My JF placement has a portion of staying in a rural village for 7 days and nights, give or take. I chose to stay in Chikupi, which is about 20km from Kafue town (maybe 40km from Lusaka). I wanted to stay with a typical farmer with that IDE group, but I ended up staying with the chairman/lead contact farmer. He's far from the 'Dorothy' that EWB describes, which is a future topic of discussion.
Staying in the village was great! I even tried to keep a daily journal of activity. Around day 4-5, I got some really crappy diarrhea and even puked up breakfast by late afternoon (I had really enjoyed those sweet potatos, too). I think my GI system was just kinda stuck and waiting for me to flush out the latter parts. The family has an open shallow well - it's uncovered, and maybe 3-4m deep. They drink it untreated (they say they treat it in the rainy season). I definitely drank some of it untreated, or barely - tea, chibwantu, sometimes a glass of water after a meal. I try and treat my nalgene and only drink that.
There's also flies everywhere. Gross. Those probably made me sick, since they were impossible to keep off your breakfast and lunch (supper was after dark).
I spent a lot of time being a really terrible farmer. Mr. Mulilo (Mr. Fire!), the head of the household, gets up at 0600 to start working in the garden. Irrigating, digging, weeding, whatever. He calls me up around 0630, and I jump out of bed to join him. The cows needed to be milked (I'm awful at that, I never actually managed to obtain a useful amount of milk/in the bucket. But milk still warm from the cow is tasty!), then herded to graze. The petrol pump had to be primed and started after laying out the 2" PVC pipe where you wanted. The well is not deep because he hit some hard rocks while digging, so you can only run the pump for 15 minutes.
We stop for breakfast around 0900, and lunch around 1300-1400. In the afternoon we usually chill a bit, because it's hot, and people sometimes visit. Then more work until dark (1700-1800), supper in the sitting room inside, and bedtime after some tonga lessons!
In the garden is rape (organic and chemical fertilized), amaranthus, chinese cabbage (all vaguely similar to lettuce), eggplant, green pepper, orange trees (mandarin, washington navel, and something else), and lemon trees. He's got a drip irrigation system for the eggplant, which means you just fill a resevoir tank and open a valve. I spent a lot of time running around the 10x20m eggplants, adjusting the rows of microtubes.
Then there's the cattle - maybe 10, and a couple oxen for an oxcart (the bed from a small pickup truck). He fetches firewood with the oxcart, and rents out transportation services. There are about 30 goats, maybe 10 chickens, and a few dogs. In the rainy season, he has been growing maize, groundnuts (by his wife; it's a woman's crop), tomato, and cabbage.
Have you counted all the different income generating activities for the family?! Diversification is one of the tenets of rural livelihoods, but I never internalized the problems associated with it. 'Record keeping' is often touted as a reason for problems with [rural] smallholder success, but shit, for 10-20 activities it's intense! In canada, we usually have 1 or 2 income generating activities, and the paperwork can be done by someone else! All the sources also pay for different things - the cow milk was sold to pay for the farm labourer. What happens when there's a shock? What if someone in the family or next-of-kin dies? What if there's a flood? What if the engine has a breakdown?
This post is incomplete but I want to just push some thoughts out there. Mr Fire isn't in poverty, but he's not very happy about his situation and always working hard to improve. I've got a lot more to say about my experiences in the village.
Showing posts with label EWB. Show all posts
Showing posts with label EWB. Show all posts
Thursday, August 13
Friday, July 31
Loans schmoans
At the beginning of July was Heroes Day and Unit Day - national holidays in Zambia. IDE also had some sort of holiday, so we only worked on Friday. Saturday was the provincial show for Lusaka Province. IDE Kafue office and Lusaka field offices attended/presented together.
I got a VCT! I proudly wear the yellow wristband. And I'm HIV negative.
The show was pretty chill but still fun. I rode in the back of a pickup truck back to Lusaka! Windy windy and uncomfortable with the truck packed with a desk and pumps and pipes and water barrels and stuff.
I spent the IDE holiday with the CETZAM loans officer, assessing 60ish farmers in Mungu, Chikupi, Muchuto, and Nutrition groups. I learned tons about growing irrigated vegetables! The farmers are first asked to create a plan for a small loan, to establish trust that they will repay. Then they are eligible for bigger loans. This is all contingent on their current assets - if they're a successful household, they are immediately eligible for larger loans.
