I wish to begin this blog post with a question. Someone tells you that you are “going to Africa”, what is the first thing that pops into your mind? Elephants? District government (EWBers...)? Safari adventure? Water/agric/data systems? Libya? Famine? Soccer (go Holland)? Languages?
Those with the experience of ‘going to Africa’ may have gone for travel, sight seeing, development work (whether it’s one week or a number of years), or perhaps work experience. Maybe you live or have lived in Africa before. But I really want to target those of you who have never stepped onto the continent before. There is a lot to do in Africa, with many experiences to be had. Those of you who have never ‘been to Africa’ before. Specifically, those of you who’s dream it is to go there and save lives. You have been stirred in one way or another to step up and help people less fortunate. Maybe you volunteer so much people look at you in bewilderment, perhaps you see those pictures and biographies of children dying in Africa and can’t stand to sit still any longer. Maybe you’ve had a taste of poverty in your own life, or have witnessed it in others. Whenever someone is looking for poverty to fight, problems to solve, hunger to advocate against, and preventable diseases to prevent, they generally look at Africa as the hotspot. All of you who have never been to Africa before, but it is your dream because in your eyes, it is the place where you can serve the most, this blog is written for you. Because approximately 40 days ago, I was all of the above.
Now back to that question. Imagine someone tells you that you are ‘going to Africa’ for four months of the summer to help decrease the number of children who die every year due to diarrhoeal illnesses. People die of diarrhoea every day because of a number of causes, and you are going to target the act of shitting out in the open. This will decrease the oral-fecal transmission of cholera (among other diseases), so babies will live past the age of 5 and not die of something INCREDIBLY preventable as diarrhoea.
WOOT WOOT! This is your dream come true! You really don’t understand exactly WHAT you’ll be doing, but you know that you are ‘going to Africa to save lives’. I want you to take a moment, close your eyes, and imagine what you will do, who you will meet, what experiences you will have, how many people you will impact, and most importantly, how many lives will you save? Close ‘em and think of the sights, smells, and people. GO.............................................................................................................................
During the past 6 months of knowing I am “going to Africa” I painted a picture of myself in my mind of what I would look like, what I would do, where I would go, what I would accomplish, etc. However, my good friend from home wrote me an “in-Africa” letter to read that I recently had the opportunity to open. I thank God for her writing it, because He worked His purpose through her words, even though she probably did not realize the impact it would have at the time. It said that as a Christian, I must give up this fantasy of my purpose in Africa. I have this idea of what I will accomplish and who I will become through all these experiences. In all honesty, I fell prey to my own pride. I thought that I would make some incredible impact for God, for EWB, for Dorothy, and for myself. But God also has a plan for me here, and it’s a million times better than one that I could ever imagine. So I have decided to just go with the flow, and trust Him.
It has been an incredible experience thus far because I am giving up that fantasy of myself. If you had the chance to read the last post titled “Walls”, this fantasy of myself was one of those barriers that was constricting me from being effective in my work for sanitation.
Thank you God, and thank you K.A. <3
Karina
Disclaimer: this blog is from the perspective and opinion of the writer only, and does not represent any other parties that the writer may represent, such as Engineers Without Borders Canada. Thank you.
Saturday 11 June 2011
Friday 10 June 2011
Walls
I am sitting in the District Hospital’s Environmental Health office while I write this blog entry. I was perusing my notes from pre departure training, and I am overwhelmed at how useful they are! Note to self and future JFs, take notes about what you learn during pre-dep and in-country training! One specific entry I made in my notes was a fear I had. Going back to that headspace before I left Toronto is so interesting. The fear I had was “losing my ambition, drive, passion, ideas, and critical thinking because I keep running into walls”.
These ‘walls’ can be many things, like small details that get in the way of progress or cultural norms that you must learn to live with. One example of this is what JFs lovingly call “Malawi time”. Unlike Canada, Malawians don’t rush to beat the clock. In fact, I have only seen two people carry a watch since I came here. If a meeting it set for 9:00am, it’s not likely to start at 10:30, it WILL start at 10:30, and people will plan for such things and come late. Another small frustration I can think of happened this morning. I was coming into work and no one left the keys for me to get into the office. So I wandered around until I found a friend with an office open so I could charge my phone with the electricity outlet. Maybe this ‘wall’ is not related to efficiency and is a cultural barrier. My placement involves gathering information about hygiene practices of villages to determine the open defecation free status, and how the major players in the village contribute to this status. I have learned that as a white woman, I am treated as a black man, with respect, a chance to voice my opinion, and the highest seat at a meeting with the village. The women of the village sit on the ground and only speak when spoken too. This cultural norm is difficult to work with because the depth of information that I am looking for is mostly found from the women’s perspective. I cannot simply walk into a village meeting and gather accurate information about the village households. Nor can I simply gather this information from the government office. This makes my placement so incredibly interesting and fun to tackle, because I must literally work (harvesting, gathering water, attending church, cooking, cleaning, meeting with the women groups, etc) to gain trust and acceptance from the women of the community. What are the hygiene practices in the household REALLY like outside of what the village leaders are saying or the government is assuming? This is a wall I am having an amazing time scaling.
