Next Stop: Nchelenge!

Since I left Lusaka last Tuesday, I have been staying in Mansa, a small city in Luapala Province, with Olivia (another JF) and Trevor (an EWB long term volunteer). Ashley, my coach and also long term volunteer, joined us on Thursday and since then I have learned a bit more about my placement and the role that I could play this summer within DAPP (my partner organisation)! Joie!

So what is that project that I am so excited about?

First of all, the project is related to Water and Sanitation and is called Self Supply. After successes in Zimbabwe and Uganda, Zambia is now taking on a pilot project to test the Self Supply approach for the first time! The pilot project is being runned in four districts: Nchelenge, Chienge, Mansa and Milenge. UNICEF is funding this pilot project and two NGOs are implementing it: DAPP and WaterAid. I will be working with DAPP in Nchelenge while Ashley will be working closely with WaterAid for the next months and reporting back to UNICEF. Both Ashley and myself will work on maximizing the communication between the two implementing organisations to ensure that the lessons learned can be shared between them. Since UNICEF has a limited number of staff in Lusaka working on Water and Sanitation projects, there is no direct connection with the field. Therefore, we will also be working on optimizing the communication between UNICEF and the two organisations to make sure that they are clearly understanding the Self Supply approach.

Self Supply?

This approach is aimed to encourage households and communities to take their own initiatives to upgrade their traditional well. Self Supply does not have one perfect model of well for people to replicate. Also, Self Supply is not providing subsidies to people. Households are the ones who decide what improvements they want and what they can afford to make them happen.
For Self Supply to work, we need to make sure that skilled labour is available in the community, required equipments are accessible, low cost technologies options are introduced, financial systems are established to open this approach to a wide range of people and policies are developed to encourage small-scale initiatives.

These are all assumptions that we are making in order to further assume that with all the enabling factors mentioned, households will participate in the project and that if they do, the quality of the water that they are consuming will improve.

My work in the next months will be to first find ways or improve the existing tools to collect information from the targeted communities in order to best test the assumptions discussed above. For me to better understand the process, I will have an hands-on experience this week by going to Chienge District with a DAPP representative and doing baseline surveys within the district and analyse the results. I am also planning on attending some Village Action Group Meetings (VAG is a group formed by representatives of each household involved in the project) to observe and understand how Self Supply is promoted. Once the information from all the districts will be collected and that we will be satisfied with them, we will develop a social marketing strategy to help DAPP getting more households to participate in the project.

I am very excited to take part in this project and I wished Nchelenge had some Internet connection for me to share with you the development of the Self Supply project! So my next update will probably not be before July when I will come down for the Junior Fellowship retreat. Until then, shaaleenipo! (stay well! ... haha well - as in water well... !)

Nchelenge is right beside the Lake Mweru that is shared with the Democratic Republic of the Congo. With some luck, I might be able to find other French speakers in the area!

First impressions.

Flight London-Nairobi.
Blue the sky. White the clouds. Amazing picture from my airplane window.
London stayed behind with its Big Ben, its Tower Bridge and its lovely pubs.
Its two-floor buses, its British accent and its traffic on the left.

Brett and me in London

Flight Nairobi-Lilongwe-Lusaka.
The flight was an hour later, but no one seemed impressed or frustrated about that.
Let's get used to African time!

Lusaka.
Blue the sky. Few the clouds. Amazing picture from the mini-bus window (equivalent of a van).
Trafic on the left, mix of dirt and paved road, Zambians wearing traditional clothes, other wearing "westernized" clothes, fences with barbed wires or broken glasses on top, big houses, small compounds, palm trees...

Z-Unit (minus Olivia and Cherie) in Lusaka

Our compound at the Kuomboka Backpackers in Lusaka for the in-country training

On our way to the market... a robot!

Lusaka, the capital of Zambia, has been our host for a few days. We had two days of in-country training with the EWB long-term volunteers (LTOV) where we learnt more about the history of Zambia, health and safety issues, how to find housing and a few basics in Nyanja (the language mostly spoken in Lusaka).
The LTOVs made us do a scavenger hunt and so we were left by ourselves in small groups in the city.