A typical loan is for 1 to 2 million Kwacha - $212 to $424. A petrol pump might be 1.5 million, a treadle pump is about 1/2 of that. Barbed wire for 1 Lima (50m x 50m, a quarter of a Hectare) is maybe K300,000. Inputs for a Lima of vegetables - maybe tomato or cabbage, including fertilizer and pesticides - cost maybe K600,000. After 3-4 months, the farmers can sell their crop, with expected income of a few million.
They get a grace period of 2-3 months; however long it takes to start selling the crop. Then they are a charged a flat 4% per month, of the principal amount.
So... they apply for a loan and get an assessment of their assets and current vegetable activity. If accepted, they pay 10% of the total cost of what they're asking for, then receive items (not cash) asked for in the loan. Chemicals, pumps, seeds, whatever.. they are purchased wholesale by the loan institution, and the retailers handle distribution. I think.
After a few months, they begin selling. Say it takes four months to totally clear the loan - then they have paid 4*4% = 16% to access the loan, over a total period of 6-7 months. Not bad, considering lending institutions here start at like 20% per month, and don't work with smallscale farmers anyways.
That's the good stuff. There are a lot more details to the scheme, both known and unknown to me. So far, the plan seems to be good.. but implementation definitely is lacking. CETZAM and IDE are pretty new at this, but my field office has been dedicating a lot of time to help this initiative start. I understand that it's new, and there's a lot of learning for everyone involved during this period, but it's frustrating me so much. My field staff are being pulled from other duties to fill gaps in prior planning/lack therof.
Microfinance is virtually non-existent here in Zambia.. there's one other institution, Micro Bankers Trust. But besides MBT and CETZAM... farmers are pretty out of luck for credit.
I got a VCT! I proudly wear the yellow wristband. And I'm HIV negative.
The show was pretty chill but still fun. I rode in the back of a pickup truck back to Lusaka! Windy windy and uncomfortable with the truck packed with a desk and pumps and pipes and water barrels and stuff.
I spent the IDE holiday with the CETZAM loans officer, assessing 60ish farmers in Mungu, Chikupi, Muchuto, and Nutrition groups. I learned tons about growing irrigated vegetables! The farmers are first asked to create a plan for a small loan, to establish trust that they will repay. Then they are eligible for bigger loans. This is all contingent on their current assets - if they're a successful household, they are immediately eligible for larger loans.
A typical loan is for 1 to 2 million Kwacha - $212 to $424. A petrol pump might be 1.5 million, a treadle pump is about 1/2 of that. Barbed wire for 1 Lima (50m x 50m, a quarter of a Hectare) is maybe K300,000. Inputs for a Lima of vegetables - maybe tomato or cabbage, including fertilizer and pesticides - cost maybe K600,000. After 3-4 months, the farmers can sell their crop, with expected income of a few million.
They get a grace period of 2-3 months; however long it takes to start selling the crop. Then they are a charged a flat 4% per month, of the principal amount.
So... they apply for a loan and get an assessment of their assets and current vegetable activity. If accepted, they pay 10% of the total cost of what they're asking for, then receive items (not cash) asked for in the loan. Chemicals, pumps, seeds, whatever.. they are purchased wholesale by the loan institution, and the retailers handle distribution. I think.
After a few months, they begin selling. Say it takes four months to totally clear the loan - then they have paid 4*4% = 16% to access the loan, over a total period of 6-7 months. Not bad, considering lending institutions here start at like 20% per month, and don't work with smallscale farmers anyways.
That's the good stuff. There are a lot more details to the scheme, both known and unknown to me. So far, the plan seems to be good.. but implementation definitely is lacking. CETZAM and IDE are pretty new at this, but my field office has been dedicating a lot of time to help this initiative start. I understand that it's new, and there's a lot of learning for everyone involved during this period, but it's frustrating me so much. My field staff are being pulled from other duties to fill gaps in prior planning/lack therof.
Microfinance is virtually non-existent here in Zambia.. there's one other institution, Micro Bankers Trust. But besides MBT and CETZAM... farmers are pretty out of luck for credit.
Wednesday, July 8
A Chat With Leon
Ok, one more crappy story before I return to more interesting/happier stuff.
Most of this week is a holiday in the office, but CETZAM needs to finish farm appraisals and I volunteered to come. But on Monday I couldn't, because the village's farmers are spread out and the CETZAM officer needs to carry someone on his bike to show him around. So I decided to hang out in the office after buying some ketchup, bread, and chocolate milk (2 of those I don't regularly eat!).
