As a write this, I await a storm of jam-packed pre-departure learning, from inter-cultural communication, integration, health and safety...
After preping us for the terrible and unforgiving 'Brown Menace,' Levi Goertz explains the ins and outs of water purification
...agriculture and agronomy, rural livelihoods, religion, gender, to development models and approaches, that will sweep me off my feet and take me to Africa. I welcome and invite you to come along for the journey…
An Introduction: Who Am I?
My name is Cristina Randall (though only my passport calls me Cristina, everyone else calls me Tina) and I am a student studying Systems Design Engineering at the University of Waterloo. For the next three months, I will be based in Chipata, in the Eastern Province of Zambia, on an internship with Engineers Without Borders. Along with eleven other brave interns, I will be working with an NGO that is based and working locally. The organization that I will be with is called PROFIT - Production, Finance, and Technology (more to come about PROFIT).
Note the attempt at spelling EWB with our fingersWhere is Zambia?
Zambia (named after its main river the mighty Zambezi) is a landlocked country in southern Africa. It is bordered by the Democratic Republic of Congo, Angola, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Mozambique, and Tanzania.
What am I doing there?
As a youngin, I wondered how different things, like food commodities, would come from halfway across the world just to end up in a small neighbourhood of Vancouver, Canada. Like my mom's coffee from Ethiopia or my chocolate from Brazil. How did the cotton* from my favorite made-in-China T-shirt come all the way here from Burkina Faso?! As the engineer in me took over, similar questions persisted… how did this coltan travel all the way from the Congo and end up in my cell phone (along with the assortment of other consumer electronics around the globe)? And what is the nature of these transactions and interconnected processes?
Asking these questions led me to realize that a) the world is a large and complex place, with vast differences in living standards and opportunity and that b) the poverty that we often hear about in distant lands is actually a lot closer to home than we like to think. When I was 16, I organized a trip to Costa Rica with my school to learn about how people live under varying levels of income and access to basic infrastructure and education, I came back to Canada realizing that it was me that needed a better education in terms of understanding how my actions resonate globally and realizing that whether I like it or not, I am a global citizen. By actions resonating globally, I mean that everything from the purchase of T-shirts and chocolates to pension plans and mutual funds, affects another individual in another country.
In Zambia, around three-quarters of the population is classified as living below the national poverty line, with 63.7% living on less than a dollar a day and an overall life expectancy of 32 years**. But what does this actually mean for the farmer who hopes the rains come, his wife who works tirelessly for too many hours a day, or his children who are absent from school? For individuals coping with such circumstances on a daily basis, what really are their challenges and what are their stories? These are examples of some of the questions I will ask and hope to share with you over the course of the next three months.
What to expect?
As a second year engineering student with little to no background in economics, foreign policy, or development, in talking about many of these problems, water scarcity, food security, HIV/AIDS, economic dependence… I am merely scraping the surface.
Problems. If I talk about these issues as they are seen only as problems, I wouldn't be telling you the full story. In focusing on the negative (the corruption, civil war, famine, and disease frequently in our media), we tend to neglect the stories of people and their daily, humble efforts. And in the cases which I have seen, these efforts are of innovative, dedicated, and proud individuals, seeking to build a positive life for themselves and for their children. Why would one characterize a nation by its vulnerabilities and not by its strengths? A wise Ghanaian woman once said to me that in Africa no one uses the word problem, instead they use the word challenge.
So, this blog is not a story of issues, but of people and challenges. Through my project, partner organization, and host community overseas, you will meet the people I meet, and take part in the sights, smells, tastes, and sounds of the places I travel to and live in. As an intern in international development and as a student, I aim to share my experiences with you, clumsily learning the etiquette of eating Nshima, looking like a fool as I practice Nyanja, or listening to a farmer's opinion of what the role of westerners should be in development.
I want to keep this blog as interactive as possible so post your thoughts, comments, and questions or by all means, email them directly at canada2zambia@gmail.com and I'll do my best to respond promptly. Let me know what you'd like to see or hear more of and keep the questions coming...from, "what do people in the eastern province eat, how do they wash their clothes, what pastimes fill their day, what do Zambians think of Canadians?" to others which at first may not have immediate answers, "What do Africans think is the most effective form of assistance? Does the West have a responsibility to provide this?" And going even further, "If the challenges in development are so related to behavior change (check out Parker's talk), both in Canada and abroad, do we have the right to change those behaviors?"
During this journey, I hope to share with you the stories of those I meet as best I can and paint a picture of their livelihoods (I'll talk about this later) and the challenges associated with them. While I won’t have all the answers, I will strive to seek out the right questions.
A note though...
As you have come to observe, many of the views expressed in this post and indeed what I have come to learn carries its own assumptions and preconceptions. How I see challenges faced by Africans may not be the same as how Africans sees those challenges themselves. So as I anxiously await departure, I keep this thought close in mind and ask your assistance in keeping these assumptions and perceptions in check - what I see as the right solution may not necessarily be the appropriate one when placed in a different social, political, and cultural context.
*This is another interesting article on the international cotton industry
**CIA World Fact Book, UN Human Development Report
***When I say West, I'm loosely talking about North America and Northwest Europe as well as other nations at the top of the rung in terms of HDI
