I am living in a little town called Dowa, it is about 6-7 km away from the refugee camp which is where I am volunteering. The Jesuit Refugee Service has a Higher Education at the Margins program, which is an online University program for the students living in camp. It is a way for them to have an opportunity to attend university and pursue their dreams. During a day at camp I organize discussion groups with the students on course content, I help the students one on one with their work and I am part of a community garden project that has just kicked off.

Having travelled before a bit in the past the Malawian culture is similar in some ways to South American and South East Asian culture: The markets are hustling and bustle-ling, there are issues with waste disposal, the people are in general very friendly and helpful, it is not abnormal to find a chicken sitting beside you on the mini-bus, poverty is very apparent in rural and urban settings… This is not to say that the culture is the same as any other though. Since I have been here, I have had many surprises, some warming my heart and others that feel much harder to deal with.

The Malawian people seem to be really friendly and try and help me for whatever it may be: getting on the mini-bus, bargaining in the market, finding the rest room or figuring out how to boil water to drink. One thing I have noticed is that no matter the question you ask someone the answer is always ‘yes’. I think this may be the combination of a language barrier but also something that is cultural.

In Malawi the main language is Chichewa so most people speak this language and various other African dialects depending on which part of the country that they are from. English is the office language of the country and although many people do speak English it is very basic. Chichewa is a language that is very difficult to learn but it is definitely worth learning while I am here, with hope that in terms of the miss understandings that are reoccurring can be reduced.

The other part of the miss understanding I believe is more caused for cultural reasons. As a white person I really feel that the Malawian do not want to say ‘no’ to me or other westerners, so they seem to say ‘yes’ to everything even when the answer is ‘no’J. It can get a little bit confusing.

I am hoping that throughout my stay I will come to understand this communication issue that seems to keep happening. Learning some Chichewa should help and also just getting more used to the people, their body language and the way that they communicate not only with westerners but also with other Malawians.

My overall experience so far has been really positive and I have gained an appreciation for the culture and the people.  Life here feels much more tiring but again that may be just because I am not completely use to it, I will see how I feel about this in a month.

I’ve tried to break down my daily schedule here to give a sense what a day in my life is like.

People are awake and doing things around 4 am, and are taken aback when their desire to talk to me at 5:30-6:00 clashes with my indulgent desire to sleep into 6:30. Oh the idle pleasures of the mzungu (white person). When i do get out of bed, i stumble about, trying to avoid the bugs on my floor, taking the various medications necessary for this exotic adventure, and trying to remember how I got here. Oh, I use a currently unplugged refrigerator as a cupboard. It’s really handy, as otherwise my things get filled with salamanders (true story), although I am trying not to get too attached, as there will likely come a day when my roommates have something they want to keep cold. Transportation is neither particularly safe nor reliable, so I try to walk to camp every day. According to my roommate Chloe’s pedometer, the walk is over 8km and takes us about an hour and a half, as it is mostly hills and not much pavement. Cute goats though. Along the way, children scream and squeal, overwhelmed at the hilarious sight of the mzungus. Some ask for money, but most are just tickled to get to look at me and my alien self.

Work usually starts around 8:30. The work is not easy, but can be very satisfying. My supervisor has allowed that I have more control over the structure of my day. This is a much more flexible environment than I am used to in Canada and I still am having trouble adjusting. Typically my work involves sitting down with the students individually and going over their assignments/forum posts for their current course (appropriately) Intercultural Communication. I am working the second year university students, so they are very independent and rarely ask for my help. Regardless, I try to gently insert myself in as minimally annoying way as is possible. Jokes are involved (issues with cross-cultural senses of humor decrease daily).

It can be difficult to establish myself as a figure of semi-authority and respect, so that the students want my help. The refugee students are mostly from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC or, affectionately, Dr Congo), with a few from Burundi and Rwanda. In the camp there are also refugees from Ethiopia and Somalia, but none who’ve been accepted into the JRS HEM (Jesuit Refugee Service Higher Educations at the Margins) program. Anyways, as the students have told me (both in conversation and in reading their papers on identity), women in Africa typically take a subordinate role to men, so it is different from them to be looking to myself and my female colleagues for advice.

