My time in Zambia

This is it

2008-09-12T08:47:00.000-07:00

This is really just to say good bye (for now...)

I have finished up a fabulous year in Zambia and I feel overwhelmingly lucky to have met so many amazing people, learned so much and simply gained an understanding (howerver narrow) into life in Africa. I don't think I have fully processed what I have gained from this experience but I know its touched me in ways that I may only discover years from now.

As a segway between volunteering for Engineers without Borders and returning to a full time job back in Canada, Scott and I have planned a 2.5 month adventure around Southern and Eastern Africa. He joined me last week in Nairobi and we are slowly working our way towards South Africa. We have a flight booked out of Johannesburg back to Canada on November 22nd. Between now and then we have a few plans (climb Kilimanjaro, check out the spice islands of Zanzibar and hit up an outdoor concert on the shores of Lake Malawi) but we are going to be making a lot of it up as we go along.

One day I will have to get back to 'normal' but until then I'm very much appreciating how pretty darn good life is at the moment.

Lots of love and best wishes and I really look forward to catching up at Christmas.

Nina

Wonderful Women

2008-08-06T03:06:00.000-07:00

I am winding down. As a means of closing out this year, Thulasy and I were asked to research and write an evidence based assessment of the last 12 months of the sorghum project. We presented our findings and recommendations last week. Fortunately everyone on the team agreed with us that there is a lot of room for improvement, what followed was a very productive discussion with the whole sorghum team about how to improve the project for this coming (and final year). We finished the week long meeting by developing an operating plan for remainder of the project with the whole team. The plan incorporates the majority of the recommendations Thulasy and I identified in the assessment as well as the teams lessons learnt from the past 12 months. We hope this will lead to more success in year two!

An additional outcome of the meeting was a request for Thulasy and I again to team up, but this time to do a market research study. We have been asked to look at the sorghum market in Zambia, demand versus supply as well as more details to help identify the best output markets for the cooperatives we are working with. In order to do this research the two of us are stuck in the capital, Lusaka for a few weeks. Lusaka is not an inspiring place at the best of times, right now it is even less so because as the end of my year draws near I would prefer to be spending time with my friends, family, co-workers and the farmer cooperatives in Ndola.

However, just the other day, in the midst of doing some research for the market study, I met Africa’s Most Innovative Women 2008. Mrs Banda is inspiring. Meeting her made me think even more about all the wonderful women friends that I have made in the last 12 months. And since I am thinking about them I thought I would share a little bit about them with you.

Mrs Sylvia Banda

I met Mrs Banda at the Lusaka Agriculture Show pretty much by accident. She owns and runs a catering business that sources vegetables from small scale farmers. I learnt from her that she came top 6 in last year’s Africa Business Awards for Women in Business and has been crowned Africa’s Most Innovative Women this year. She told Thulasy and me that she grew up in a village, one of 7 girls in a family of 8 children. She learned at a young age that as a girl child she was less desirable than a boy child. But she believed that she could do and achieve whatever she wished and proceeded to capitalize on her amazing natural business abilities and pursue a very profitable and successful business.

Milimo

Milimo is 12 years old. She grew up in a village in the South of Zambia with her mother, the second wife to her father. But when she was 9 her sister came to fetch her and bring her back to her father’s house in Ndola. Since the age of 9 she’s been living with her father and her sisters and brothers (from her father’s first wife) and me since January when I moved in. Already at the age of 12 she’s preparing most of the families meals and is responsible for other chores such as cleaning and washing her own clothes. It’s a far stretch from a North American child but pretty typical in Zambia. Compared with her, my childhood was a cake walk, despite the fact that I was convinced doing the dishes and occasionally vacuuming was equivalent to child exploitation.

Mary

I’ve already introduced many of you to Mary. I lived with her for my first 5 months in Zambia. She is an amazingly fun and easy going lady. We would have a beer or two together on a Friday evening and chat about life. She was widowed when her two children were still very little and has been supporting them and two nieces on her teaching salary ever since.

Chileshe

Chileshe is 9 years old and Mary’s daughter. She’s a spunky kid that has a ton of personality and is a lot of fun. I’d promised to take her swimming, so one Saturday we ended up (with Milimo, Chileshe’s brother Chisanga and her cousin Mukuka) at the Savoy hotel, swimming in the pool. None of the kids know how to swim but they had fun splashing around. When it was time to go Chileshe decided she wanted to see the hotel. So she marched up to the life guard and asked to be given a tour. He obliged and before we knew it we were all being ushered into the hotel’s elevator and shown around the roof of the hotel. None of the kids had ever been in an elevator before but Chileshe out of all of them seemed the most at ease. She never questioned whether, she a 9 year old from the compound outside Ndola was entitled to a tour of the fanciest hotel in Ndola. She’s got more confidence than the average Zambian and I think Mary has a lot to do with that. I love it!

Christine

Christine started off as my bemba teacher to begin with but we soon became good friends. She’s a year younger than me, married with a small boy. She and her husband live in a two room house with their son and her husband’s nephew. I go by her house a few times a week, sometimes she gets me to help with the cooking or teaches me a thing or two about being a mother or if we are really motivated we do some bemba lessons, mostly we just hang out and she feeds me. She has started working as a teacher and doing some small trade (purses, clothes, perfume) to help support her small family.

