Why can't we volunteers share some access to technology? Decent Asus EeePC netbooks are around $500 CAD. A 4GB USB flash drive is $5-$10. Both of these take up very little space in a backpack, and can easily cost twice as much in Zambia.
I don't have the capital/time to resell netbooks, but I am working with Mike H to buy flash drives in Canada, ship them here (his aunt is visiting so it saves that cost), then sell to friends and coworkers at cost. I know there's an OVS in Malawi planning on doing something similar, but with netbooks from EBay.
This should almost be a policy for JFs!! Bring 5-10 USB flash drives - a couple for yourself and a bunch to sell. The local market sucks for them. It's a local impact on counterparts/friends/whomever, but not a big enough impact to circumvent the existing supply chain and businesses that sell them.
But that makes me consider the prospect of a Zambian doing this as a business. There's internet here (access to EBay or large North American retailers like Newegg, Tigerdirect, and NCIX), there's both postal service and courier (DHL is in Zambia), and definitely a market in Lusaka. Probably other cities like Kitwe and Livingstone too.
In a random shop in Lusaka, a 4gb flash drive was K120,000: $25. At cost, I can offer them for about half that. An enterprising Zambian could earn an easy profit margin with just a little startup capital. The capital might have to come from an MFI like KIVA, but it's totally possible!
I think the situation for laptops/netbooks is very similar.
Also what is needed: a USB condom. Fuck, infected computers are prevalent and USB drives are just like penises.
Tuesday, June 30
Death
Death sucks. I see a lot of very young kids (under five), and tons of teenagers and older. It's hard to judge the age of older people, but I see a fair amount of people with white in their hair. My host mother is one example, and I think she's 59. I haven't seen many people with a full head of white hair.
In the ~1 month I've stayed Kafue, 3 or 4 people have died with some connection to me. One person was killed in a car collision, who lives near my coworkers, and my counterpart Jairos helped extract the body from the car (came back to the office with blood on his pants). The next day I saw a broken windshield in the ditch next to a broken sign from a seperate accident, as well as a lorry with a crushed front that apparently destroyed a small car. Every once in a while, you see a totalled wreck of a minibus.
My host brother Aubree is pretty well-connected in town. His friend's cousin died yesterday. He said that during the maize harvest, some boy came and helped him without asking any questions. At the end of the day, Aubree gave him some food as payment.. and then a few days after I moved into my permanent accomodations, Aubree said that boy had died.
I was doing something in town with my host cousin Chipuna, and a big truck passed with the back full of maybe 30 women singing. I thought it was kinda cool until Chipuna said it was for a funeral.
I was in church on Sunday with my host mom, Mrs. Maplanga (should it be Ms. because she's a widow? Mr. Maplanga died from an asthma attack), and they asked people to contribute to the funeral fund for a recently deceased pastor. Today she said she attended a funeral but I don't know who it was for. Maybe Aubree's friends cousin, or the pastor, or someone else.
High birth rate, large families, high mortality.
Death sucks.
My own risk of mortality has become part of my experience here -- I've adjusted, somehow. When I get on the back of the motorbike to visit farmers, I know that there's a high risk of injury or death. It used to scare me, but I've accepted that I'm pretty helpless as long as I continue to work here. It's still freaky when lorries loaded with cement blocks or copper roar past and force you closer to the non-existent/shitty shoulders.
Minibuses are another story. Officially, this major form of public transit seats 15 or 16, and that law is actually enforced in Malawi. In Zambia there's no such restriction, so it's common to get on with 20 people and luggage and chickens. There's little padding over the steel-framed benches, and no inner upholstery or seatbelts. In an accident, I think pretty much everyone dies. Maybe the driver and passenger seat are safest, due to seatbelts. I only need to ride them to get to Lusaka, or get around Lusaka - I ride my bicycle or walk around Kafue. I'll probably visit Livingstone in July and I've heard there are only taxis there.
Oh, and the nurses have been on strike for almost 5 weeks, and the government just promised to fire them all if they don't show up for work on Tuesday. I doubt they'll return. The government is trying to guilt them to work based on the morals of their profession. I'm sure they understand that already! So they must have a damn good reason to be on strike. I've heard that there are more people dying because of reduced healthcare. The issue is complicated by the union leaders not representing the nurses properly. And the knowledge that like 28 billion kwacha (5ish million CAD) had been stolen from the ministry of health via corruption - that must mean there's money now, so the nurses deserve better wages! That seems to be the nursing point of view.
In the ~1 month I've stayed Kafue, 3 or 4 people have died with some connection to me. One person was killed in a car collision, who lives near my coworkers, and my counterpart Jairos helped extract the body from the car (came back to the office with blood on his pants). The next day I saw a broken windshield in the ditch next to a broken sign from a seperate accident, as well as a lorry with a crushed front that apparently destroyed a small car. Every once in a while, you see a totalled wreck of a minibus.
My host brother Aubree is pretty well-connected in town. His friend's cousin died yesterday. He said that during the maize harvest, some boy came and helped him without asking any questions. At the end of the day, Aubree gave him some food as payment.. and then a few days after I moved into my permanent accomodations, Aubree said that boy had died.
I was doing something in town with my host cousin Chipuna, and a big truck passed with the back full of maybe 30 women singing. I thought it was kinda cool until Chipuna said it was for a funeral.
I was in church on Sunday with my host mom, Mrs. Maplanga (should it be Ms. because she's a widow? Mr. Maplanga died from an asthma attack), and they asked people to contribute to the funeral fund for a recently deceased pastor. Today she said she attended a funeral but I don't know who it was for. Maybe Aubree's friends cousin, or the pastor, or someone else.
High birth rate, large families, high mortality.
Death sucks.
My own risk of mortality has become part of my experience here -- I've adjusted, somehow. When I get on the back of the motorbike to visit farmers, I know that there's a high risk of injury or death. It used to scare me, but I've accepted that I'm pretty helpless as long as I continue to work here. It's still freaky when lorries loaded with cement blocks or copper roar past and force you closer to the non-existent/shitty shoulders.
Minibuses are another story. Officially, this major form of public transit seats 15 or 16, and that law is actually enforced in Malawi. In Zambia there's no such restriction, so it's common to get on with 20 people and luggage and chickens. There's little padding over the steel-framed benches, and no inner upholstery or seatbelts. In an accident, I think pretty much everyone dies. Maybe the driver and passenger seat are safest, due to seatbelts. I only need to ride them to get to Lusaka, or get around Lusaka - I ride my bicycle or walk around Kafue. I'll probably visit Livingstone in July and I've heard there are only taxis there.
Oh, and the nurses have been on strike for almost 5 weeks, and the government just promised to fire them all if they don't show up for work on Tuesday. I doubt they'll return. The government is trying to guilt them to work based on the morals of their profession. I'm sure they understand that already! So they must have a damn good reason to be on strike. I've heard that there are more people dying because of reduced healthcare. The issue is complicated by the union leaders not representing the nurses properly. And the knowledge that like 28 billion kwacha (5ish million CAD) had been stolen from the ministry of health via corruption - that must mean there's money now, so the nurses deserve better wages! That seems to be the nursing point of view.
Friday, June 26
Retreat
I'm back from a rushed week of travels and learning and challenges and fun... our SA JF retreat! It was at the Wheelhouse Marina, Senga Bay, Malawi. I think that place runs programs for street kids or something. But it was sweet to be able to swim every morning, drink full-strength unsweetened coffee, cook a crazy variety of food, and share stories of the last month. Sending letters with the JFs was done by a couple other chapters, but I think UVic's are the best. Not that the JFs have shared them.. just a gut feeling. EWB UVic rocks.
So where am I at? At the retreat, we discussed the future of EWB and the returned JF role. We are planning an event for late September - UVic, SFU, and UBC JFs doing a presentation tour of the three universities! Since Victoria has a bit of a moat around it, we might host Andrew, Annelies, and Mike for a night! Annelies is in Burkina, Andrew is in northern Malawi, and Mike is in Pemba (about 2-3 hours from me). I'm thinking it will be good to contrast our placements - our work, what we do in spare time, our counterparts, host family, stories..
What else? We discussed our summer plans. I plan on posting some general questions on my blog, which could be answered or researched by anyone. They might be good starting points for my chapter to explore, or anyone to answer. I also might be creating some training modules for my field staff in areas related to leadership, communication, coaching... sounds like good EWB resources! Hopefully this will tie into chapter work.
There were also monkeys! First time I've seen monkeys in the wild. They're so entertaining to watch...
My personal impact plan is to take some initiative with our field office and market research/linkages. Maybe they're waiting on me? Maybe I can show them it's something they have plenty of time to do..
I also want to research some of the other actors in Kafue. The treadle pump manufacturer Chokwadi, the fertilizer company Nitrogen Chemicals Zambia, the market welders that make rope and washer pumps, the distributors of chemicals to farmers... there's a lot of learning about them.
I'm not 100% on where I should focus my main impact. Previously, the JF program had monthly reporting and a final collated report that nobody (asymptote) read. EWB is experimenting with dropping that requirement, and instead allowing JFs to create some tool or resource for use within EWB - maybe chapter learning, maybe something else. I'm pretty excited to create some case studies for future use. There's a cool farmers group that has some sort of government-sponsored water storage tank, allocated land, and electric pump for irrigation. There's a group with nearly 300 farmers, and a group of 30 farmers. The other players in the supply chain and value chains are also pretty interesting.
Mmm personal story of too much alcohol..