After a casual lunch in our preferred ‘restaurant’ in camp, where the girls eat beans and ‘chapatti’ and I scarf the African version of doughnuts (sometimes called a fritter or mandazi) and chai (to soften the occasionally tough treat), there is a shorter afternoon session. Usually the internet stalls up from its not-so-speedy-but-very-manageable- morning version to a version that is mostly unusable. The students and I are still very lucky to have daily access to this internet, which is powered by an advanced solar power system on top of the building.

I am finished around 4:30 every day. Sometimes I can grab a minibus right home, which is ideal. Other times I wait for over an hour, pacing and worrying about the consequences of being outside after dark. Rations for the refugees have been delayed a week, so I am surrounded by starving people. Usually I feel pretty safe, but I have had some…tense encounters with some people who view me as a rich person who is deliberately choosing not to help them. I can empathize, despite having no real concept of the kind of desperation that would accompany hunger. This, and other issues of meeting basic human needs within the camp, causes me a great deal of internal conflict. I want to be helping, am trying to help, yet here I am, providing education, while people starve and their homes collapse in the rains. It makes it difficult to feel like I am helping at all. Anyways, I am trying not to be a defeatist. The camp is incredibly developed in comparison with many refugee camps worldwide and most people are glad to have the support of JRS. I cannot curse my metaphorical candle for providing insufficient light, lest I allow darkness to win. Maybe.

Ideally, I am home for no later than 5:30, as it gets dark by about 6:30. We’ve all been strongly advised against being outside after dark meaning, as yet, I do not even know what Malawi looks like after 7. I’ll have some night escapes in the future but, for the time being, I am so exhausted after work I really have no desire to go anywhere. What I look forward to after work is trying to wash the grime off my body (for 2 minutes I am clean and then the cycle restarts). I have limited clothing so am usually caught trying weigh the benefits of feeling clean and comfortable for the evening against using up all my clothes and having to do more laundry. Other than my ‘delicates’, I am able to have my laundry washed by hand by the niece of the woman I live with for about 2 dollars. Having a non-family member look after my chores feels very strange to me. I become extremely self-conscious of my ‘white privilege’, even when having different people to look after different chores is very common in African Culture. It’s one of a few typical ways for the younger members in a family to earn money (like an allowance). Still…

With an hour and a half before dinner at 7:00, I usually do mini-chores, sit down, and try to decompress. My audio novels on my laptop brought me a considerable amount of pleasure for the first few weeks I was here. However, they have expired from the library, as they only have a 2 week limit. I intend to try a mission to make Ottawa’s public library accommodate me here in Malawi. Mission Not Entirely Improbable. For dinner, the host family is really trying to accommodate us, even creating what they call “irish potatoes” (mashed) and “spahghett) (spaghetti) to go with our various pieces of goat and cow. There is always a vegetable component (called relish regardless of what vegetable is used), but I have learned this does not sit well with my stomach. There goes my green consumption. I really appreciate the effort, even if my craving for the abundant food selections of home sometimes leaves me in a bittersweet reverie. Being a ‘foodie’ is both a privilege and a curse. Every meal has a starch (usually rice as they know we prefer it to nsima), some protein (meat or eggs), and the greens. The other interns and I usually have a stash of a seasonal fruit in the back for later; I regret that mango season is coming to a close.

After dinner, around 7:30-8:00, I usually speak on the phone (most often mother). It helps me center myself and reconnect to home. Apparently Canada is still cold in my absence. Well, I’ll be… Somewhere thereafter (8:00-8:30) I try to prepare for the next day. Clothes, bag, snacks. More pills, and then a mad dash into bed. On a good day, there will only have been a minor power outage. On a less good day, I will have been relying on my flashlight and glowbugs to orient myself. Note to future interns, I scoffed at the suggestions of a head lamp, but it would be really useful. Stay tuned for an upcoming list I will make of all the essential things to pack for Malawi. Anyways, flashlight on, I turn off the lights and go to bed, hoping rain will come during the night and keep the otherwise…chatty? boisterous…dogs quiet, but not enough that I will have to tread an unbearably muddy path the next day.

