Blogs

National Conference 2010 in St. John’s Newfoundland was an incredible experience full of learning, networking, self growth and renewing our commitment to international development and the alleviation of global injustice and inequity. The workshops and speeches that the U of A chapter delegates had the opportunity to attend expanded our minds and inspired us to work hard to achieve our lofty goals.

VP Communications, Tristan Allan:

It’s not exactly a new years resolution, but rather a general desire for this year that I get things done early so I can make better use of my time. It’s in that vein that I want to start my Junior Fellowship Blog now as opposed to a more sensible time of the year.

I write this from under a grass thatched roof on the magnificent shores of Lake Malawi. I’m sitting on a little patio in a backpacker’s lodge in Cape Maclear with my back to the crystal clear, yet bright blue waters of the lake lapping against the shore. The sky is blue, the beach is white, and it’s hard to believe that this is the same country that I just spent three months in.

A common topic at any overseas retreat is check-ins, and often this involves a check on how our hearts heads bodies are doing. So I figured for this post I would do a bit of a reflection of how I'm doing in a heart-head-body kind of check-in.

Heart

I have learned a lot since arriving overseas relating to all kinds of topics; agriculture, development, water and sanitation, Zambian culture, government and a whole lot more. All of this has been really interesting, but the things that I have learned that have proved to be the most useful to me are the small trivial things of how to go about day-to-day life. The past two weekends, I've spent outside of town because of the Livingstone trip and going down to Lusaka this past weekend for the agriculture show.

Last week I led a team of ten people in the second half of the field study that I`m conducting for WaterAid. We have been visiting a random sample of Machinga`s waterpoints to verify the data that is being collected by health workers within the monitoring system that Enam and I have established in the district. WaterAid is very interested in the quality of the data, as the system will be scaled up into other districts very soon.

I have to admit that I have been pretty sceptical of tourism. To me, going somewhere to see a few sights and eat a nice meal seems to miss the meat of the location. I really enjoy spending time getting to know people and understanding the way they live. Some tourist activities aim at this desire but often seem all too artificial. However, being in Zambia has made me realize the importance of a strong tourism industry... if done right.

It has been a while since I wrote about what is going on with my work at IDE so I thought that I should bring you up to date on what has been happening in the office in the past month.

Sugar Beans

A combination of a weeklong rural fieldwork activity, Unicef’s wireless internet network breaking down, and bloggers’ block has prevented me from writing for a very long time. But let me paint you this picture of an event on Tuesday night: