Mina in Zambia

Feb. 21, 2009. It’s been nearly 6 months since I returned from a summer of my best attempt at development work in Zambia, and since August 26^th I’ve been obsessed with the concept and beauty of Love. What is love, where does love come from, and most of all how do I live a loving life? What does it mean to be a loving individual in this modern and technologically advanced society? Happy face and heart-shaped emoticons may seem appropriate and suffice in some instances, but my desire is more to learn how one can become unconsciously skilled at the art of loving. How do you become so loving, so humble that you don’t even realize you are?

After initially being enlightened by those living in poverty in Zambia, and their positive outlook on life, their trust in God, their hope and trust in others, and their unwavering ability to be kind to each other, I’ve continued to seek further understanding of the complexities of love. I’ve spoken to countless individuals, read lots, spoken to spiritual advisors, and asked for input from friends. I’ve subsequently come to a few conclusions regarding the issue.

- Everyone has a unique definition of love
-There seems to be a disconnect between what love is, and how to actually practice it
-The issue is so complex/unimportant right now/ abstract/ abnormal, for people to actively pursue an in-depth inquiry into it, or take it seriously.

In this post I’d like to speak about some of my experiences, random thoughts, and what I think are some practical steps towards becoming a loving individual. I should preface by mentioning that everything in this post is my own opinion and interpretation, some drawn upon those of others, some personally experienced, and some developed after much thought. I encourage dialogue, critical questioning, and further exploration into the topic of Love. If you are reading this because you expect to find some answers, I’m sorry to say that you probably won’t, but you may find some different points of view and hopefully they will help you find the answers you are looking for!

Why does it appear that in our western, developed society loving individuals seem abnormal? Have you ever been approached by what seems to be an overly friendly person? Have you ever asked yourself why somebody is talking to you? But more importantly, why did this make you feel uncomfortable? Why is the simple act of asking a stranger, ‘How are you?’ so weird? I believe that the reason these actions appear so abnormal, is quite frankly because they are! We, as individuals in this society do not take an active effort to being openly friendly to those we don’t know and to those that seem different than us. Whether it’s an individual with different spiritual beliefs, educational background, ethnicity, or social status, we appear limited in our ability to open our hearts and expend genuine, humble, and sincere love. The ultimate question is, is the action of opening our hearts natural, or is it a learned and practiced skill?

Barriers to Love

The following is a diagram of some potential barriers to love and it illustrates some of the difficulties in becoming a genuinely loving individual. This was shown to me by a great, and loving friend whose name I will keep unmentioned (because of her own humility).

Tuesday Aug. 12. Today was my last day in Mongu, more importantly perhaps the last day I would ever see Ms. Yvonne and her (my) family ever again. My 2 months in Mongu were filled with ups and downs, but in whatever occasion I could always count on my host family to make me feel at home. Not only did they provide me with food and shelter, they sincerely treated me like a member of their family- I was Lozi, I lived in Kambinda Village and I had a family there.

It’s really difficult for me to explain my relationship with my host family, but I can assure you one thing, it was filled with love. You see I’ve discovered that Zambians have this disease. It’s called love. I’ve finally figured out why while being landlocked amongst countries in conflict (Zimbabwe, Angola, DRC to name a few) Zambia manages to be as peaceful as ever. It’s because its citizens understand how to love their neighbor, and Ms. Yvonne loved me like one of her sons. By far one of the most incredible, inspiring, and genuine people I met in Zambia, Ms. Yvonne taught me how to love and trust a complete stranger. What 21 years of life in Canada failed to teach me, Ms. Yvonne managed to teach in 2 months. And she taught it in the best way possible, through action.

As I sat in my hut on my final day in Mongu, I began to wonder what would happen to my family there once I was gone. Would their life go on as usual, would they remember me, had I had any impact on them? No I did not alleviate their poverty, or even make their life easier, but what I did do was love- for the first time in my life, I did what the Bible has been telling me to do, I loved the poor. And the power of this exchange of love is enough to make me not want to come back to Canada, but continue living a life of peace, and simplicity in Kambinda Village.