Being here, I want to be better than I am. I try to be present, but I get caught up, planning the future. Hoping. Wishing. Dreaming. It’s a challenge of self, so hopefully I like what I find out. I send well-meaning, if apparently pale, affection.

ZED

Since I began my Bachelors in International Development and Globalisation at the University of Ottawa in 2007, I have also been and remain a military reservist for the Canadian Forces. My program of study offers a multidisciplinary approach to understanding international political relations and the challenges of economic, political and social development, with a focus on the conditions in struggling nations. I have conducted extensive research and written numerous papers on topics that relate to security, development, health, economic and environmental sustainability, and historical and political analyses of regional affairs. While studying and working as a reservist, I also partook in the CO-OP program at the University of Ottawa, which provided me with internship opportunities at both Environment Canada (in the Environmental Stewardship Branch) and Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada (in the Consultations and Liaison Division). As well, this past summer, through the assistance of the international student organisation called AIESEC, I had the opportunity to volunteer with an international NGO in Buenos Aires, Argentina, called Mensajeros de la Paz, as well as assist in teaching English at Jorge Prieto Letellier, a high school in Santiago de Chile.

Through the international placement opportunity that WUSC SWB provides, I seek to explore and learn more about Peru, Latin America, its people and its development challenges. I hope this internship will enhance my life-long learning experience by building on the knowledge, methods and tools I’ve acquired while studying and working in the field of international development. I also believe that this experience will allow me to put into further practice the insights and skills I’ve acquired and arrive at a more comprehensive understanding of the current development practices and challenges.
I look forward to putting my experience and education to further use this winter, while also developing new skills that will unquestionably be beneficial to myself and, I also hope, to have a positive impact on those that I seek to assist and learn from.

I am excited to meet the SWB Sri Lanka team and to share in the intense, exhausting, edifying, overwhelming and exhilarating experience of contributing to the advancement of this project day by day with my new colleagues. I am eager to sharpen my skills and put them to use, surrounded by a team that supports me, challenges me and propels me forward. I hope to contribute in a meaningful way and that the fruit of my labour will have a tangibly positive impact on the everyday lives of marginalized peoples in Sri Lanka. Beyond the office, I look forward to learning the language, developing new friendships and adopting the expat lifestyle in Colombo.
One of the personal challenges I expect to face (considering the fact that I am a country girl who is used to wide open spaces and who instinctively seeks out the atmosphere of small and remote villages when travelling) will be learning to adapt to and appreciate the unique pace and charms of a third world capital city. I think the delicious food at every street corner will play an important part in helping me enjoy the city life! I can’t wait to have my taste buds tickled by all the spicy-tangy-sweet-salty flavours of an incredibly exciting and complex cuisine and to settle into the local curry+rice 3X daily routine!

The Conflict Studies program addresses many important international issues, different political systems, and offers a glimpse into various cultures. But this is all taught in a stuffy classroom. I have been eager to actually apply what I’ve learned to a work environment, in a more localized setting, while also learning about a different culture. This is why for the winter 2012 semester I’ve taken the opportunity to do an internship in Hanoi, Vietnam! I’ve always been interested in beautiful Vietnam, and this placement with WUSC is an exciting opportunity to work with a local organization in a country whose history I have heard so much about and yet still have much to learn from.

My placement will be at the North Thang Long Economic-Technical College in the Dong Anh district as a Student Service Support and Consultant. I’ve chosen this position because it provides the possibility to interact with students from a different part of the world and to get to know their realities, challenges, and aspirations. I’m also particularly interested in the gender issues and consultancy aspect of the mandate, and hope to help build upon what the local organization already has in place as well as provide sustainable input to support service programs.