So where do we start?
Ok, we have to find the market and buy a bunch of things that we don't have a clue of what it is!
Let's ask this couple that is walking towards us for the directions.

"Muli bwanji! Where is the market?
- Oh, the market! Keep walking straight this way and when you see the robots, turn right.
- Excuse me, did I hear the robots?!?
- Yes, robots.
(Confused looks on our faces)
- Oh, sorry, the traffic lights!
- OOoooH! I see! Zikomo!(Thank you)"

So the belief here is that traffic lights are mechanised policemen that are not flexible. You can't argue with them, they are robots!

Getting off the train-ing...

I have been trying many times to write about my week of training in Toronto that just ended yesterday. Many times the words intensity and challenging came up but I always have a hard time summarizing what I have learned and giving you an insight of what life is like when you live with 17 other passionate and energetic volunteers for one week.

Schedule of the Pre-departure training

Many of the training sessions were meant to push ourselves out of our comfort zone and to make us think outside of the box.

What are all the different approaches that we can take to learn about our host community? about our NGO? about ourselves?
What is the big picture?
What is the impact that we are trying to achieve?
What major assumptions are we making about our host community?
How are they affecting our work and our goals?
...

I came here with lots of questions and I am leaving with tons. I did not expect to find all the answers in this one week and I don't know if I will ever find them during the summer. I realized that finding an answer to everything is not that important. It might be frustrating at times, but questioning nurtures my mind and pushes me to try out new things.

Intro to Rural Livelihoods session: Mark, Helen and Brett at Jerry Springer
for some household drama

Besides this intense learning, I had a great time getting to know better the other volunteers heading to Burkina Faso and Zambia. Put a mix of French and English speaking people in a house and believe it or not, instead of tension, we had fun! Fun laughing at the anglophones trying to pronounce our French names, fun making music with pots and pans, fun playing "shta" (I almost won the "shta" award!), fun discussing about everything and nothing, fun eating Ghanian food in the "Ghanian way"...

Music Jam, just before the pots and pans came in

It still feels unreal that I am leaving for Zambia today. I can't believe I will be in the airplane in a few hours!!! Aaaaaaahhh!

Look at these pictures. At these faces.

Look at how lucky I am to be surrounded by these wonderful human beings.
The GEWBies.
That's how they like to call themselves. And I'm glad to be one of them.
Throughout the year, EWB at Guelph has been taking risks, tried new initiatives, grew and learned a lot. I grew a lot with them and I am bringing with me the lessons learned.
The GEWBies also showed a tremendously warm support to the JFs, Kim and myself, and I am very thankful for all their nice words, advices and surprises!

(Thanks Gewbies for the surprise!)

I am now off for some more learning and personal growth in Toronto. For one week I will be living in a house with all the other JFs going to Burkina Faso and Zambia and I will be participating in the pre-departure training organized by the EWB national office.

Are you ready to come with me?

***

Regardez ces photos. Ces visages.
Voyez à quel point je suis choyée d'être entourée par ces merveilleuses personnes.
Les GEWBies.
Voilà comment ils aiment s'appeler. Et je suis heureuse d'être une des leurs.
Au cours de l'année, ISF à Guelph a pris des risques, tenté de nouvelles initiatives, grandi et appris énormément. J'ai beaucoup grandi avec eux et j'apporte donc avec moi le fruit des leçons apprises.
Les GEWBies ont également démontré un immense soutien aux volontaires, Kim et moi-même, et je leur suis très reconnaissante pour leurs bons mots, conseils et surprises!

(Merci les Gewbies pour la surprise!)

Je suis maintenant en route pour encore plus d'apprentissage et de développement personel à Toronto. Pendant une semaine, je vais vivre dans une maison avec tous les autres JFs qui iront au Burkina Faso et en Zambie. Je vais également participer à la formation de pré-départ organisé par le bureau national d'ISF.

Êtes-vous prêts à me suivre?