Beatrice

Beatrice is the mother of 9. She lives in a compound on the outskirts of Ndola and travels into the city center everyday to sell fruit in the market close to my office. She’s always ready for a chat and insists that every time I see her I take a seat for a few minutes to catch up. She likes to joke with everyone that I am her daughter. Despite working long hours at her fruit stall to make ends meet, she always sends me on my way with a few apples or a banana in my pocket.

Isobel

Isobel is the first born child of the family I live with. Her mother died when she was going to university in the UK and so stopped her studies to return home and take care of her family. Her father married again and had an 11^th child (Milimo) but that marriage didn’t last and Isobel took over the role of mother to the whole clan. As her brothers and sisters got older they started sharing the responsibility of looking after their younger siblings with her. Now that almost all the kids are grown up and moved out Iso has me and my parents (when they are visiting) not to mention a pretty constant flow of muzungu volunteers (other EWB folks) to look after!

Mrs Finka

Mrs Finka is a grandmother in one of the villages where I’ve been working on the sorghum project. She is the best farmer in this particular village with the most impressive sorghum harvest out of them all. She lives with her 5 or 6 grandchildren and farms to support herself and her many dependants. She is typical in that many grandmothers end up looking after some of their grandkids, she stands out because she does so with confidence and ability.

Abigail

Abigail is 18 and a neighbour when I lived with Mary. She just graduated from grade 12 in December. Because Grade 12 results only become available in April or May students have to wait a year before they can apply for post secondary education. She wants to become a writer and is thinking of pursuing a journalism degree next year, if not journalism she is considering development studies.

So those are a few of the women/girls in my life right now. I’ve been thinking about how amazing they are and recognizing how fortunate I am to know them. There are amazing people everywhere and it's worth taking the time to appreciate them.

Learning and Adjusting

2008-06-25T09:08:00.000-07:00

The last few months have been up and down. I’m slowly starting to recognise the extent to which they have been down (I’m pretty good at ignoring the negative). I was initially going to write about all the great things that have been happening (and there have been lots – my parents visit was a highlight – showing them around my home and introducing them to my friends and Zambian family, not to mention paddling on the Zambezi, seeing loads of wildlife and Victoria falls).

Me paddling on the Zambezi surrounded by some pretty incredible scenery

But the reality is the project I am working on is far from achieving the results it set out to achieve, failure is a strong word but in a lot of senses this year has failed to live up to expectations (profitable sorghum enterprises, food security and increased income amongst small scale rural farmers). There are many reasons for this, but first and foremost, the sorghum crop has done poorly. Farmers have not harvested the yields we had forecasted, meaning farmers do not have the sorghum for home consumption, let alone the sorghum to sell to get a ‘profitable sorghum enterprise’ off the ground. The rains were heavy and sporadic this year resulting in poor germination and then poor growth.

The amazing part is that the farmers still manage to be optimistic – “we have learnt a lot and we will know better next year". I guess we will, but it doesn’t change the wasted effort this year. I can’t imagine being ok with someone interfering in my life, telling me to try something new, investing my time and resources only to see it fail or fall seriously shy of expectations. Maybe I’m not used to the life of a farmer. I think farmers knew well ahead of the project team that things were going badly. We put our blinders on and tried to be optimistic, telling ourselves that thing’s might work out. The farmers on the other hand knew way back that the yields were going to be next to nothing this year, perhaps they were prepared.

This farmer (on the left) harvested the sorghum that is drying on her roof. She did better than most.

So where do we go from here? I think the first step is understand why sorghum did badly – is it due to the rains, or is it the soil type, the seed variety, the planting dates, insufficient weeding, or alien invasions? Can we learn from this year and prevent it in the future? I also have to recognise that this year was a lot more than just growing sorghum; we spent a lot of energy on skills development. The skills that we’ve been developing with the farmers are more long lasting than the sorghum season. Hopefully the business skills we’ve been working on with farmers and their cooperatives are transferable to another crop or even sorghum if it still makes sense? Perhaps it is these skills (finding inputs like seed and fertiliser, arranging the sale in terms of transportation, price, timing and quality) that will benefit the farmers in the long run.

This is a side of development that some would argue is best not to talk about. People need to feel like their contributions (financially and in kind) are benefitting people. The reality is some of it is and some of it isn’t. Even in Canada people are debating the wisdom of development – and on the ground here it is a very common topic. I believe it’s better to do something – even if it’s not as efficient or effective as you would like it to be- than to do nothing at all. I think that maybe you need to change your expectations – instead of hoping 2000 farmers grow sorghum and increase their annual income by $100, why not accept that that might not happen but if a handful do and another few learn more about business and a few more think diversifying their crops is a good idea. Maybe the key is understanding that the wins take different shapes, a lot of them unpredictable but equally valuable. I definitely agree that development has to be more effective – it’s ridiculous to spend so much money and NOT improve people’s lives. But if it were easy there weren’t be poverty anymore. We have to keep working, learn from our failures and mistakes and keep trying. The key I think is to LEARN and ADJUST. So if sorghum doesn’t make sense can we try something else?

The trouble is that these aren’t lab experiments – this is real life and real people and when I say sorghum failed, it doesn’t affect me the way it affects the people that have invested their time and resources. It’s not comforting to know that some farmers appear used to it. I don’t know what the answer is, but I think the most important thing is that development organisations recognise when something’s not working (like sorghum) and actively work to address it. Unfortunately I think that is the exception rather than the rule (other priorities like reporting to donors, keeping staff employed, etc get in the way). Pushing the organisation I work for to LEARN and ADJUST will be the focus of my last two months in Zambia.