Coming overseas in May I used to tell myself that I didn’t need money, or fancy things to make me happy, but I don’t think I ever sincerely believed that. Not until now have I realized that the most important thing in one’s life is family. And I observed this importance in the 23 people of my host family.

Regardless of what I do with the rest of my life, whether it’s make millions in the corporate world or work overseas, I know that someday I’ll go back to Kambinda Village.

I took the bus back to Lusaka at 12am on Tuesday night, and when I said goodbye to my family there was a part of me that knew some day I would be back. I didn’t break down emotionally or even feel like this experience of a lifetime was coming to an end, I just felt like I was hopping on another bus back to Lusaka and I’d be back in a few days! It was a weird feeling, and it’s hard to explain. Even as I’m writing this it feels like I’m going back to Mongu tomorrow, the thought of me never seeing Ms. Yvonne again hasn’t even crossed my mind.

Anyways I’m just rambling on now.

Take care

Mina

July 15. I have been in Zambia for exactly for 2 months. So far in my placement I’ve completed a project information summary system for KZF, organized the project files at the Mongu office, and produced an introductory guide to Monitoring and Evaluation and Results Based Management, with a workshop for KZF staff to follow. But today was a special day, it was the first time in my involvement with EWB where I reached a wall in my learning, and essentially had a learning crash. I had learnt so much so quickly during the first 2 months here in Zambia, that when things began to slow down (ie. I was struggling to find work to do) my placement really got stressful and I felt anxious.

After being locked up in an office for 2 months, the isolation of office work really got to me and I just couldn’t take it anymore. I realized that in my haste to produce outputs in my placement (to be the best Junior Fellow EWB ever sent overseas- how foolish!) I neglected my own personal and psychological health. Perhaps I was too activity based focused and was working too hard, too quickly at an unhealthy pace. Combined with the isolation of being in Mongu (so far away from any other EWB contact), my lack of self-reflection, the pressure to not let EWB or the UofT chapter down, and my focus on the big picture (to help alleviate poverty in whatever way I could), I think I sacrificed some of my own well-being.

As I sat down to reflect on that day- July 15, I realized that the idea of self-reflection felt so abstract to me in the past, but I now understood its significance. I acknowledged the fact that I am not a machine and need to slow down a little, to take some “Mina time” to relax, to think. I remember sitting in my last coaching session with Kate Bowers (member of the EWB-UT chapter, and past JF in Zambia) before pre-departure training started, and hearing this same advice. However, I never took it seriously. ‘Self-reflection,’ I thought to myself, ‘I don’t need this.’ Turns out, 2 months into my placement I’ve concluded that, that was the best coaching advice Kate ever gave me, and I am sincerely grateful.

If there’s anything I want to leave you with in this post it’s that there comes a time in every challenge (such as an overseas placement) that you just need to accept the fact that there is only so much you can accomplish, there is only so much (if any at all) impact that you can have and you need to be content with this.

Anyways, enough for now!

Take care.

Mina

June 25^th. So as you know, I am staying in Ms. Yvonne’s hut. As per the EWB overseas contract, you are supposed to pay a monthly rent to your host family to cover the cost of your food and such things. So I woke up one morning and asked myself “I wonder if I could build a hut instead?” Five minutes later I discussed the idea with Ms. Yvonne, she was all for it, we did some calculations, and my hut was going to cost the equivalent of $120 CDN (375 000 Kwacha). We decided that the hut would be used by her son Imata, and I was loving the idea of building a hut as opposed to paying rent- not only did I get to learn how to build a hut, I also got to give Ms. Yvonne something that would last a lot longer than money.

Step 1: Buy materials- bamboo poles, wood poles, runners, reed mats, fibers, plastic sheet and nails

Step 2: Find a plot of land, and dig holes approximately 60cm-80cm deep.

The Foundation

Step 3: Measure and cut bamboo poles for vertical supports and rafters- the key to have several different pole lengths such that the roof of the hut will be slanted.

Imata with hut after Day 1

Step 4: Begin reinforcing hut frame with bamboo runners.

