines here or anywhere. All I have is mental pictures of movies and pictures of the Industrial Revolution with the horribly coal mines. Besta was amazed to hear that I have been washing my clothes. She had to look at my hands because she didn’t think I could handle the job. I find the reversal of ideas of physical strength interesting. As I guy I am not strong enough to wash my own clothes, or cook nshima [nshima does tire me out, these people must have forearms of steel after cooking it everyday]. I tell them that I love to cook at home in Canada and they share their favourite chores with me. Besta loves to sweep and clean, but hates cooking. They tell me they know there aren’t these same gender roles in Canada [even though, as much as we try to avoid it, there still is underlying roles] but that’s the way it is in Zambia. They have almost a cultural pride in those roles. I guess its division of labor. I think you could get into a big discussion about the difference between equality and equity and which is more appropriate.

There are female extension officers too. At the end of the day it doesn’t seem like it’s a huge problem, but if you really looked you would see in the villages that the women do most of the work. Its not equal, or even equitable. But things are getting better. You can’t stop the emancipation of women. And if those women choose to have those roles, well it’s a lot different than that role being a prison one can not escape from.

I think it also important to note that Zambians have their eyes fixed on the U.S. Even when they dislike the U.S. government they try everything they can to achieve the North American lifestyle. All the Hollywood movies are available here. Those videos are propaganda for strong independent women, in a way. The girls watch them and see women not held back by anything but their ambition. And guys watch and see guys not holding women back and everyone just pursuing the lifestyle they want. So maybe we can’t completely condemn the pursuit of the American lifestyle.

This is an extension of the post after I wrote it originally:

I saw a Zambian beauty magazine the other day. It had the similar style of advertising its articles like you see an magazines in Canada. One of them read: “Why men won’t commit: what women are doing wrong!” I couldn’t believe it. There is a problem with the behavior of men but it’s the women doing something wrong. If books and magazines weren’t so damned expensive I might have even bought the beauty magazine just to find out if that is actually what they meant.

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.

Zambian School Art Competition

What was the last poem you wrote about? For some that might have been a long time ago back when you were forced to in grade school [hopefully not though]. What was the subject? High school love? Snowboarding? The mountains? The prairies? The Ocean?

Katalausha took me to see the Livingstone School art competition, the winners of which would go on to compete at the district level. Sadly I couldn’t see his pupils compete because, as National champions, they only had to defend their title at the higher levels. But I did see many other schools perform. I saw the tribal dances that are performed when a girl comes of age and she is sent away to be taught about issues with being a women. Several other tribal dances [there is quite an array with all the tribes there are in this area]. Also poetry readings, the most beautiful coral music, and drama.

The poetry was what really struck me. I am remember the poetry my classmates made when I was in grade school, and it is a far cry from the poetry of Zambian children. The themes they write about are child trafficking, HIV, and sexual abuse. One, very small boy, standing on the stage in his rags which are his stage clothes, spoke with such profound outrage that I would be tempted to say he was speaking from the bottom of his feet but the amount of outrage could never fit into such a small body. As if Zambian children not only have the invisible bounty of energy you see in children world wide, but an invisible bounty of outrage at how the world can be stacked against them.

Sponsoring DoDo

So one of my relatives asked me if I had considered setting up an education fund for DoDo after I had written about how I fear for her education. I had not at the time, and after thinking a good while on it I have decided firmly against it and I want to explain why.

It started as a gut reaction from my male instincts which compel me to be a good provider for my family. That is not to say the women I settle down with can’t work or needs to make less than me, but simply that the end of the day I need to be able to provide for me family. [hopefully Josephine, another EWB volunteer who is a strong feminist will not come after me for saying that – they are instincts Joe! I can’t help ‘em!]. So, putting my place in Katalausha’s shoes, if I was told that some Canadian chap wanted to pay for my daughters education I would be a bit insulted. It’s the whole, I am a Canadian and have more money than you so I will pay for your daughters education, thing. I would be suggested that he couldn’t support his own family. Though he might be grateful, I at least would be insulted.