My mom and dad doing a bit of learning and adjusting.

I got a message from a friend...

2008-04-30T01:40:00.000-07:00

I got a note from a friend of mine recently implying that I must have some thoughts on the questions I posed in my last blog and maybe even some answers. I definitely don’t have answers. But I recognise that asking questions is A LOT easier than answering them so I should at least attempt at sharing some thoughts.

My first question was regarding the logic of working with cooperatives. This debate is very much alive and actually is the most common topic of conversation between my CARE colleagues and I. Not to mention a topic that the South African EWB team is trying to get a handle on.

I am walking and chatting with two sorghum farmers

I think cooperatives in theory are a great idea: a group of people with a common interest banding together (cooperating) to take advantage of the benefits of working together. Some examples are buying farming inputs in bulk, reducing transport costs by bulking, revolving loan schemes, having more of a voice in business transactions, etc… A cooperative is meant to provide services to members in addition to making money to reinvest in the cooperative and pay out in the form of member dividends. The trouble as I see it is that human nature gets in the way. When does making money for your community take priority over making money for your own family? Cooperatives become political bodies, the board are elected members and in many cases the general membership are like disengaged citizens. From my observations (limited to the 6 cooperatives here in Copperbelt Province of Zambia), the general members do not hold the board accountable and in many cases the board don’t have any business skills. Lose – lose.

My colleague Sunday (pointing) chatting with farmers about sorghum - this field hasn't done very well.

Since we can’t change the project design*, and the design is to work through farming cooperatives; what can we do to increase the chances that the farmers will benefit from sorghum growing and selling after CARE pulls out? One idea is to encourage what one might call ‘anchor farmers’. This means work within the cooperative model but create a group of dedicated producers that will have a vested interest in seeing the sorghum business succeed. Thulasy has an excellent example of what this looks like, one of the cooperatives she is working with is running a dairy business, of roughly 300 members, 20 produce 75% of the milk. These are the ‘anchor farmers’. Now the next question is what does working with ‘anchor farmers’ look like?? And will this small group of stronger farmers ensure that the sorghum business continues to function? Aaahh, there is always an abundance of questions! And I am guessing the answers will only be discovered by looking back from the future! But it’s better to try something new not knowing if it will succeed or fail, than to keep doing the same thing that you already know will fail (I am sure someone has said that better)

(*Why can’t we change the project design? Another good question – the answer has a lot to do with accountability to donors, CARE philosophy, the way the development sector works in general – somewhat related to my last question from the previous post)

Lots of love to everyone,

Nina

Big questions, small questions...

2008-03-25T07:14:00.000-07:00

Bag of Sorghum Grain

I haven't been as eager to update my post recently. Part of the problem is that I have very much settled into my life here, and I find it hard to think of the things that others might find particularly novel or interesting. I know many aspects of my life are very different from my life back in Canada – but it’s become so normal that I don’t instinctively know which observations or experiences are worth sharing. That is part of the problem; the other issue is wanting to share with you some more meaningful thoughts on my experience working in the development sector. I have hesitated on that front because I feel quite overwhelmed with the complexity of what development is trying to achieve. Even closer to home, I am not sure what is the best approach to take within the context of my specific project! So instead of sharing insights, I thought I would share some of my questions related to the sorghum project and development in general:

We are working with cooperatives – many of which were formed purely to access government fertiliser subsidies (The Zambian government said – “Form farmer’s cooperatives and we will deliver fertiliser!”…or something along those lines). Do these organisations have the desire and ability to run a sorghum business? Are we (the sorghum project proposal writers and implementers) expecting too much of these loosely formed farmers groups?

If we are not expecting too much: how long does it take to learn adequate business skills to run a bulking and selling business? What attributes are basic prerequisites and which ones can be learned? What incentives are needed to keep the right people involved once the project implementation phase is over (we are no longer involved)?

The new cooperative leaders having a look at last season's sorghum harvest

Farming is an unbelievably risky business – this year there was too much rain causing significant losses to farmer’s crops. Last year it was drought, the year before disease, the year before de-valuation of the local currency, next year higher input prices due to the big leap in bio fuel demand, higher transport costs, alien invasions, etc... How do farmers reduce their exposure to calamity AND increase their profit margins?

How much are subsidies necessary to keep an agriculture sector alive?

What do you need first: a stable and competitive supply or a sufficiently substantial demand?

And one bigger picture question:

Development organisations need to promote their work in order to gain access to further funding. In light of this I feel that all internal evaluations by an organisation are going to be biased by the need for ‘self preservation’. I understand the need to self promote in order to maintain funding and continue helping – but at what point is shameless self promotion unethical? What would honest evaluation look like? What would ensure development organisation are accountable for their projects successes and failures?

Wonder what I am doing??? Sometimes so do I.

I will leave my questions at that for now(save some for another day!) . If you are interested I've updated a bunch of photos to my web album that give you an idea of some of the things I've been up to since January.

Big hugs,
Nina

Perceptions and Assumptions

2008-02-17T22:24:00.000-08:00

I have decided to move, I had moved in with Mary on the understanding that I would only be there for 3 months. 5 months later I finally tore myself away. I think we are both sad to be apart but for many reasons it made sense; for me was the struggle of commuting daily and for her it was getting a separate room for her son Chisanga.

But now I live in a much fancier part of town called Kanini. Again I am with a Zambian family, but instead of 3 bedrooms there are 5 and what is called a servants quarters in the back yard. I don’t think these two families differ all that much, their day-to-day lives are very much the same and their opportunities are similar. But there is a perception of us and them. The one example is that recently Zambia (and a lot of the region) have been experiencing black outs. They call it load shedding which essentially means the power company shuts off the power during peak times because it can’t meet the demand or needs to conserve power. Different parts of the city are without power at different times. It must be human nature to assume that others are always better off than you, folks in Kanini assume that they are without power when folks in Mushili (Mary’s neighbourhood) have it and vice versa. The reality is that both neighbourhoods are without power at different times, but as far as I can tell to the same degree.

Another funny assumption was made by the family I stayed with last weekend; they are sorghum farmers in a rural community outside of Ndola. I wanted to spend some time with them to understand more about their lives and in turn they learnt a bit about me. Many folks I’ve met want to know what I eat and even after 6 months of living here, people are shocked to find out that I eat the local nshima (ground maize) The assumption is that a mzungu can’t eat Zambian food – I managed to convince the family I was staying with that I could eat anything they were going to eat (There is a bit of double standard though – I really can’t drink the water they drink without some uncomfortable consequences). But apparently I wasn’t quite convincing enough. I couldn’t figure out why there was a separate pot of nshima for me. It turns out the nshima the family normally eats is what is called roller meal – the corn kernels are ground into flour and then cooked – they figured my tummy couldn’t handle it and were preparing me mealie meal that has been dehulled before being milled into flour! I think in reality my stomach prefers the roller meal – it has a bit more nutritional value than the dual processed mealie meal!

I guess what I am trying to say, is that it is very easy to assume things about others, but reality is often quite different than what we expect.

Me, Mrs Chitundo and her grandson Malama (love the t-shirt!).

Sorry for the lack of updates recently. I've been busy running around looking at sorghum - but I did manage to post a bunch of photos from Scott's Xmas visit to my web album.

Hope you are well,
Nina

Quick Update on Life

2007-12-19T08:03:00.000-08:00

While I was in Ghana I had the chance to meet up with some fellow EWBers. Sarah, Trevor and I attended the National Farmer’s day celebration for the Northern Region.

Here are Trevor and Sarah in their Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) outfits.

The event is organised by the ministry and prizes are handed out to outstanding farmers in different categories (sorghum, maize, millet, pigs, tomatoes, etc…). It was also an opportunity for politicians to get on their soap-boxes (Ghana’s next federal election is in 2008 – of which I was made keenly aware)

The winning Sorghum farmer and his prize

I’ve been back in Zambia for one week trying to catch up on the world of sorghum but being seriously distracted by the pending arrival of my boyfriend Scott! Yippee.

Happy Holidays to all!

Here is a photo of me and Lolita (daughter of a Malawian farmer - I love her expression!)

Nina
PS. I just posted two updates - so don't forget to check out the one titled 'Activists'

Activists in Ghana

2007-12-19T07:52:00.000-08:00

I just spent two weeks in Ghana as a guest speaker at a retreat for activists (self professed) working with communities affected by the extractive industries. I felt a bit nervous going in but also pretty excited about the opportunity to learn about their work.

I was asked to put together a brief talk about the mining industry. I mentioned the difficulty and expense associated with finding an economic ore deposit, the huge up front capital costs of opening a mine, the risks associated with commodity volatility and political instability, the technical decisions in selecting the mining method and the challenges with regards to waste management. Not to mention modern society’s complete dependence on products derived from mines. (thanks JP & S)

The activists spoke about the affects of waste dumps on agricultural land, the relocation of communities, the impact on water and air quality, the lack of jobs for local community members, the disruption caused by blasting and heavy equipment, examples of aggression and coercion by mining officials, insignificant revenues to local and national governments.

Of course there is a middle ground, where the mining company can mitigate the negative environmental and social affects, benefit the local and national economies AND make enough of a profit for the mine to be worth developing. But it seems like reaching that middle ground requires some form of social pressure, and in certain cases activism is necessary.

The folks at the conference were intelligent, pragmatic and dedicated. I know I don’t have the communication skills, persuasion skills or political savvy to accomplish what they set out to achieve. I respect the work they are doing and for the most part the methods they use. I learnt a lot and gained a new respect for the work of an ‘activist’.

Thoughts on Vulnerability

2007-11-29T23:12:00.000-08:00

2 weeks ago my neighbour died. I am not exactly sure what from, I was away at the time, but apparently two days before his death he was chatting with my housemate Mary. Now Rabson's death is surprising for sure, but I’ve become accustomed to hearing about people dying suddenly at a young age for no obvious reason. But what has made me stop and think is the mess his passing has left for his remaining dependants. I know I haven’t figured out all the complexities of who are his dependants but from what I gather it looks something like this:

Rabson's mother was living with him, his 2 youngest children – a boy (20) and a girl (17), his granddaughter and her two children, a grandson and a neice. His wife had died quite some years ago, along with a son and a daughter (the reason his grandson and granddaughter were depending on him). Since he was the only one in the household to work, the family was in a bit of a situation, all sorts of dependants and no providers. Luckily he owned the house – so no one was out on the street. I am not quite sure how they managed to put together the requisite feast for the funeral and continue feeding the family members that stayed behind afterwards. Now that everyone has gone home and things are settling down a bit, Mary (my housemate) has tried to explain the complicated redistribution of the household. Rabson's elderly mother went to live with her equally elderly brother, the grandson was sent to his dead mother’s relatives and the neice went back to live with the mother of her children's father. The son, daughter and granddaughter and her two children are still around but their prospects are pretty dismal. The daughter and granddaughter have not finished highschool and are unlikely to be able to pay the fees.

