Introduction

Those who have made it this far likely know that I will be living and working in Zambia this summer, on an internship with Engineers Without Borders (EWB). The internship is through EWB’s Junior Fellowship Program, and will be 3.5 months long. This blog will hopefully be my way of sharing some of what I experience with people back home, and to allow friends and family to know that I’m still alive and well.

I don’t plan on writing in it very often, as I want to focus mainly on living my day to day life, but hopefully selectiveness will allow me to put some really interesting stories up here, and also some pictures and things if I can manage it. I’m still not sure what the internet access situation is in the area I’ll be living though, so until I figure that out I won’t know what logistical challenges this blog will face.

About Me

For those who have just stumbled onto this blog by accident, I thought I’d post a quick bit about who I am to put this whole thing into context. I’m a graduate of Nepean High School in Ottawa, and I just finished my 4^th year of 5 years in the Civil Engineering program at the University of New Brunswick (UNB). While this is my first time overseas with the organization, I’ve been involved with EWB since its inception at UNB 3 years ago. Through my involvement, I’ve learned more than I ever thought possible about international development, have broadened my mind considerably, and have also met a whole pile of amazing people. I’d definitely recommend the organization to anyone who cares about international development (you don’t have to be an Engineer to be involved…to see what going on in your area, go to http://my.ewb.ca/profile/SignUp and sign up for your local chapter’s mailing list).

I’ve lived and worked overseas once before, in Dublin, Ireland for 4 months last summer. Although that was nowhere near the cultural experience that I’ll get this year, I feel like it was a good way to have introduced myself to the idea of living in another country. Also, I met a lot of amazing people and had a lot of fun times; something I hope happens again this summer.

About Zambia

I’m not going to try to talk too much about the culture or lifestyle of Zambia (which I thought best left until I’m there), but I thought I’d give some basic facts on the country. These are compiled from a variety of books and online sources.

Zambia, formerly the British colony of Northern Rhodesia, is a landlocked country located in south-central Africa. It has a population of approximately 10 million people, 1 million of whom live in the capital Lusaka. Zambia has been hit extremely hard with the AIDS epidemic, and life expectancy currently stands at around 35 years. The official language of Zambia is English, although many ethnic languages are spoken throughout the country. The main export of the country is copper, which makes up most of its foreign exchange earnings, although much of the population is employed in agriculture. As I understand it, Zambia is also one of the most urbanized countries in sub-Saharan Africa. I will try to provide more information about the Zambian lifestyle and Zambian people once I am there.

About My Work

As far as I know now, I’m going to be living in or near the town of Mpongwe, in the Copperbelt Province. I haven’t got much information on Mpongwe beyond finding it on a map, so I’ll have to fill in the details once I get there.

I’m going to be partnered with the Organic Producers and Processors Association of Zambia (OPPAZ), and my initial focus will be working on solar drying technology for the preservation of wild mushrooms. I have to admit that a few weeks ago I had no idea how solar drying technology works (making me an interesting fit for this placement), but I have been studying hard, and feel now that by the time I get there, I’ll at least have enough knowledge to be able to ask some of the right questions.

Why I’m Doing This

Every day, I wake up in a world full of injustice. A world where 1 in 6 people are living in desperate poverty. A world where hardworking people in countries all over the world are unable to meet their own needs, or the needs of their families, no matter how hard they try. I don’t believe that the poverty that persists on our planet is a natural phenomenon; it is the result of a wide variety of structural problems which promote the interests of the few, at the expense of the many.

For me, one of the hardest things to grasp is that many of these structural problems were created by my ancestors, my government, and my society, and are upheld daily by the society in which I live, and by the actions or inactions of my friends, my family, and myself.

I want to make it clear that I’m not going overseas to change the world through solar drying technology. While I will put my heart and soul into my work while I am there, what I may accomplish will, under the best-case scenario, still not even qualify as a drop in the bucket. I am going overseas to learn about, and to experience, life in Zambia. I don’t want this to be my last time working in international development. For that reason, I believe it’s important for me to begin developing an understanding of life on the ground in a country like Zambia. What better way to do that then to live there, to hopefully become friends with Zambians, and to try to live the Zambian lifestyle as much as possible.

Further, I want to use this trip to try to connect life in Zambia with life in Canada for my friends and family, and for essentially anyone else who I can manage to talk to. Luckily, EWB provides an amazing framework for this, with many opportunities to connect with UNB, and with the Fredericton community when I get back to school. Suffice it to say that I will try to take as many of these opportunities as I can. This blog is a start.