Now I am now out rightly criticizing the sponsoring of children. With the HIV pandemic, it has been said the Zambia is a nation of orphans. There are heaps of child-headed households. Any education makes all the difference in the world. There are children who have absolutely nothing and it’s not because anything except where they happened to be born. The only thing that separates you and your privilege to any one of those orphans is a fluke of birth. There is another thing to truly meditate on.

Anyway, I intend to keep in touch with this family I have grown to love so much like my own family [which means all my relatives reading this now has vicarious Zambian relatives]. I intend to learn more about the economic situation because I don’t understand it right now [how do you ask someone if they are poor?]. If I learn of difficulties such as problems paying for education, I will ask the family what I can do to help them. And we will figure something out.

Dust to Dust

Ashes to ashes. Why am I quoting scripture? It amazes me how in Zambia people make a life out of absolutely nothing. Even the earth which they grow food from is like dust. They don’t need to rent a storefront in a mall, they set up a little shack on the corner of their property and sell various things. They don’t need a set up a garage, they just lay their tools and spare tire parts along the side of the road and take a nap till a customer shows up. Heck they don’t even need petrol stations!

When I first arrived in Zambia one of first things that struck me were the sheer number of people milling around doing seemingly nothing. Sitting by the side of the road, taking a nap under a tree, just sitting around chatting. Seemed the whole country was just hanging around waiting for something to happen. Well I know a bit of what they are up to now. Some people are waiting at mini-bus stops which are only marked by the fact that the bus happens to stop there. Others are petrol stations. They have drums of gasoline in their place, and they bring some jugs out and sit on a bench by the side of the road and offer their services to any passing cars.

Incidentally this contributes to the incredible number of fires in Zambia, which is another of those first things that struck me. With the country as full of that dry grass as it is I am surprised the fires ever stop. Some are started by personal petrol station accidents, some are good old slash and burn farming, maybe some were set by a mob of people trying to burn down a witches or, in keeping with the Christianization of the country, a Satanists house. Others were just set to chase all the rats, mice, rabbits and other critters out of the area so they can be caught for food. Life from nothing. Dust to dust.

The Ailing Digestive Track

Disclaimer: Don’t think, even for a second, that this post is about anything other than what the title suggests. I feel it’s important to give you as complete a picture of life as an overseas volunteer as possible. Skip this post if you are afraid of that.

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Have you ever been around a child who is being potty trained? Perhaps a younger sibling or young cousin. He [I started writing this with “he/she” and it just got annoying… so I have chosen to just go with “he”] gets up off his little Fischer Price mini-toilet and insist that absolutely everyone in the house comes and admires the beautiful little present he has deposited. He is so proud, like a conquering hero. I don’t know whether he is proud of the fact that he did not miss despite the fact that it would be much bigger accomplishment to miss if you are firmly planted on that little Fischer Price toilet, or maybe he is proud of the size [I did go with “he” after all]. Whatever it is, he feels triumphant in the way we students only feel after acing an exam [especially if we initially thought we failed].

Traveling in [Warning: cumbersome yet, in my opinion, more politically correct term ahead] less-economically-developed nations, particularly those closer to the equator… well your stomach won’t love you for it. Nor your bowels. Diarrhea is just a fact of life as an overseas volunteer. But on those infrequent occasions when things are solid… you feel like that little kid and his Fischer Price toilet. Thank your lucky stars that I have drawn the line this side of pulling out my camera.

Travel in the Bush

Just a quick note here about getting too and from the village. Transportation is accomplished via either a truck or motorcycle, but because it is currently winter here it is, apparently, too cold for motorcycle travel [at least to distant places]. You need to have a special license to drive the “GRZ” vehicles [each vehicle’s license plate has three letters and a lot of numbers. The Government of the Republic of Zambia’s vehicles all have the GRZ letters and no one else is allowed. What’s great about this is we just get waved through at any government checkpoints]. Unfortunately that bit of license issue means that Kantu can’t just bugger off to the village, we need to have a driver with the proper license.