Putting up runners

Step 5: Use reed mats to create hut walls, and roof.

Step 6: Attach door- hut is complete!

Completed Hut on Day 3

So there you have it! In total it took about 20 hrs to build this hut, and it may look easy but it is some seriously hard work! It was very fun as well, and I’m looking forward to building one in my backyard back in Canada! Perhaps we could even move the UT-EWB office into a hut on the UofT campus?

Anyways, take care!

Mina

June 26. What have you brought us? Where is our seed? Where are our chickens? Where is our food? These are just some of the many requests (made more like demands) that are faced in field work, and I myself have personally been in these situations. Before somebody even introduces themselves to me, they always ask “What have you brought me?” Like it is their obliged right to be given something by a complete stranger! How did this mentality come about, what went wrong in development work that has created what is now dubbed The Dependency Syndrome. From a westerners point of view I find it quite appalling that these people consistently expect to be given things by people who sincerely want to help them, and in this blog I will discuss what went wrong in development, and what is still going wrong today that continues to negate the work that good NGO’s (like KZF) are carrying out.

I visited Ushaa today with Mrs. Mavis and Mrs. Ruth from the head office of KZF, and Mr. Simataa to receive some feedback about the work that KZF has done in the community. I thought that we would be presented with some tidbits of positive feedback about how the project has improved the lives of the villagers but I was shocked when the (50+) community members began making requests for things they wanted us to give them, as if all the effort we had put into helping them was meaningless. They thought that we had come to give them something of monetary value as opposed to knowledge we had been instilling through the project. There was not one word of “thank you” given to the KZF staff, and I began to wonder how this attitude developed.

After they had completed giving us their feedback (which was really just a list of requests) I was quite pleased when Mrs. Mavis stood up and gave them a piece of her mind! When she was done Mrs. Ruth did the same, and as I was listening to the points they were making, I jotted down my own and decided to voice my own opinion about the entire situation. I asked the community what other NGO’s had worked there in the past, and what they had done. I won’t mention who the NGO’s were but I will mention what they did. They GAVE shovels, sickles, seed, food, clothes, chickens, oxen, blah blah blah the list goes on. Now imagine after 50 years of development work where NGO’s had been giving everything you “needed,” what would you think when an NGO came along expecting you to work for your rewards, to reap what you sow? To emphasize the detrimental effects of this type of development work, an old man stood up and began to recall how before “you people” ie. development workers came here every individual worked for themselves, every individual grew their crops, and took care of their family, there wasn’t this idea that there were people coming to provide them with everything. In his view development had done more harm than good, that NGO’s had ruined his village and the livelihoods of his people. This testament really got to me, and made me extremely angry at as he calls us “westerners that have messed up everything!” Why am I here? I wondered. And the reason is because for every bad NGO there is a good NGO working hard to combat the effects of the dependency syndrome!

This condition makes it very difficult for NGO’s to have a lasting impact on the livelihoods of people. For example, Mr. Simataa has told me that there have been times in the past where immediately after KZF has completed a project, that an NGO will visit the same village and just hand out things! It completely negates the work that KZF has done and effectively reverses any positive development that may have taken place in the community.

The ride back from Ushaa, I was shocked to hear that this is what always happens, that these requests are consistently made. The conclusion I came to is that there are too many NGO’s who are in the business of giving because that’s what donors like to see. They like to see that NGO XYZ gave relief food to 500 families, but what they don’t like to see (or care to see) is what happens to these people once that relief food stops rolling in and please don’t be fooled into thinking that it will always be there!

Anyways I could actually write a book about The Dependency Syndrome after being here for only a month but I will spare you boredom. I just wanted to emphasize in this post some of the on the ground realities that development workers face. What do you think of development? Should NGO’s even exist? Post some comments!

Take care.

Mina

12am June 20 I’ve just boarded a bus heading to Lusaka. Can’t believe a month of my 3.5 months in Zambia has already passed by, and here I am heading back to where it all began on May 17. I was heading east to Lusaka to meet Mark, Florin and Helen before we headed to Chilillabombwe in the Copperbelt province to cheer on the Chipolopolo boys (the Zambian national soccer team) as they play a world cup qualifier match against Swaziland!