I was reading an article about how Canada has a social safety net, much like the ones that stretch below the trapeze artists in a circus tent. We are allowed to take risks because we know it is there to catch us if we fall. It takes the form of life insurance, health insurance, unemployment insurance, bankruptcy laws, wills, etc…The average Zambia on the other hand has a bit of a net, but it has holes in it and doesn’t quite reach beneath the swing radius of the trapeze. This means the risks are much higher, in a way that I find hard to fathom. I remember having a childish fear of my parents dying, but really I would have been taken care of by aunts and uncles and my life choices wouldn’t have been dramatically reduced. Here on the other hand, one’s life path can change drastically overnight. Rabson's children and grandchildren will struggle to finish school and their already limited choices have been further reduced. That being said, my neighbours don't show any signs of being down or discouraged. They still greet me with the same smiles and 'good morning's' and go about their daily routines...I am amazed by their strength and determination; life goes on.

My latest news:

I am off to Ghana on Sunday for a retreat with members of Oxfam America's Extractive Industry team. I have been asked to do a technical presentation about mining and participate in a tour of mining affected communities. Oxfam is hoping to set up a learning partnership between mining engineering students and mining communities in developing countries and has asked for EWB's thoughts. Will be very interesting and I hope to share some stories in a future blog posting.

Hope everyone is well!
Lots of love,
Nina

Malawi Adventures

2007-11-12T04:14:00.001-08:00

After my last blog update, I took off to Malawi for two weeks of EWB related activites. All work no play, of course! But Malawi was beautiful! I spent 1 week by Lake Malawi in EWB training, then a weekend up in the hills of the Zomba plateau for an EWB Southern Africa retreat and then finally a few days visiting a starch factory, where a fellow EWBer is volunteering. Please check out my web album for the full story in photos.

I thought I would talk about the Cassava factory in this blog post.

Thulasy and I traveled by bicycle taxi to the village where Danny lives and the factory is located.

Masinda Cassava Starch Factory was started by IITA (International Institute for Tropical Agriculture) to improve farmer’s livelihoods and demonstrate the economic viability of extracting starch from cassava. In both respects the project has been successful.

Daily the factory buys 2 to 3 ox cart loads of cassava from local farmers.

The extraction process is quite simple and functions in this remote location where they have access to water from a local stream, but no electricity.

The cassava is grated and then passed through a series of sieves. The physical movement of the cassava through the process is aided by water and human muscles. The grating is the one exception, which is done by a diesel powered industrial grinder.

Once the cassava has been grated and sieved it is passed through a series of settling basins. The starch precipitates out of the solution within 45 minutes and then is collected by hand and spread in the sun to dry.

17% by weight of the cassava is recovered as starch by this process. Once the factory has produced a sufficient quantity, it is milled, packaged and transported to a packaging manufacturer in the southern Malawian town of Blantyre. If it were not for the cassava factory, this particular packaging company would have to import 100% of it’s starch. The Masinda factory is one of a kind, but is encouraging copycats to set up shop, as the market for starch in Malawi is large and Masinda has no desire of satisfying the demand on it's own.

Nina

What am I doing here?

2007-10-17T23:06:00.002-07:00

I think I need to back up a little bit. I am not sure I have adequately explained what I am doing here in Zambia working with CARE international…

So here goes:

First, Engineers Without Borders partners with existing NGO’s on the ground. Thulasy (another EWB volunteer) and myself have been partnered with CARE here in Zambia and we are both working on the Sorghum Project. The official name is Sorghum Marketing Enterprise Project (SMEP), it is in it’s first year but is based on the Scaled Sorghum Commercialisation Project (SSCP – love those acronyms!) that ran from 2005-2007 in the Southern Province. Essentially SMEP is taking the SSCP plan and introducing it in two new areas. This is where Thulasy and I come in; she is working on the expansion in the Southern Province. SSCP worked with the same 2 cooperatives in the Southern Province during the 05/06 and 06/07 agricultural seasons. This year Thulasy is focusing on introducing 2 additional cooperatives to the program, which will double the participation in the Southern Province.

I am working in the Copperbelt Province, where we are introducing the project for the first time to 6 cooperatives.

The project has three main goals:

1 – Increase food security for small scale farmers

2 – Diversify crops

3 – Increase house hold income

These goals are to be achieved by introducing sorghum as an alternative to the main staple food: maize. Sorghum has the added benefit of being a traditional crop, unlike maize, and was grown for consumption by these farmer’s ancestors. Furthermore, sorghum is more draught resistant than maize, which is of added value in the Southern Province where drought is common.