So off Mr.Miti, Mr.Kantu, and I go into the bush. That is what they call the rural area here, and it is a fairly apt title. Rural Zambia is an endless sea of, well I am not sure what the proper term is. Dry grass everywhere, scattered little shrubs and bushes, and spread out trees all covering very gently rolling hills [not quite hills, but there are ridges and valleys]. Other parts of the country are more mountainous, but I don’t think there is anything quite comparing to those Western Canadian mountains [I proudly show my couple postcards from the Rockies to my co-workers and friends].

The main roads are as good as a Canadian highway if only someone would fill in the outrageous potholes. I have been told by a couple Zambians that no work has been done on the roads since independence. Other parts of the country I hear are fine, but for some reason the area around Livingstone just has had no work done to fix the roads [which I find particularly strange since Livingstone is the tourist capital of Zambia]. But those roads are much better than the ones in the bush which are dirt. I’d actually call them dust roads because the soil is so dry is like fine sand or dust. During the rainy season, fast flowing water erodes some areas and not others. In some places the two sides of the roads have seemingly taken turns being eroded so the truck bobs from side to side like you are on a ship. It’s slow going on those dusty roads, bobbing up and down. I love them though, great for day dreaming and contemplating development, Dorothy, blogs I write, emails, plans for when I am back in Canada, etc. Years ago the communities near the roads would maintain them because they use them [even if they don’t have vehicles they will have animal drawn carts]. After years of NGO handouts though, they won’t work on the roads till a program comes and pays them to fix their own roads.

USAIDS

One way in which Zambia differs from Ghana is the level of cultural pride. It sounds kinda harsh, but the reality is Zambians are trying to emulate North American culture as fast as humanly possible. I sometimes worry they are replacing Zambian virtues with N.American vices in the desperate scramble for our lifestyle. Men don’t wear traditional suits here like in Ghana, the attire is strictly “Western” and professional.

Another way the two countries differ is when it comes to HIV/AIDS. Troy Barrie, last years UBC Junior Fellow to Ghana, said [hope you don’t mind being quoted Troy] that he was surprised at how much awareness there was and how little of a problem it was in Ghana given what he had heard about Africa. Well what he had heard was about Southern and Eastern Africa. There is an HIV pandemic here. These countries have been devastated. And even now as the world wakes up to the desperate need to turn the tide… these countries have been robbed of the health professionals they need to combat the virus because of how far things have gone. In the Southern Province of Zambia, where I am, the HIV rate is 18%. Who are the four people closest to you in the room right now [proximity-wise not emotionally]. One of you has HIV [ok that’s a bit emotional]. Which is a rate yet beaten by the province with Lusaka the capital.

Despite the vehemently disgraceful amount of development aid the United States gives out, USAIDS [I don’t remember the acronym exactly but I will take a stab at it… United States of America International Development something… that’s who gives out the U.S.’s money for development] is a major donor. And in the cut throat world of NGO’s which all desperately need funding for their worthy causes, approaches get compromised to satisfy the people with money. I’ve mentioned this to you before when it came to the Mulabalaba Dam community being paid to build themselves an irrigation canal. Well USAIDS does not fund organizations that promote the use of condoms… only abstinence will do.

Remember again that all these Zambians are trying to emulate the U.S. culture. Many things are lacking from households here, but satellite TV, big TVs, and great sound systems are not one of them.

You might be wondering what I am getting at. Well…

Watching Zambians import movies [and other media] filled with rampant, casual sexuality, and make a desperate scramble for that lifestyle, from the very same country that refuses to fund anyone who promotes condoms while HIV devastates their country…

the hypocrisy makes me sick.

Don’t just read these words: truly contemplate the tragic implications of that situation. Spend some time and really appreciate it. I am asking this becase I am no writer and have failed to come close to expressing the full emotional reality of this [though I can likely say that about each of my posts]. So think on it a while. You’ll know when you’ve thought enough when you have the urge to spit because the potency of the hypocrisy has left a vile taste in your mouth. Which makes me wonder…

How much of the ailing digestive tract is not caused by foreign food, foreign microbes, etc. but the raw emotion of coming from a more-economically-developed country to a less-economically-developed country.