When I arrived in Lusaka at 7am, I felt so natural like I had been living in Zambia for years quite contrary to my initial feelings when I first arrived in Lusaka. I was talking to the local people with no problems, not getting ripped off at the market, and walking around the town with no fear. It was the first time I realized how much has changed in the past month and how much I’ve grown. I remember coming to the realization that “this is my life, and it’s all good, I can live here.” That felt really good, like I’d finally accomplished something!

I met Mark, Helen, and Florin at Kuomboka backpackers and we relaxed and discussed our placements and our feelings. In the evening we came to the conclusion that Florin had malaria and took him to the clinic where it was confirmed. It was a little hiccup in our “vacation” but after he popped a couple pills of coertum he was as good as new. It’s incredible how fast that drug works, he was feeling much better within an hour. So in the morning at 5am we boarded another bus that would take us 7 hours to Chilillabombwe to watch the football match.

Luckily we got really good tickets and were pretty much sitting on the field, it was actually ridiculous! We were also probably the only white people there so everyone was astonished when they saw us cheering on the Zambians. And the Zambian team (like most African football teams) was extremely exciting to watch and thankfully they won 1-0 with a penalty kick in the 86^th minute! The game was also being broadcasted on ZNBC and apparently we were shown on TV numerous times, as all of a sudden we began receiving text messages and phone calls from our friends telling us how they were watching us on TV. It was hilarious when in Lusaka the next day myself and Mark became overnight celebrities, as complete strangers were telling us they saw us on TV the day before.

The excitement didn’t stop when the game ended. The journey home was actually ridiculous. The bus we came to the game with actually left without us so then we first hopped on a minibus from Chilillabombwe to Chingola, and then took another minibus from Chingola to Ndola. Brian, Helen, and Florin left me and Mark there as they were traveling to Kabwe whereas we had to head back to Lusaka. So me and Mark hopped on a minibus that said it was going to Lusaka, this is where the ride home became quite the adventure.

Our ride home to Lusaka that was supposed to take 4hrs, ended up taking 9. The minibus driver was driving so slow, like 30km/hr for absolutely no reason, so after 4hrs of driving we reached Kitwe a town that is only about an hour away from Ndola if you are driving the proper speed. So we got off that bus figuring we would never reach Lusaka. By that time it was 1am, and we were pretty much stranded on the side of the road when we saw a coach bus and decided to ask where it was headed. The bus was completely empty, and driver was coming from Tanzania and traveling to Lusaka but would be stopping in Lusaka. So we hopped on that bus and by 4:30am we were back at Kuomboka! What a mission, but it was a good experience I suppose! Thank God Zambia won that game, haha.

Take care

Mina

If you remember my initial post about defining poverty, I provided the example of Mr. Rafael and his family. I’ve decided to dig deeper into this topic by asking the opinions of several people.

I spoke to Ba Ma Yvonne, and asked her “What is your personal definition of poverty?” and she responded by telling me that poverty is lack of initial inputs that would help you take proactive measures to improve your livelihood. She gave me the example of a treadle pump and a plough, telling me that these two inputs would allow her to cultivate a larger plot of land. For example, she said a 50m X 50m plot of land can cultivate 12-14 50kg bags of rice which could then be sold for 75000-80000 Kwacha each and thus be a major source of income. She says she would like to cultivate more land but she’s simply physically incapable. In my opinion this form of poverty overshadows the hard work that people are doing/want to do to improve their lives.

I also spoke to Mr. Yaba, asking him the same question. His response was very much similar to that of Ba ma Yvonne’s, saying that the lack of initial resources that would help people start micro-enterprises is poverty.

Recently there was another Canadian in the KZF office so I asked him what poverty was. He told me he believed that poverty was lack of choice and tools. For example an individual may choose to grow vegetables but they have no tools to do it or an individual may have all the tools necessary to grow vegetables but have no choice (perhaps due to land/government issues). Another very interesting point of view.