By encouraging farmers to grow sorghum AND maize, they are less vulnerable to external shocks such as draught, pests and market fluctuations. Both sorghum and maize are grains that can be consumed in the same fashion at the house hold level.

To increase income CARE is facilitating access to market by linking farmers cooperatives to sorghum buyers. This has mainly been achieved through a contract with Zambian Breweries, who is using sorghum to make beer. Another method of income generation is sale of sorghum in local markets. CARE has encouraged cooperatives to mill and package the sorghum for retail sale. This has been fairly successful in the last two years in the Southern Province.

CARE is providing free seed to farmers that volunteer to be a part of the project. We are working through existing cooperatives to help with logistics of meeting the farmers, distributing the seed and monitoring progress, but we are not limiting the participants to cooperative members. Fortunately in Zambia there are many, at times overlapping, cooperatives and so it is easy to find and reach farmers through this means.

The vision of this project is to spend 2 years with the selected cooperatives, facilitating the market linkages and agricultural know-how of the farmers and cooperatives in order for them to continue producing and selling sorghum long after CARE has backed out. The cliché term is ‘sustainable development’.

The actual nuts and bolts of the project involve meeting with the farmers or a network of ‘contact farmers’ to explain how sorghum is grown, harvested and sold. Ensuring the seed distribution occurs smoothly and fairly, that the market linkages are made and the cooperatives and farmers gain knowledge in sorghum growing, business and marketing.

Not work related

2007-09-25T07:15:00.000-07:00

As I am just about to set off on another whirlwind tour of the Southern Province (a bus load from the Copperbelt are making the 10hr drive to participate in the Sorghum growing festival, a small celebration of the farmers and cooperatives that grew sorghum last season, with cash prizes and t-shirts being given to the highest producers) I thought I would post a quick note.

Once I get back, the Copperbelt Sorghum team is diving in to production training, which means heading out into the feild and talking with farmers bout the key steps involved in growing sorghum this coming season. I am not an agricultural specialist, nor a fluent speaker in Bemba, so my role will be minimal. Ideally, we are simply encouraging farmers to grow sorghum and facilitating linkages between farmers and the government agricultural extension officers as well as agricultural input suppliers (all whose expertise far surpases our own on the topic of sorghum production).

Anyway, I was side tracked from my main topic which was to share my weekend with you. I had promised to take the kids (Chileche, Chisanga, Makuka and Joseph) to the park. (Just a reminder Chileche and Chisanga are Mary's kids, Joseph and Makuka are cousins). So we set off on Saturday afternoon and to save precious kwacha (local currency) we piled Chileche on to my lap and Chisanga on to Josephs - which meant we only had to pay 3 bus fares instead of 5 - good deal! I will have to take a picture someday of the minibuses, some of you may be able to imagine what they are like. For those that are unfamiliar, imagine a mini van or westfalia type vehicle with 4 benches behind the driver and 4 people squished on to each bench. Yup that's 16 folks in the mini bus, not including the driver and 2 passengers on the bench beside him.

So we arrived at the park and proceeded to play...what else do you do in an amusement park?

Sunday, I headed to church with Mary and Chileche because the bishop was coming to visit and it was going to be an exciting service. I was not dissapointed, lots of singing, dancing, yoddling, drumming not to mention extreme heat and loads of people. I gave up after 2 hours, the service was 4 hours!

Hope everyone is well as things start to cool off in Canada (things are heating up over here!)

I am having trouble uploading photos to my blog, but I have updated my web album (follow the link at bottom right of this page).

Cheers,
Nina

Next Ndola Update

2007-09-20T03:08:00.000-07:00

Well that was a bit of a longer break than I thought. It is a fact of my new life that things don’t go as planned, so this is my warning that postings will not be regular or necessarily as frequent as promised! After my last post I spent a week in Ndola, getting to know my new family and entering the names of the roughly 1000 farmers who have volunteered to receive free seeds from CARE and grow Sorghum this next growing season. I also was frustrated with the spotty Internet connection at the office. (ongoing frustration that I will just have to get used to).

It turns out Mary’s son Chisanga was in the house all along…I had understood he was a cousin! Oops. Anyway, I think I have the family sorted out… but don’t ask me to explain the family next door, according to Mary there are 14 kids (not to mention several dogs and a radio that is never turned off)! Please check out my web album for more photos. Chileche is 8 and Chisanga is 11 and I am really enjoying living with them! It’s a bit of a hike to the office (20 min minibus ride) but otherwise it’s pretty cushy. I am eating dinner with them and generally hanging out. Everyone speaks English but is trying to help me learn Bemba.

I was only able to stay for 1 week with the Malauni’s before I headed back to Livingstone to join Thulasy and her gang in a post harvest survey. We had a very interesting time interviewing farmers about their harvest last season (planting is done when the rains comes in December-January and the grain is harvested in May-June). She and I spent two nights with a family in the village. (see the web album for more photos). I also learnt a bunch about witch craft, polygamy and food aid. They all exist in Zambia and the debate continues as to whether they are good or bad or somewhere in the middle.

First Days in Ndola

2007-09-01T01:59:00.000-07:00

I have arrived!

Just over a week ago I said good bye to Thulasy and Josephine (what was left of my EWB support crew) and caught a bus from Livingstone at 6:30 am, arrived in Lusaka at 1:00pm and then proceeded to drive the 4hrs up to Ndola with the Sorghum team’s project manager Evans. We made it to town after dark and just in time for dinner and sleep. The next day I was able to contemplate my future home. Ndola is a very developed city, the second biggest in the Copperbelt Province, with wide boulevards, trees and green spaces. CARE’s office is located in the Development House near the center of town.

