May 17th - pre-departure training, Toronto

My first blog! I will give a quick intro for anyone who is not familiar with what I’m doing and why I’m doing it. Since I’ve been studying International Development at University of Calgary for the last year (similar to humanitarian work, but more focused on building and empowering the less fortunate), I hooked up with an organization called Engineers without Borders (EWB) who work overseas in four African countries doing just that. I applied and was selected to be part of their team going to Zambia this summer, so I will be there from May through to the end of August 2008. For the ten of us going to Zambia, we are separated and partnered with local non-governmental organizations (NGOs) who work on local development projects in either the Water and Sanitation sector or the Agriculture sector.

I have been partnered with OPPAZ (Organic Producers and Processors Association of Zambia) which acts as an umbrella organization for small-scale organic farmers, meaning that they pool farmers and farmer collectives (such as co-ops) and provide resources and connections for them. My position with OPPAZ is to conduct a baseline survey for them this summer, which will have me traveling to two villages in two provinces (Petauke in Eastern province and Kasama in Northern province) where I will be working with members of OPPAZ and looking at how they utilize OPPAZ, advising them on what they have access to, checking in on what they need from OPPAZ, and measuring the effectiveness in the area. It falls into the monitoring and evaluation work that EWBers also perform for our partner organizations, in order to assist them in becoming even more effective in their development work and business. I will be alternating my time in the field with time at the head office in the capital, Lusaka, to write reports on the data I have collected, so my schedule has me spending one month in Petauke, then a week or two in Lusaka, then a month in Kasama, and the last week or two in Lusaka again.

The cool thing about the EWB placement is that the emphasis is on cultural immersion in order to make us the most effective. This means no 5-star hotels or white land cruisers! We stay with local families in their modest homes – which can mean mud-walled homes in some cases – and we share their meals, all of their accommodations (cup showers and latrines included), and become a part of their family during our stay there. With my placement having me move so often, I won’t be able to bond strongly with one family all summer like some of my other colleagues, but I will be able to compare different families and lifestyles in all of my different accommodations.

So that’s me this summer. I expect to put up lots of cool pictures with my blogs, but internet access may be limited so potentially only once a month. I will have a cell phone once in Zambia, and the phone number will be posted here on the blog, so please feel free to call me! It is VERY expensive for me to call Canada, but calls from Canada to Zambia can be as low as 13 cents a minute, so it is easy for people to call me! I can take calls in the evening (Zambian time): I will be 8 hours ahead of Alberta and Saskatchewan time, and 7 hours ahead of Manitoba time. Rather than use phone companies, the cheapest phone cards to call Zambia can be found on the internet (just Google it), but remember that you need a specific card to call Zambian CELL phones (different than land-lines). The card that Kent has is only 13 cents a minute to Zambia cell phones (Nobelcom.com), so not too bad. Contrary to what you would expect, I will probably have good cell service no matter where I am in the country. I would love to hear from people throughout the summer, so don’t be afraid to call!