Let’s go back to that fear of mine, of getting frustrated and losing my ambition because I keep running into these ‘walls’. Other illustrations are swimming upstream or running up an escalator that is going down. However, these walls are not made by anyone but myself. I am the one trying to beat the clock, I am the one who is used to having my own office space, and I am the white foreigner who expects in depth information now now now. I am the one who likes structure, making lists, punctuality, reliable internet, and itineraries that actually happen. I am the one building these walls. I am the problem.
Therefore I have decided to go with the flow. The other day, I went to visit the women in a neighbouring village, but rumours had been spread of finding a body, so no one attended the meeting. Luckily, this meeting was set to happen in a school and there were a hundred children around. With the good ‘ol EWB spirit I developed a workshop targeted for school children on hygiene practices on the fly. The children were really excited to interact with me, and I them. We had fun, and I gathered some really interesting information from children about their household’s hygiene status in terms of open defecation. This is an example of where you just have to go with the flow. Like my coach Duncan told me when he dropped me off in my very much loved district Chitipa, always have a plan A, plan B, plan C, plan D, etc, and if these don’t work, plan on the spot. Being able to scale the walls that you bring into the country is a difficult task, but you just need a positive attitude and recognize that perhaps you are the problem. When this light bulb comes on, gleefully get out of the way of progress.
Have a super fantastic day!
Karina
Disclaimer: this blog is from the perspective and opinion of the writer only, and does not represent any other parties that the writer may represent, such as Engineers Without Borders Canada. Thank you.
These ‘walls’ can be many things, like small details that get in the way of progress or cultural norms that you must learn to live with. One example of this is what JFs lovingly call “Malawi time”. Unlike Canada, Malawians don’t rush to beat the clock. In fact, I have only seen two people carry a watch since I came here. If a meeting it set for 9:00am, it’s not likely to start at 10:30, it WILL start at 10:30, and people will plan for such things and come late. Another small frustration I can think of happened this morning. I was coming into work and no one left the keys for me to get into the office. So I wandered around until I found a friend with an office open so I could charge my phone with the electricity outlet. Maybe this ‘wall’ is not related to efficiency and is a cultural barrier. My placement involves gathering information about hygiene practices of villages to determine the open defecation free status, and how the major players in the village contribute to this status. I have learned that as a white woman, I am treated as a black man, with respect, a chance to voice my opinion, and the highest seat at a meeting with the village. The women of the village sit on the ground and only speak when spoken too. This cultural norm is difficult to work with because the depth of information that I am looking for is mostly found from the women’s perspective. I cannot simply walk into a village meeting and gather accurate information about the village households. Nor can I simply gather this information from the government office. This makes my placement so incredibly interesting and fun to tackle, because I must literally work (harvesting, gathering water, attending church, cooking, cleaning, meeting with the women groups, etc) to gain trust and acceptance from the women of the community. What are the hygiene practices in the household REALLY like outside of what the village leaders are saying or the government is assuming? This is a wall I am having an amazing time scaling.
Let’s go back to that fear of mine, of getting frustrated and losing my ambition because I keep running into these ‘walls’. Other illustrations are swimming upstream or running up an escalator that is going down. However, these walls are not made by anyone but myself. I am the one trying to beat the clock, I am the one who is used to having my own office space, and I am the white foreigner who expects in depth information now now now. I am the one who likes structure, making lists, punctuality, reliable internet, and itineraries that actually happen. I am the one building these walls. I am the problem.
Therefore I have decided to go with the flow. The other day, I went to visit the women in a neighbouring village, but rumours had been spread of finding a body, so no one attended the meeting. Luckily, this meeting was set to happen in a school and there were a hundred children around. With the good ‘ol EWB spirit I developed a workshop targeted for school children on hygiene practices on the fly. The children were really excited to interact with me, and I them. We had fun, and I gathered some really interesting information from children about their household’s hygiene status in terms of open defecation. This is an example of where you just have to go with the flow. Like my coach Duncan told me when he dropped me off in my very much loved district Chitipa, always have a plan A, plan B, plan C, plan D, etc, and if these don’t work, plan on the spot. Being able to scale the walls that you bring into the country is a difficult task, but you just need a positive attitude and recognize that perhaps you are the problem. When this light bulb comes on, gleefully get out of the way of progress.
