Peace Corey.

hey dudes!

back again, reporting from the EWB house in Toronto, Ontario and what a crazy place this is. I feel super close to all these JFs and after three days I truly feel like a 13+ piece family.

On the first day, things were a little quiet, a little reserved, and not too eager to share during sessions. But yesterday morning I noticed a huge difference and I knew it was going to be a great day. When we were all making breakfast, there were elbow nudges, jokes, conversations, laughs. The difference in community in just 24 hours was night and day.

As a result, my learning has skyrocketed. I'm not too hot a learner when I'm in big groups, but it really doesn't feel like that anymore and we're all 100% engaged.

Today was a phenomenal day for learning. We started off by doing a scenario exercise. It was a role playing activity of a community meeting involving the community and the NGO wanting to improve the community's economic situation. I was the lucky duck who pulled the chief card so I was facilitating the meeting. I knew I was in for a challenge because I'm not the tough guy or assertive type of person, but I did my best at a Ghanaian accent.I feel like I'm expanding my comfort zone every minute.

Somebody was playing the role of the EWB volunteer on the NGO side and it really opened my eyes to how we'll be perceived when we're working. The director of the NGO only liked the EWB volunteer because it could result in funding from CIDA (Canadian International Development Agency) and another person's role was to ignore the EWB volunteer because they thought they knew nothing. Perhaps these are realistic, perhaps not, but it will be in the back of my mind when I'm in district meetings and meeting new people. The exercise also helped me think about decision making in a community and the ambiguity or lack of information that is available when making a decision. I'm sure I'll have to make a lot of assumptions this summer when making any kind of decision.

Later in the afternoon, we had a session on economics and gender. In the econ session, we mapped out the systems in our own country and then looked at a model for sustainable livlihoods. I learned that in the context of Malawi or a rural African country, we'll have to look at things like social networks, relationships, government, the skills and knowledge of people, natural assets like land or rivers, physical assets like houses or schools and financial asssets like access to credit or money in order to start understanding the economic system. I probably will only begin to understand these systems by the end of August.

Our last session was a discussion about gender. We talked about risks and roles related to each gender when living in Malawi. We talked about how the Malawian men will flirt with us all the time, the excess of marriage proposals for both women and men, and the role that each gender plays in the household and workplace. Apparently, in a workplace, the hierarchy of power is white man, white woman, black man, black woman and the way you are treated depends on where you are. Some female volunteers talked about how they were treated like men in the field and women in the office. Very interesting. I'll keep you posted on my observations.

In the household, we will likely play the role of the guest for the first little bit. Volunteers typically have to ask to learn the customs of cleaning, laundry and cooking and men are typically not allowed to do some of these things. Hopefully I'll be able to build the trust and relationships with my host family and become more than a guest quick. That is one of my greatest hopes.

Last thing I have to say: this conversation got me thinking about who I want to live with and I decided that I'd love to live with lots of women and children. I receieved an email today from my co-worker who is going to help me find a place when I get there. She also told me I start work on the 24th of May. My first day of work is in 12 days. What a reality check!

I have more info for you about my living situation but I feel I've written a lot for now. You can check out my town on google mapshere.

I wish i could tell you more stories but I have to go work on a CLTS presentation.

One more: Parker told me my necklace was "peace corey" and that I shouldn't wear it. This was when 5 National Office staff lined us up and judged our outfits.

All my love and everything I got,
love kate