Early in the morning, a woman came into the office and asked for K5000, then K3000 ($1ish, then $0.75 ish), and I said 'no' and saw her young son was outside too. I kept the door a little more shut after that, but I think most passerby people see the white man regularly come to work here.
Around noon I sat outside to read some documents about marketing and farm record keeping. A young man came and sat with me and chatted. He indirectly asked for money every once in a while, but wasn't too bad. I learned some information from him and it's sort of hitting me now.
Leon Mukulolo is a Tongan in his early 20's. He's an orphan, but because of that the government paid for his secondary school (cool!). He has a brother in grade 9, and they are taking care of their grandmother in Zambian Compound. If you look at Kafue on Google Maps, that area is west of the railway switching yard - essentially Kafue's slum. I haven't been deep inside it yet, and I probably won't go there alone.He says he doesn't take alcohol or smoke, and I half believe him on the first -- he wasn't drunk by noon, and he was asking a lot of intelligent questions about Canada/USA. He did ask for money and said he hadn't eaten since saturday (meaning he hasn't had nshima since then). He showed me K2500 ($0.53 CDN) he made that morning of piece work of slashing (mowing grass with a curved blade), which I believed. He said he was wandering around asking for piecework. That's how our conversation started, actually.
In our JF retreat, one item we discussed was our return to Canada. It can be accompanied with a major low (worse than anything overseas) when 'shit hits the fan' (thanks Mike Kang). I've heard something similar to myself in other JFs - we're receiving this information from people and witnessing poverty, but storing it away and not processing it. And then it all comes out when we return to Canada. FML, what am I setting myself up for?
So back to Leon. I can honestly say I didn't feel very sorry for him. I feel angry for the situation he's in, and I abhor the ignorance and injustice of people in positions of power to fix this. Maybe I just empathised with his lack of power to fix his situation? He asked me for advice, and I thought pretty hard before we discussed some things. One of his root constraints was lack of capital, for which I didn't have a solution. Then he mentioned working for MBT!
Sidestory -- Micro Bankers Trust had a partnership with IDE here in Kafue, and they would provide micro-credit/finance for farmer groups. After farmer buy-in and investment into the application process, something fell through. It broke some trust of the farmers with MFI and the field staff here, I'm sure.
Anyways, I said he should make some sort of proposal/plan for MBT to pay for capital of transporting village chickens. I really doubt he'll follow through on this, but it was the best I could do. The venture would be him going to nearby villages, purchasing chickens (they're sold for about K12,000 to K20,000), and then selling in town (Kafue or Lusakaa) for maybe K25,000 to K40,000. One or two chicken sales would cover the transportation cost. A bicycle trip (1-2 hours each way) would be much cheaper but needs higher initial investment.
So what am I setting myself up for? What lessons and stories do I want to share with Canadians? People have great potential, with some investment - but what activities are needed to do that? There are no silver bullets, but sure, some micro-finance methods can help.
How hard is reintegration going to be?
Most of this week is a holiday in the office, but CETZAM needs to finish farm appraisals and I volunteered to come. But on Monday I couldn't, because the village's farmers are spread out and the CETZAM officer needs to carry someone on his bike to show him around. So I decided to hang out in the office after buying some ketchup, bread, and chocolate milk (2 of those I don't regularly eat!).
Early in the morning, a woman came into the office and asked for K5000, then K3000 ($1ish, then $0.75 ish), and I said 'no' and saw her young son was outside too. I kept the door a little more shut after that, but I think most passerby people see the white man regularly come to work here.
Around noon I sat outside to read some documents about marketing and farm record keeping. A young man came and sat with me and chatted. He indirectly asked for money every once in a while, but wasn't too bad. I learned some information from him and it's sort of hitting me now.
Leon Mukulolo is a Tongan in his early 20's. He's an orphan, but because of that the government paid for his secondary school (cool!). He has a brother in grade 9, and they are taking care of their grandmother in Zambian Compound. If you look at Kafue on Google Maps, that area is west of the railway switching yard - essentially Kafue's slum. I haven't been deep inside it yet, and I probably won't go there alone.He says he doesn't take alcohol or smoke, and I half believe him on the first -- he wasn't drunk by noon, and he was asking a lot of intelligent questions about Canada/USA. He did ask for money and said he hadn't eaten since saturday (meaning he hasn't had nshima since then). He showed me K2500 ($0.53 CDN) he made that morning of piece work of slashing (mowing grass with a curved blade), which I believed. He said he was wandering around asking for piecework. That's how our conversation started, actually.
