Queen’s University Student on his way to Botswana
Posted by Alex on May 2nd, 2007
Hi everyone,
I’m guessing that the majority of people that read my blog will be family and friends that already know me, but for those of you that don’t, I’ll tell you a little about myself. My name is Alex Spring, and I’m originally from Ottawa, but I’ve spent the last four years living in Kingston, where I just finished up my undergrad degree in mechanical engineering at Queen’s University. When not hitting the books, I love to play any and all sports. Some of my favourites are hockey, squash, tennis, and cycling. I also love to read and watch movies, as well as just spending time with friends. As far as my academic interests go, I would say that biomechanics, biomechanical devices, and advanced materials are at the top. I’ve wanted to work in a developing country for essentially as long as I can remember. With quite a few family members somehow involved in foreign development, including both parents and my sister, I guess you could say that it’s in my blood. When I was about 14, I visited a couple of CIDA projects in India and Nepal with my dad during of one of his trips. That experience was a huge eye opener for me. I saw the extreme inequalities between the rich and poor of both countries, but also saw how much change even just a small development project can bring to a community. The warm response we got by the communities spoke volumes to the positive effect that the projects had had on them, and ever since then I have felt the desire to contribute, knowing that there is the potential for even just a small change to have a large impact on the lives of everyone involved. This summer, I will be travelling to Otse, Botswana, where I will work at Camphill, a community for people with disabilities, working with them to further a greywater irrigation system started the previous summer by another WUSC volunteer. I chose it because it is an engineering project which I feel would use some of the skills I’ve learned over the past few years, but also because it would be a place where I could look at problems of accessibility, disability and biomechanics, areas that, as I mentioned before, are of interest to me.By the end of my placement, I hope to have furthered the irrigation system to a point where I am no longer needed in order to finish it, but I really won’t know if that’s possible until I know more about the project. More abstractly, I hope to have done/helped do something at Camphill that will have a lasting effect on improving the lives of the people living in the community, and this may or may not have anything to do with my project… I will keep my eyes and ears open to other possibilities for helping out. Personally, I hope to make some lasting relationships, as well as see part of a continent that has intrigued me for as long as I can remember. I also hope to immerse myself in another culture and really experience it, instead of seeing it in a fleeting glance, as tends to happen while travelling as a tourist.I think that living in a community for the disabled could initially be emotionally challenging, but would be an experience that could enrich my outlook on life immensely. Another concern for me is that water systems are outside of my area of expertise, but I feel confident in my ability to learn whatever is necessary to successfully move the project forwards. Along those lines, I’m guessing that among my first tasks will be learning what has already been done by the previous WUSC volunteer prior to leaving, and figuring out what is left to be done, as well as some possible ways to achieve it.That’s all for now folks, but hopefully I’ll get the chance to write a few more of these while I’m in Botswana to bring you guys along with me on my journey.
Sala sentle (stay well),
Alex