CARE's office is in the Development House

My first few days in Ndola were spent with Evans and the rest of the Copperbelt’s Sorghum team (which consists of myself, Sunday and Romanohs). We are working in parallel with the Southern Province’s Sorghum Team (Thulasy, Whyson and Silvester). We met with several cooperatives to explain the Sorghum Project (also know as SMEP – Sorghum Marketing Enterprise Project) and leave volunteer registration forms with them to fill out.

Sunday, Romanohs and Evans did most of the talking, but here is me talking about SMEP's partners with the help of a co-operative member/translator.

Since arriving I have been staying in a dorm room at Nortec – a technical college. It has been fun, with my own room, an awesome shower (communal) and a constant stream of visitors to help me with Bemba and chat about life. The proper school term is starting on Monday and the school needed my room, so yesterday I moved in with Mary Malauni and her two children. Mary is a schoolteacher, whose husband passed away several years ago and who lives just around the corner from my colleague Romanohs in a suburb called Mushili Kansengu. I have my own room in the 3 bedroom bungalow and there is an indoor toilet and shower (!). From what I have gathered so far, water is available most mornings but not in the evenings. So the family fills a large barallel with water for use after the taps don’t work. It is really very comfortable and with my mosquito net set up I feel like I am sleeping in a royal chamber. Mary is super nice and I haven’t met her children yet as they are away on holiday but I have met her neice, who lives with them as well. I am really pleased with my new living arrangements and will post some pictures soon.

Some of the students at the college.

Hope all is well!

Nina

August Photos

2007-08-20T08:33:00.000-07:00

Photos taken in Toronto, Amsterdam, Lusaka and Livingstone

Some random first reactions

2007-08-17T08:18:00.000-07:00

Hope everyone is doing well. So far Africa is dry and hot and a little overwhelming. I guess I didn't spend too much thinking about food and language and living conditions before arriving. So the whole food thing is about eating a lump of ground maize (or sometimes sorghum!) called schima with your hands and some kind of meat or vege dish wich is called the relish. It actually tastes pretty good and I do enjoy the whole hand to mouth thing, but it can easily be eaten for every meal and get a little tiring... Dave,Thulasy, KaHay, Heather and myself about to chow down on some schima and relish.

Language is another concern I didn’t spend too much time contemplating before arriving - there are over 70 languages in Zambia, 7 of which are fairly mainstream. I will be in the Copperbelt region where the folks speak Bemba - so I will be learning that, but I have learnt a bit of Nyanja - which is spoken in the capital and now I am in the Southern province where folks speak Tonga and Lozi. It's tough to get ahead! Most folks that I have met speak English very well - so it wont be a significant road block until I get into more rural areas. And finally the living situation, I just have to get my head around the fact that I will be semi camping for the next 12 months! I will not have my living sorted out for another few weeks, but I expect to be in fairly basic accommodation, with an outhouse, perhaps some electricity and running water in the form of a communal tap somewhere in the yard. A far cry from my house in Fort Mac - but nothing I can't get used to. I just had a sponge bath and felt almost immediately afterwards that I was dusty again. I get the feeling that it's impossible to ever feel really clean or at least the feeling is very fleeting.

First days in Zambia

2007-08-14T08:30:00.000-07:00

So I've made it to Zambia. I am just starting week 2 of my year in Africa...it sounds like a long time stretching out in front of me. So far everything is great. There are signs of extreme poverty as well as signs of economic growth and I can't quite shake the feeling of standing out like a sore thumb wherever I go. But the network of EWB volunteers is really solid and I am still not on my own (it will be another couple of weeks). My first week was spent in the capital Lusaka learning about EWB's history in South Africa, doing scavenger hunts in the markets (visiting a witch doctor for a 'pretend' ailment), learning some basic Nyanja (Muli Bwanji = how are you?), wipping it up on some 200cc dirt bikes and bonding with the EWB crew.

Dave teaching at the hostel in Lusaka. I am in red with my orange water bottle on the table.

Practicing our motorcycle riding skills attracted quite a crowd. I was able to give them a bit of a show when I fell off (forgot the clutch when I tried to stop!)

I think I've got it...

I am now in the Southern Province with 3 other EWB volunteers. Thulasy and I are here to learn about the Sorghum project from the CARE staff and EWB's last volunteer Josephine, who has been living here for the last 12 months. Danny is also here to learn about the Sorghum project, because it relates quite closely to the work he is doing with casava back in Malawi. We are scheduled to spend just over a week going out into the field and talking value chains and market analysis and then I am headed up to the Copperbelt region, where I will be settling in for the remainder of my stay in Zambia. The Sorghum project is now starting into year 3, the first two years consisted of introducing sorghum growing to two cooperatives in the Southern province, and helping establish a market for the grain. This year both Thulasy and I will be working with CARE staff on expanding the project further in the Southern province and into the Copperbelt province. Thulasy will be based either in Livingstone or just outside and I will be based in Ndola.