On our final night, we had a booze crooze on the lake, anchored and swam at a little island. Lots of crazy fun. A few beers later, I think we had another few crazy game of jenga (foot jenga, mouth jenga, blind partner jenga..) and some other shenanigans (I had about 6 carlsbergs in me). Then the Chibuku chug-off... team Zommmmmbia, Malawinners, and Oh Oh Oooh (OVS!). The Zambians had a pretty low turnout of four guys wearing wifebeaters (other teams had 6), but we maybe... tied? Hard to say. Enthusiasm died once people tasted the delicious, vinegary, way over fermented, chunky, milk-looking maize and sorghum beer. I loved it enough to drink another 1 and a half cartons. Then we hung out around a beach fire - me with about 3L of chibuku - and I guess made our way back to bed. I somehow missed our treefort-ish dorms, and I woke up around 4am on my back in the parking lot and still very drunk. I stumbled back to my bed in front of the watchman, and woke up again around 7am (still drunk). The day's hangover was not bad at all. Maybe because chibuku's 3-4% alcohol? I'd still do it again though.
Questions regarding NGO actors in Zambia, working with Agriculture Value Chains:
What is PROFIT doing here? Hans Hesse, a long-term OVS, is working with them and both IDE and PROFIT have clients (farmers) in a certain village. I'm hoping it's not a conflict of interest for IDE to be promoting farmer groups and collaboration with other groups for marketing, when PROFIT is running some other program...
What is the SMC project in Zambia? I heard it was run by USAID. When did it run? Where? What were the results?
What is CLUSA?
What is technoserve?
What is CETZAM? Christian Empowerment Trust.. Zambia. IDE Zambia is partnering with them and I'm very curious about their previous and current work. Are they international? Who funds them? What is their development theory?
So where am I at? At the retreat, we discussed the future of EWB and the returned JF role. We are planning an event for late September - UVic, SFU, and UBC JFs doing a presentation tour of the three universities! Since Victoria has a bit of a moat around it, we might host Andrew, Annelies, and Mike for a night! Annelies is in Burkina, Andrew is in northern Malawi, and Mike is in Pemba (about 2-3 hours from me). I'm thinking it will be good to contrast our placements - our work, what we do in spare time, our counterparts, host family, stories..
What else? We discussed our summer plans. I plan on posting some general questions on my blog, which could be answered or researched by anyone. They might be good starting points for my chapter to explore, or anyone to answer. I also might be creating some training modules for my field staff in areas related to leadership, communication, coaching... sounds like good EWB resources! Hopefully this will tie into chapter work.
There were also monkeys! First time I've seen monkeys in the wild. They're so entertaining to watch...
My personal impact plan is to take some initiative with our field office and market research/linkages. Maybe they're waiting on me? Maybe I can show them it's something they have plenty of time to do..
I also want to research some of the other actors in Kafue. The treadle pump manufacturer Chokwadi, the fertilizer company Nitrogen Chemicals Zambia, the market welders that make rope and washer pumps, the distributors of chemicals to farmers... there's a lot of learning about them.
I'm not 100% on where I should focus my main impact. Previously, the JF program had monthly reporting and a final collated report that nobody (asymptote) read. EWB is experimenting with dropping that requirement, and instead allowing JFs to create some tool or resource for use within EWB - maybe chapter learning, maybe something else. I'm pretty excited to create some case studies for future use. There's a cool farmers group that has some sort of government-sponsored water storage tank, allocated land, and electric pump for irrigation. There's a group with nearly 300 farmers, and a group of 30 farmers. The other players in the supply chain and value chains are also pretty interesting.
Mmm personal story of too much alcohol..
On our final night, we had a booze crooze on the lake, anchored and swam at a little island. Lots of crazy fun. A few beers later, I think we had another few crazy game of jenga (foot jenga, mouth jenga, blind partner jenga..) and some other shenanigans (I had about 6 carlsbergs in me). Then the Chibuku chug-off... team Zommmmmbia, Malawinners, and Oh Oh Oooh (OVS!). The Zambians had a pretty low turnout of four guys wearing wifebeaters (other teams had 6), but we maybe... tied? Hard to say. Enthusiasm died once people tasted the delicious, vinegary, way over fermented, chunky, milk-looking maize and sorghum beer. I loved it enough to drink another 1 and a half cartons. Then we hung out around a beach fire - me with about 3L of chibuku - and I guess made our way back to bed. I somehow missed our treefort-ish dorms, and I woke up around 4am on my back in the parking lot and still very drunk. I stumbled back to my bed in front of the watchman, and woke up again around 7am (still drunk). The day's hangover was not bad at all. Maybe because chibuku's 3-4% alcohol? I'd still do it again though.
Questions regarding NGO actors in Zambia, working with Agriculture Value Chains:
What is PROFIT doing here? Hans Hesse, a long-term OVS, is working with them and both IDE and PROFIT have clients (farmers) in a certain village. I'm hoping it's not a conflict of interest for IDE to be promoting farmer groups and collaboration with other groups for marketing, when PROFIT is running some other program...
What is the SMC project in Zambia? I heard it was run by USAID. When did it run? Where? What were the results?
What is CLUSA?
What is technoserve?
What is CETZAM? Christian Empowerment Trust.. Zambia. IDE Zambia is partnering with them and I'm very curious about their previous and current work. Are they international? Who funds them? What is their development theory?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