Mrs. Prisca and Mr. Simataa had some interesting opinions. Mr. Simataa believes that poverty is strictly mental- it is a state of mind. If you believe you are poor that you will live a poor life. He gave may the example of when he is in the field that some people will tell him “us we are poor” but there will be one individual amongst this group who although being in the same situation doesn’t believe he is poor but rather focuses on the positive aspects of his life and his abilities and is successful amongst his peers.

Mrs. Prisca believes that poverty is a state of hopelessness/helplessness. She believes that all individuals were created equally saying that if your friend can do something you can too, there is no excuse. She says if you want to succeed in life you need goals/dreams and you have to mentally prepared to not let any obstacle prevent you from achieving your them. She says there will always be obstacles in your way that require your own creativity and personal will to overcome them.

A lot of people say that poverty is the lack of opportunity, but as per my personal definition of poverty I say it’s not necessarily a lack of opportunity but a lack of knowing about potential opportunities or a lack of initiative in searching for these potential opportunities (for ex. opportunities to improve one’s livelihood). This opinion arose from my recent field visit. The villages were so remote, so isolated from any form of communication that it was very difficult or even impossible to know what was going on in the world outside of the confines of the 10square kilometers in which the village was situated. I spoke to a teacher and asked him how many of his students will go to high school and he told me that it was very low due to the remoteness of the village. He told me that these kids would grow up to be farmers just like the generations before them. Now imagine if these kids knew what the world was like. What was Mongu town like, or Lusaka like, or even Canada like? Could these images spark some dreams, some inspiration, some imagination?

I discussed my point of view with Mr. Biemba (my Lozi language teacher and a high school teacher) and he told me by not knowing what is going on in the world or how different people are living their lives, there is no incentive for an individual to change/improve their own way of living. We also came to the conclusion that good mentors/coaches have a very important role in inspiring young individuals but it is ultimately up to them to set their own dreams and search for the opportunities to achieve them.

Alrighty that’s enough for now. What is your personal definition of poverty? How do you feel about what was mentioned above? Feel free to post a comment and discuss!

Take care

Mina

Disclaimer: This is another long post!!

So on Wednesday June 11 I went out into the field with KZF. We visited three villages- Lukweta, Imaliyo, and Nakanyaa from Wed.-Fri. Let me tell you these villages are remote, away from everybody and everything! There is very little infrastructure and no way to communicate with the town- I have no idea how people survive, honestly!

We drove on a gravel road for an hour, and then in the sand through the bush for 3 hrs to get to Lukweta, our first stop. All the “roads” (you can’t even them roads, they’re actually just tread marks in the sand) leading to these remote villages are absolutely terrible- it is a major barrier to development. Lukweta was a poor village, there’s no other way to put it. When I first arrived in Mongu town I thought it was underdeveloped (for lack of a better word) but when compared to Lukweta, it is like Canada is to Zambia.

However even amongst all the poverty, there were many farmers who participated in the vegetable farming workshop, and they were all very welcoming to me as well- a common theme here in Zambia as I’ve mentioned in other posts. We stayed in Lukweta for one night, and I was able to have a very good conversation with Mr. Yaba (an agricultural extension officer) who was helping KZF with the training. The remainder of this post will describe that conversation.

Mr. Yaba has been working with the Ministry of Agriculture and Co-operatives for 17 years now, and was a toolbox of knowledge when it came to farming and rural livelihoods. We talked about many things; education, farming, cultural beliefs, and development work.

From the left, Mrs. Jenny, Mr. Yaba, and Me

He told me that high school education should also be subsidized by the government because by the time a student reaches grade 12, they understand the importance of education, and have the ability to make an informed decision about going to post-secondary education. He told me in the rural villages, many children don’t go to high school because it is either too far away or too expensive. He also emphasized that if Zambia invests more in education, they are investing in the country’s development because through knowledge a country is able to develop effectively. He noted the example of the difficulty in running workshops for illiterate rural farmers.