Departure and Training

2007-08-01T12:56:00.001-07:00

After 4 weeks of training in Toronto the time has come to board the plane. Thulasy, Kim, Heather and I are all flying tonight from Pearson Int. to Amsterdam, then on to Nairobi and finally to Lusaka via Harare, Zimbabwe. We are scheduled to reach our final destination just before noon on August 3rd. Even though I am not ecstatic about the idea of spending the next 30hrs in a plane and/or airport I am really excited to be finally on my way. The last month has been a whirlwind of readings, discussions and assignments on agriculture, rural livelhoods, Engineers without Borders, health and safety, integration, gender sensitivity, power and priviledge, participatory approaches, development organisations... etc. I have learnt a lot and really enjoyed hanging out in TO and getting to know the EWB crowd and the 8 other volunteers that are off to either Western or Southern Africa in the next few days. Here is a photo of some of the group on one of our days off (camping at Emily Prov. Park)I am not in the photo but that's my orange water bottle in the foreground!

Once the four of us reach Lusaka we are scheduled to do some in country training which includes but is not limited to some motorcycle lessons! Yoohoo! Then Kim and Heather are going to head to Malawi with Dave our trusty Southern Africa director and Thulasy and I are off to spend some quality time with Josephine who has been working with CARE on the Sorghum project for the past year. Josephine has been stationed in Livingstone, close to Victoria falls - so expect some falls photos in my next post.

Where do I start..?

2007-05-14T20:20:00.000-07:00

There is so much I would like to tell you about, perhaps I will start with a few of the basics.

I am going to Zambia for 13 months starting in August 2007.

I will be working for EWB in partnership with CARE on a scaled Sorghum Commercialisation Project

Engineers without Borders (EWB) is an organisation that was started in 2000 by two University of Waterloo Engineering students. The vision of EWB is the appropriate application of technology in order to alleviate poverty and improve standards of living in developing communities around the world. EWBs focus is on tailoring technology to each community's social, cultural, economic and political context. They send Canadian volunteers overseas to work in partnership with local organisations on projects that involve and empower the local people. EWB also does a lot of work here in Canada raising awareness about issues facing developing countries as well as affecting policy changes at our government levels. Please check out their website at:
www.ewb.ca

Would you like to support me by supporting EWB?
I am fundraising and any donations would be very much appreciated! Tax receipts can be given for donations exceeding $20. All cheques should be made out to Engineers Without Borders. If someone requires a tax receipt they should indicate this with the cheque and provide a return mailing address and contact information.

Preliminary Research

2007-05-13T20:43:00.000-07:00

Up to now I know some of you have actually found out a bit more about Zambia and Sorghum than I have (my excuse is that I have been too busy visiting with doctor's trying to figure out what shots to get...) So as incentive to learn more before I fly - this posting will be a summary of my future home country.

Zambia

Zambia is landlocked and sparsely populated by more than 70 ethnic groups, many of them Bantu-speaking. It has some spectacular scenery, including the Victoria Falls (picture above) along the Zambezi river, the Bangweulu Swamps and the Luangwa river valley. 44% of the population lives in urban areas (Lusaka, Livingstone and the towns in the Copper Belt) most rural Zambians are subsistence farmers. Zambia's neighbouring countries include; Congo, Angola, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Malawi and Tanzania.

Full name: Republic of Zambia (formerly known as Northern Rhodesia)
Population: 11 million (UN, 2005)
Capital: Lusaka
Area: 752,614 sq km (290,586 sq miles)
Major language: English (official), Bemba, Lozi, Nyanja, Tonga
Major religions: Christianity, indigenous beliefs, Hinduism, Islam
Life expectancy: 38 years (men), 37 years (women) (UN)
Monetary unit: 1 Kwacha = 100 ngwee
Main exports: Copper, minerals, tobacco
GNI per capita: US $490 (World Bank, 2006)
International dialling code: +260

Brief Political History:

In the 1888 Cecil Rhodes and his British South African company took over control of the region, in 1923 he ceded control to the British Government. In 1964 Zambia gained it's Independence from Britain and the federation of Rhodesia and became the Republic of Zambia. From 1964 to 1991 Kenneth Kaunda was prime minister of the one party state. In 1991 a multi party constitution was adopted and Frederick Chiluba became president. In 2002 Levy Mwanawasa was elected and then re-elected in 2006.

Economic History

In the late 1960's Zambia was the 3rd largest copper producer in the world (after the US and Soviet Union) the collapse of world copper prices in 1975 had a devastating affect on the economy. Over the years Zambia has appealed for food aid and financial aid from the international community. In 2002 the Government refused genetically modified (GM) maize to help alleviate the severe food shortages facing three million people. In 2005 the International Monetary Fund, World Bank and Western donors cut Zambia's foreign debt to $502 million from an estimated $7.2 billion.

Other Information

The HIV/AIDS epidemic is ravaging Zambia. Nearly one million Zambians are HIV positive or have AIDS. Over a half-million Zambian children have been orphaned. Malaria is also significantly affecting families and their ability to provide for their own basic needs.

The government has a policy of universal free primary education and health care. Health facilities however are grossly inadequate with only half the required doctors needed to service the population. Some 95% of primary school age children are enrolled at schools with 20% continuing to secondary level and 2% of the 20 - 24 age group in tertiary level. Illiteracy is 27% but the drop out rate at schools is very high. In rural areas, the standard of education is hampered by lack of facilities, transport and teachers.

More to come as I continue to learn...