Predeparture Training Pt. I

DUDES!

Thoughts and Stories

Here is my journal for the day before and the first day of predeparture training.

Day Before:
i've arrived to pre-departure training and it is wonderful here. we all made a massive vegetarian chili dinner with biscuits and we've been here since 4pm. by now, we've all grabbed our bunk in the EWB house and had our first session on overseas logistics (insurance, entry visas, allowance and money, etc). tomorrow the fun actually starts. starting tomorrow we have ~16 hour days.

tomorrow, we're doing morning introductions, hopes and fears, lunch one on ones, what is poverty/development, intro to rural livlihoods, learning journal, dinner at the ethiopian house and an EWB's vision workshop with george. what a day! i'll be fueling up with a fresh cup of fair trade java in the morning, that's for sure.

earlier today, i was feeling extremely nervous about all of this. it is actually happening. saying goodbye to my family and tony really made this journey into something a lot more real. now i've settled into this house and the people are so awesome and so nice, those nerves have disappeared. i have an open heart and open mind and i'm ready to get started!

the gang is made up of equal parts girls and boys. there are only three people going to zambia this year as an interesting fact. nobody is going to kitwe (tony's town). the rest of us are heading to malawi. me and a guy named stan from windsor are the only ones working on CLTS. everyone is in the same boat as me in terms of preparation and i'm feeling pretty happy about that.

We have had a fun night and now it's time to get rest for the long day tomorrow!

Day 1:
Feelings upon waking up: rested and excited. I had a really great sleep on the top bunk in a room of 10 JFs and surprisingly, there was not snoring or late night conversations. I'm sure that will change one of these nights...

Some major questions and learning from the day:
If development is inevitable change, whose change is it?
If I impose my own values into decisions that I'll make this summer, it might not be in the best interest of rural Malawians. I have to be empathetic, understanding and have an open mind.
Is development happiness or economic security? Are they the same thing? What about long term vs. short term development? What kind of work are we doing?
Integrating into rural Malawi is not about losing yourself. Don't overstep your limits!
If international development is such a heavily criticized field, why is EWB any better?
I have to push myself out of my comfort zone in order to expand it and learn.


Some explanation on the sessions we had today:
Hopes and fears- We all wrote down, you guessed it, our hopes dreams and fears for our placement this summer. We only had time to review a few so we talked about learning chichewa (the tip is to hire a school teacher as a tutor!), connecting to your counterpart in an open, honest, mutually beneficial way, feeling like a family member vs. a guest in your host family, connecting the chapter in an effective way, not having the skill set that your APS/partner require/expect and being paralyzed by culture shock. It smoothed out some feelings I'm sure we were all having.

What is poverty/development- This was by far the most challenging session of the day. The objectives were to identify our personal definition of poverty and development, share it with others and open our mind to new ideas and definitions. Our chapter spends a lot of time defining poverty but I have never discussed the basic "what is development" in the company of EWBERS. My small group concluded that development is the inevitable change that is neither positive or negative. The general group talked about this for an hour. Really thought provoking and interesting session. What is your definition of development?

Intro to rural livlihoods- In this session, we learned about the six things that affect rural livlihoods: the household and the gender relations within it (productive and reproductive), agriculture, religion, culture and beliefs, assets and capabilities and the effect of macro trends. Then we did a case study of a particular household and addressed each of these things within it. If you want to learn more about this, hit me back and I can send you the case study.

Dinner at the Ethiopian house- If you haven't had Ethiopian food, you gotta try it! 'nuf said.

It was a long a lovely day. The folks around here are amazing people and I encourage you all to check out their blogs at the bottom of this page.

On another note, please send me feedback on my blog. I already know that my posts are too long but I'll work on being more concise!

see you in the future!
love love love.
love kate!