In our JF retreat, one item we discussed was our return to Canada. It can be accompanied with a major low (worse than anything overseas) when 'shit hits the fan' (thanks Mike Kang). I've heard something similar to myself in other JFs - we're receiving this information from people and witnessing poverty, but storing it away and not processing it. And then it all comes out when we return to Canada. FML, what am I setting myself up for?
So back to Leon. I can honestly say I didn't feel very sorry for him. I feel angry for the situation he's in, and I abhor the ignorance and injustice of people in positions of power to fix this. Maybe I just empathised with his lack of power to fix his situation? He asked me for advice, and I thought pretty hard before we discussed some things. One of his root constraints was lack of capital, for which I didn't have a solution. Then he mentioned working for MBT!
Sidestory -- Micro Bankers Trust had a partnership with IDE here in Kafue, and they would provide micro-credit/finance for farmer groups. After farmer buy-in and investment into the application process, something fell through. It broke some trust of the farmers with MFI and the field staff here, I'm sure.
Anyways, I said he should make some sort of proposal/plan for MBT to pay for capital of transporting village chickens. I really doubt he'll follow through on this, but it was the best I could do. The venture would be him going to nearby villages, purchasing chickens (they're sold for about K12,000 to K20,000), and then selling in town (Kafue or Lusakaa) for maybe K25,000 to K40,000. One or two chicken sales would cover the transportation cost. A bicycle trip (1-2 hours each way) would be much cheaper but needs higher initial investment.
So what am I setting myself up for? What lessons and stories do I want to share with Canadians? People have great potential, with some investment - but what activities are needed to do that? There are no silver bullets, but sure, some micro-finance methods can help.
How hard is reintegration going to be?
Saturday, July 4
Impact Plan
I'm very uncertain of my plan for overseas impact. UVic's returned JF (many awesome coffee date discussions), Mark Brown, had a pretty unique placement as far as overseas placements go. This year, EWB has partnered 5 of its 7 Zambian JFs with IDE - it's partly an experiment to see the effect of directly working with field staff and building their capacity.
I'm still coming to terms with my position. I am like a field officer - I accompany them to the field and meet farmers and attend farmer group meetings, and I participate in office activities; at the same time I am like a consultant, critiquing the organization, working on methods to improve their resources or structure; yet I sit outside the hierarchal structure of IDE which presents more opportunities. I can relate to the field staff and their superiors; I can talk to clients of IDE and relate to them outisde of IDE, and maintain my own relationships with other market actors.
I've also got that 'white privilege', which is definitely useful. If I chat to someone, they'll want me to visit their factory/industrial plant/church/farm and get a tour from them. I haven't taken much advantage of this yet.
During the JF retreat, we discussed switching field offices for a day or two to see the differences. Then we discussed field staff doing the same - it costs a few days, but they would witness different approaches to field work, structure of farmer groups, organization/planning within the field office, and maybe build some more relationships. It could also be motivating.
If IDE doesn't like the idea (ie, cost is more than benefit), then EWB can possibly step in and fund it anyways. It's a little ballsy or bold of me to say this, but I like the idea.
Some of the southern africa OVS are thinking about touch typing software. If EWB buys a site license (unlimited copies), we can give them to all the people we work with. Right after reading this discussion, I was asked to type a couple documents for my field office. We were short on time and they had some handwritten pages, so I typed them. I guess I really impressed the staff because the next day they were asking me to help teach them how to type without looking at the keyboard, quickly, etc. (I have abhorrent typing skills.. I'm probably well into RSI and arthritis and all that good stuff from my poor hand position). Field staff spending less time bumbling on a keyboard = increased output = impact?!
Does an open source (free) touch typing exist for Windows, that's on par with standard ones? I used something in Grade 9 and it would work just as well in Zambia.
Ahh, I had a fanta, half a liter of water, and over half a liter of chibwantu ('mukoyu' or something in Nyanja) in the last hour. Chibwantu is amazing.. thickly ground maize, some sort of root, and a little sugar boiled together for a while. Tasty and chewy drink but damn am I urinating. Which reminds me.. does larium/mefloquine (my malaria prophylaxis) have a side effect of increased urination? Vicki and I both lamented this. It sucks to get up 2-3 times per night. My other diagnosis is diabetes from all the sugar and carbs.