Have a super fantastic day!
Karina
Disclaimer: this blog is from the perspective and opinion of the writer only, and does not represent any other parties that the writer may represent, such as Engineers Without Borders Canada. Thank you.
Wednesday 8 June 2011
What every traveller should do in Africa
To do list for JFs:
Drink coke/fanta from a glass bottle
Learn how to wrap a chitenge (woman’s cloth) around your waist without it falling off within 30 seconds.
Wash yourself without the help of pipes and gravity. I.e. use a bucket of water
Use an outdoor latrine, which involves squatting over a hole in the ground and covering the hole afterwards. (extra points if you use a leaf for toilet paper)
When using public transport to travel from one city or another, gleefully get into the back of that pick-up truck because it may be the only thing available.
Draw water from a well and carry it at least 1km on your head or wheelbarrow. We are talking at least 40L.
Take a picture of a sunset and sunrise.
Dance to authentic local music
Attend church at least once, if not every week. It’s quite the experience.
Brush your teeth with a cup of water
Start your own fire with twigs and a match
Hang a mosquito net
Get ripped off in the market at least once. We all know what that object was, how we paid, and who we bought it from, so don’t be shy.
Laugh out loud with someone who you cannot converse verbally with
Wash your clothes by hand outside in a bucket
Cook Nsima (or in my case Bughali)
Find a child who sees you, starts crying, and runs away because they’ve never seen a “Muzungu” (white person) before.
Order food from a restaurant in the native language of your District.
Bring your bicycle to the mechanic
Run out of units on your phone (tsk tsk)
Harvest food, in my case sweet potatoes, for others, corn. Cook it, eat it, and wash the dishes.
Wash your dishes outside.
Eat with your hands, (some might call this playing with your food)
Watch a game of football. And by football I mean soccer.
Play with a group of at least 15 children at one given time
Go to an internet cafe
Use solar power, because electricity is not available
Swing in an open body of water, in my case lake Malawi (because we know Schistosomiasis is just a myth....right?). As a nurse, I don’t advise.
This list is only a rough draft of some of the things I've been doing, and I hope to compile a much larger one after spending some quality time with my other Jfs at the mid summer retreat!
I have found internet access in town that supports my blog, so stay tuned for more blogs this week! My laptop died and all my blogs are saved on it, so once I have it both electricity and internet, (very unusual) I will post the ones I have written!
Karina
Drink coke/fanta from a glass bottle
Learn how to wrap a chitenge (woman’s cloth) around your waist without it falling off within 30 seconds.
Wash yourself without the help of pipes and gravity. I.e. use a bucket of water
Use an outdoor latrine, which involves squatting over a hole in the ground and covering the hole afterwards. (extra points if you use a leaf for toilet paper)
When using public transport to travel from one city or another, gleefully get into the back of that pick-up truck because it may be the only thing available.
Draw water from a well and carry it at least 1km on your head or wheelbarrow. We are talking at least 40L.
Take a picture of a sunset and sunrise.
Dance to authentic local music
Attend church at least once, if not every week. It’s quite the experience.
Brush your teeth with a cup of water
Start your own fire with twigs and a match
Hang a mosquito net
Get ripped off in the market at least once. We all know what that object was, how we paid, and who we bought it from, so don’t be shy.
Laugh out loud with someone who you cannot converse verbally with
Wash your clothes by hand outside in a bucket
Cook Nsima (or in my case Bughali)
Find a child who sees you, starts crying, and runs away because they’ve never seen a “Muzungu” (white person) before.
Order food from a restaurant in the native language of your District.
Bring your bicycle to the mechanic
Run out of units on your phone (tsk tsk)
Harvest food, in my case sweet potatoes, for others, corn. Cook it, eat it, and wash the dishes.
Wash your dishes outside.
Eat with your hands, (some might call this playing with your food)
Watch a game of football. And by football I mean soccer.
Play with a group of at least 15 children at one given time
Go to an internet cafe
Use solar power, because electricity is not available
Swing in an open body of water, in my case lake Malawi (because we know Schistosomiasis is just a myth....right?). As a nurse, I don’t advise.
This list is only a rough draft of some of the things I've been doing, and I hope to compile a much larger one after spending some quality time with my other Jfs at the mid summer retreat!
I have found internet access in town that supports my blog, so stay tuned for more blogs this week! My laptop died and all my blogs are saved on it, so once I have it both electricity and internet, (very unusual) I will post the ones I have written!
Karina
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