We also talked about farming and how it is related to the cultural beliefs in Zambia. He told me that maize (currently Zambia’s staple crop and what you make Nshima out of) is the worst crop to grow in Zambia. It is very sensitive to water, and the heavy rains and floods often produce low yields. Similarly, the crop cannot resist drought. Maize was introduced into Zambia by the colonialists- it is not a native crop, hence the reason for its poor success rate! He told me the best crops to grow in Zambia are the tuber crops- cassava, sorghum, sweet and irish potatoes because they are drought resistant, can survive in a lot or little water, and can be grown 365 days a year. He also noted how important and effective vegetable gardening was. So after all this I asked him a very blunt question, “Is Nshima hindering Zambia’s development?” and to my surprise he acknowledged.

Plate of Nshima with relishes chicken and rape

This idea of eating the same thing every day we concluded was causing many people hardship. You eat Nshima at least once a day, and if you don’t that pretty much means you are dirt poor. For example, sorghum is often called the “poor man’s crop” because you would eat it when you don’t have maize to make nshima. Similarly, you cannot just eat relishes (ie. sides like fish, chicken, vegetables) alone- this is unheard of. You have to eat it with nshima. This dependency on maize to make nshima is causing many people to rely on relief food rather than explore other things to eat. I remember Mr. Simataa saying the same thing. He told me that people tell him they are hungry even though they have fish, chicken, and vegetables they could eat, simply because they don’t have nshima!

In my ignorant western point of view, I just want to say, if you’re hungry then eat what you have, don’t wait around for nshima but this topic is far beyond my scope of cultural intelligence! So I asked Mr. Yaba, what would happen if maize was banned in Zambia, if there was no relief maize for people to wait around for, would people die of hunger? He laughed at me, and said of course not- they will eat what they have! And this was exactly the point I was trying to get at.

He told me the problem was that the government was perpetuating the dependency syndrome by providing relief maize instead of promoting the farming of other crops like cassava and sorghum and that this was hindering Zambia’s development and decreasing the quality of life of its citizens.

So if there’s anything I want you to take out of this post, it is to further emphasize the complexity of poverty. Some things may appear to have an obvious solution but if you dig deeper you’ll discover quite the contrary!

Take care.

Mina

Disclaimer: This is a long post!!

Tuesday June 10. I decided to sit down with Ba Ma Yvonne and ask her a few questions- we’ll call it a ‘semi-structured interview’ to make it sound more development Esq. I wanted to delve deeper into the life of a widow in Zambia, what were the struggles and what were the triumphs, how about dreams and fears? These were just some of the questions I wanted to address.

I knew a little general information about Ba Ma Yvonne before I began this interview but the information I discovered really opened my eyes to the complexities of rural livelihoods.

Right now, if you’re not familiar with Engineers Without Borders you’re probably wondering why this post is entitled “My Dorothy” and who this Dorothy character is. I described her in basic in my introduction post before I left Toronto but here I’ll give a little more information behind the concept of Dorothy and how she plays a role in every EWB overseas volunteer’s placement.

Dorothy is the person living in poverty who faces numerous challenges, and vulnerabilities to improving her livelihood but regardless continues to work hard to improve her life, she is strong, committed, and focused. She is the rural farmer who has adopted growing sorghum and cassava instead of maize, she is the mother who is vegetable gardening so that her children have food to eat, she is the entrepreneur who with a micro-finance loan has set-up a small business to generate some income to send her kids to school, she is the community leader who has mobilized her friends and family to attend a workshop on HIV/AIDS and is watching out for them. She is the individual that every EWB overseas volunteer is responsible to, she guides all our decisions, she is our primary stakeholders, she is our boss. She is inspiring!

It is often said that every EWB overseas will meet their own personal Dorothy, and I think that one month into my placement I have come to this conclusion. My Dorothy is Ba Ma Yvonne, and you’ll see exactly why in this post.

Ba Ma Yvonne is 41 years old, and has 2 sons- Imata (16yrs old) and Brian (18yrs old). Her husband passed away in 2004 after in 2003 he got pneumonia. She has a basic education- up to grade 10, like most of the people here in Zambia. The reason being because her father couldn’t afford the school fees. In total she has 6 brothers and sisters and she is now living on a plot of land with her mother and sisters.