Concerns

The concerns I have coming into this placement are almost too many to list. There are the obvious ones about my own performance: will I adapt to the local lifestyle well enough, will I make friends, will I do well at work, can I learn the language, etc. However, as challenging as those are, they are not the only things that I am worried about.

In general, I am worried about the idea of international development, or more specifically, the idea of western driven international development. I’m worried about the relative responsibility of sending a semi-skilled university student such as myself overseas under the guise of an international development worker (I don’t consider myself to be one, but other people may).

There is abundant literature on why people shouldn’t volunteer overseas, on how volunteering overseas does more harm then good, and on how the inherent ideas and assumptions made in international development are flawed. For an example, take these excerpts from remarks by Ivan Illich (they're about Americans but the ideas are similar):

"I do have deep faith in the enormous good will of the U.S. volunteer. However, his good faith can usually be explained only by an abysmal lack of intuitive delicacy. By definition, you cannot help being ultimately vacationing salesmen for the middle-class "American Way of Life," since that is really the only life you know."

"If you insist on working with the poor, if this is your vocation, then at least work among the poor who can tell you to go to hell. It is incredibly unfair for you to impose yourselves on a village where you are so linguistically deaf and dumb that you don't even understand what you are doing, or what people think of you."

http://tinyurl.com/2ngslq

For another example, I would highly recommend this article to anyone thinking of working overseas:

http://briarpatchmagazine.com/news/?p=345

Quoting the beginning of the article:

"Imagine arriving at work one day and finding a new co-worker has joined your team. He comes from abroad, and he'll only be working with you for a little while; after graduating from university, he wanted to come to a different country and volunteer for a spell, just to gain experience and help out however he can.

You are somewhat skeptical: you've seen this type of person before. But being the welcoming soul you are, you answer his many questions, help out with his difficulties in English, and nod politely when he talks about how things are different (better?) at home. You listen to, and half-heartedly try out, some of his new ideas for your organization, even if you think they're off-base. You are a bit miffed that as a guest, he seems to enjoy privileged access to your boss. After a few months he leaves, and leaves behind a half-done project which never gets picked up."

There is also an amazing book on the subject which I studied in a course last semester. It takes a slightly more academic and in depth look at the problems with international development, and I'd reccomend it to anyone:

http://www.amazon.com/Post-Development-Reader-Majid-Rahnema/dp/1856494748

I won’t talk too much more about this anti-development viewpoint now, but depending on how things go in my placement (i.e. how much I feel like I might be negatively affecting things) you may see it referenced on this blog later. It's definitly a viewpoint which I think is important to consider while volunteering overseas.

My Views

Truly though, my views on international development is that it can work. As Canadians, I certainly believe that we have access to skills, technology, and money, that can make a large difference in developing countries. We also have the opportunity to make changes to our own policies (e.g. agricultural subsidies, trade barriers, food aid, etc.) that can have huge positive outcomes for people all over the world. However, I believe that this needs to be done responsibly, and with the main focus on the needs and desires of people in the countries we are trying to help. For me, living and working in Zambia is one way to begin to understand these desires.

As a Canadian, I don’t believe a lot of the ways we have approached international development in the past have been successful. I don’t believe in handouts and food aid, and the unequivocal belief that any act of charity is beneficial to the recipient. I don’t believe in designing projects in Canada and implementing them overseas. I don’t believe in groups of idealistic students travelling to a developing country to build a school or a clinic (as much as I admire people who participate in those projects).

International development, intervening in people’s lives, is too inherently complicated and risky to be done casually. It has to be grounded in understanding of local people’s livelihoods, ambitions, and desires, and should be derived from their unique cultural and historical perspective. This view makes my placement this summer seem very hypocritical (which it probably is), but my rationale for the legitimacy of EWB’s approach is that I will be partnered with a Zambian organization that is already working in the region, and as such will only be assisting with an already designed program, hopefully grounded in the local reality. I will see how this rationale plays out over the summer, and dutifully report on this blog about how flawed many of my current assumptions likely are.

Thanks to everyone who took the time to read this. Future entries will hopefully be shorter, but I had a lot to say at the beginning of this endeavour. I’m leaving for pre-departure training in Toronto in 3 days (Monday, May 7^th), and am incredibly excited. I hope everyone is having a great summer wherever you are.