What will be my office impact? After doing an individual assessment with my staff, individually, I might be able to coach them/link them to EWB resources on self-improvement. Possibly facilitate this or create resources. Maybe this will tie into my in-Canada impact (I'll save that one for another blog post).
I'm still coming to terms with my position. I am like a field officer - I accompany them to the field and meet farmers and attend farmer group meetings, and I participate in office activities; at the same time I am like a consultant, critiquing the organization, working on methods to improve their resources or structure; yet I sit outside the hierarchal structure of IDE which presents more opportunities. I can relate to the field staff and their superiors; I can talk to clients of IDE and relate to them outisde of IDE, and maintain my own relationships with other market actors.
I've also got that 'white privilege', which is definitely useful. If I chat to someone, they'll want me to visit their factory/industrial plant/church/farm and get a tour from them. I haven't taken much advantage of this yet.
During the JF retreat, we discussed switching field offices for a day or two to see the differences. Then we discussed field staff doing the same - it costs a few days, but they would witness different approaches to field work, structure of farmer groups, organization/planning within the field office, and maybe build some more relationships. It could also be motivating.
If IDE doesn't like the idea (ie, cost is more than benefit), then EWB can possibly step in and fund it anyways. It's a little ballsy or bold of me to say this, but I like the idea.
Some of the southern africa OVS are thinking about touch typing software. If EWB buys a site license (unlimited copies), we can give them to all the people we work with. Right after reading this discussion, I was asked to type a couple documents for my field office. We were short on time and they had some handwritten pages, so I typed them. I guess I really impressed the staff because the next day they were asking me to help teach them how to type without looking at the keyboard, quickly, etc. (I have abhorrent typing skills.. I'm probably well into RSI and arthritis and all that good stuff from my poor hand position). Field staff spending less time bumbling on a keyboard = increased output = impact?!
Does an open source (free) touch typing exist for Windows, that's on par with standard ones? I used something in Grade 9 and it would work just as well in Zambia.
Ahh, I had a fanta, half a liter of water, and over half a liter of chibwantu ('mukoyu' or something in Nyanja) in the last hour. Chibwantu is amazing.. thickly ground maize, some sort of root, and a little sugar boiled together for a while. Tasty and chewy drink but damn am I urinating. Which reminds me.. does larium/mefloquine (my malaria prophylaxis) have a side effect of increased urination? Vicki and I both lamented this. It sucks to get up 2-3 times per night. My other diagnosis is diabetes from all the sugar and carbs.
What will be my office impact? After doing an individual assessment with my staff, individually, I might be able to coach them/link them to EWB resources on self-improvement. Possibly facilitate this or create resources. Maybe this will tie into my in-Canada impact (I'll save that one for another blog post).
Thursday, July 2
Why?
Something that's been really bothering me lately is the reason why I'm here. For over fifty years, Northern people have come to the South with the intention of direct, positive change (large or small), but the bigger impact always seems on making the Northerner a better person/learning. That seems greedy to me and I'm part of this culture. EWB wants to foster better leaders in engineering, in Canada, in development, wherever.. but is this just another resource being plundered from Africa? We're abusing the South's hospitality by taking our experiences home and making the North a better place.
I guess this is connected to how powerless I sometimes feel, here in Zambia. The institutional and government/international constraints are enourmous. There are just so many things that make this country a broken system, including past aid and current aid. Everyone may have their own opinion of how to fix Africa, but I sometimes feel like all our efforts and learning based on those efforts still are not leading us to that end goal.
I know that I can have a really small positive impact on the people I interact with, and who I work for/with. What does that accomplish? Is that all I'm capable of here? My IDE district is relatively successful, and I don't really know how to improve the field staff. They have their own challenges that I can help with, but blah! I'm a little lost. But just stuck in a rut that I'll work myself out.
I guess this is connected to how powerless I sometimes feel, here in Zambia. The institutional and government/international constraints are enourmous. There are just so many things that make this country a broken system, including past aid and current aid. Everyone may have their own opinion of how to fix Africa, but I sometimes feel like all our efforts and learning based on those efforts still are not leading us to that end goal.
I know that I can have a really small positive impact on the people I interact with, and who I work for/with. What does that accomplish? Is that all I'm capable of here? My IDE district is relatively successful, and I don't really know how to improve the field staff. They have their own challenges that I can help with, but blah! I'm a little lost. But just stuck in a rut that I'll work myself out.
Tuesday, June 30
IT Input
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.
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.
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?
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