She tells me that from 1993-2002 her life was good. She lived in a nice house with her husband and 2 sons, and her husband was a successful business man who imported electronics and appliances from Namibia to sell in Zambia. She also had a small business selling fruits like oranges in the market. But when her husband began to get sick, she says things fell apart and when he died in 2004 she had to start her life over. You see her husband’s family took their land including the 24 orange trees that Ba Ma Yvonne worked hard to maintain. Ba Ma Yvonne was chased from her home and forced to move in with her mother. She lost everything she had! This is a complex cultural thing that I don’t fully understand.

In all of these hardships, her main priority is to provide a good life for her sons. She wants them to go to university and earn a higher education because he understands the value of a university degree here in Zambia. So although in 2004 she lost everything, she never gave up and didn’t expect anybody to come and support her.

She began working hard to improve her livelihood. Right now she sells chickens, knits clothes, farms vegetables and other crops (maize, sorghum, cassava, rice, onions, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, ocra, carrots, rape, Chinese cabbage to name a few haha!), and plants trees for sale. These are 4 income generating activities she carries out! It’s a lot of work, and she is up at 5am every morning. What amazed me the most was that she said she had the ability to do more because her income was still very low. She’s even began to mobilize her friends in the community to grow vegetables because they are a much more reliable harvest then maize that is very dependent on water. Vegetables harvest early before flooding can damage them. She also told me that although she could sit around and beg, or wait for relief food from organizations such as the World Food Programme, or the government she won’t because this leads to laziness and an even poorer quality of life!

A picture hanging on our hut wall

She tells me the biggest barrier to development in Zambia is the dependency syndrome and lack of initial resources to help individuals start working their way out of poverty. She also notes that the biggest opportunity for an improved livelihood in Zambia is through farming because everybody needs to eat! One thing that she also talked about and something that I’ve heard many times is that alcoholism is ruining the country. You can buy beer for the same price as Coke (2500 kwacha, approx. 75 cents) and there are no age restrictions on drinking. Many people are leaving school, and having children very young because of this. She also mentioned that this is one of the main reasons why the HIV/AIDS rate is so high in Zambia.

At the end of my conversation with Ba Ma Yvonne, I asked her what her dreams were. She told me that her sons had a good education and good jobs, and that one day she was successful enough that she could help other poor people, that she could give back to her community and help people improve their lives. I was speechless.

So although, there are many external factors that could prevent an improved quality of life for Ba Ma Yvonne she maintains true to the idea that it is “better for you to fight, and work hard!” This is why Ba Ma Yvonne is my Dorothy. She exemplifies the will and character of an individual who understands the importance of personal growth and success and who is unwilling to let anything come in her way from working herself out of poverty!

Take care.

Mina

So now that I know exactly what I’ll be doing for the next 3 months, I can share it with you. I’m pretty much working on reviewing KZF’s past project work and developing a system in which important information can be reviewed easily. The way in which past project information is currently documented is in shambles so they’ve asked to come in and better organize this information in the Mongu office. My hope is that the system I set-up will be implemented at every KZF field office in Zambia. I have to say I wasn’t too excited when I found out about the work as it is quite boring but it’s all good!

Me in my office- check out my kanamutendele (bicycle) in the back!

KZF-Mongu Staff

But I’m gonna try and spice up my work with KZF by traveling to the field (rural villages) with Mr. Simataa as he carries out the current project which is focused on improving the livelihoods of small-scale farmers in Mongu District. When he travels into the field, he usually stays in the villages for 2-3 days so it will be a good opportunity to meet new people and learn their lifestyle.

Funny note- every afternoon a herd of goat appears outside my window; it’s completely random!

If I am able to finish my specific work at KZF on time, I’m also gonna try to live with a rural farming family for a week to learn more about farming maize, and how farming is a livelihood for the majority of the population here in Zambia.

So I hope that gives you a little more background information as to what I am doing at work. Feel free to ask questions/comment.

Take care

Mina