The language barrier is a bit of a concern, and I am admittedly nervous about going outside my “comfort zone”. However, I am very excited to gain knowledge and values from the local people and culture to bring back to my future work experiences in Canada!

In my first internship blog, written for World University Service of Canada’s (WUSC) Students Without Borders (SWB) blog site, I was extremely cautious of what in feminist/gender studies is called ‘the white wo/man’s burden’. The concept comes from the colonial belief that it is the “white” or “Western” world’s responsibility to “rescue” the third world, as they are deemed “incapable” of self determination. Specifically I said: “In the course of my engagement with Women’s Studies the issue of “the white wo/man’s burden” was a recurring source of debate and disagreement. As such, I am particularly concerned with how my work within Malawi will be perceived by those that I work for and with, as my intention is not to impose the structures and beliefs of the Western world, but rather to learn from and work with the local strategies and structures for progress. However, I think my hyper-awareness of this issue will allow me to approach every situation with increased sensitivity and an openness that will hopefully be transparent.”

Interestingly, I found myself in a number of situations where I was either explicitly or implicitly expected to be an expert and I can only assume this was based on my ethnicity. In addition, I was often asked to critique Malawian culture from the basis of Western culture, and determine which is “better.” I found myself always prefacing any observations with an explanation that Western culture has many downfalls, is no where near perfect, etc etc etc. In essence, I was trying to highlight the fact that there are things that can be mutually learned, but also apologizing for my advantage having experienced both cultures.

In talking with one (Malawian) colleague in particular who has lived almost equal halves of her life in Malawi and the United States, I came to realize the damage of speaking on behalf of any particular nation, culture, ethnicity, etc. Though my notion of human rights has certainly been influenced by societal and cultural influences, the reality is that these have only sparked an awareness, while my own beliefs and world views have been formulated by my understanding of and reflection on my own humanity. By prefacing any discussion with talk of my culture or society, I set the stage for a discussion of comparison which can be easily dismissed as North vs South whereas a discussion based on our understandings and assumptions of humanity is more organic, more relatable, and therefore more productive. Acknowledging my advantage or privilege, while well intentioned, essentially exacerbated any preexisting distance between us.

So what has this experience taught me? Though there is definitely great benefit to being aware of social structures and applying theories to interpret, analyze, and understand the lived experiences withing different cultures, gender groupings, etc., it is extremely important to also bring it back from the academic to the real world. In truth, my relative privileges still bother me to some extent, but I think the greatest lesson I have learned is that my world view is grounded in my humanity, and when I speak from my experience of humanity rather than my experience of any particular culture, the room for discussion and positive change grows.

In the same blog mentioned earlier, I also identified a desire to learn more about gendered approaches to and effects of HIV / AIDS as well as a desire to contribute to the resource mobilization of my organization (COWLHA). Having now wrapped up all of my projects, I am amazed at the amount of things I was able to accomplish in three months, and how many new skills I have acquired. My major project was to develop a resource mobilization report for COWLHA – an area in which I had no prior experience, but can now confidently and informatively discuss. As a by-product of my internship I also learned internal and external forces and structures within the NGO world, the process of acquiring funding and implementing programmes, and even how programmes translate from paper to the field. Overall, an incredible experience which definitely cannot be learned in the classroom! 

I realise now that Vietnam was all together not only a discovery. I say that because I didn’t have any prejudice on Vietnamese or their culture before starting this adventure. Prejudices being based on cultural aspects, everything was new to me. I had no idea of the socio-economical reality of the majority of the Vietnamese. I had no idea on their beliefs and rituals. The only few things I knew about Vietnam is that they eat Pho, but I would have never guessed it was for breakfast! At first I didn’t know much about Vietnamese culture, and now I can say I know quite a bit!

It took time for the students to open up to us as foreigner/volunteers on their socio-economic reality. We knew that they were working alot, going to school at the same time and probably not making enough income for their hard work. It was when I had the opportunity to listen to the class presentations that I helped the students. I offered a workshop on Presentation & communication for them to be ready. I got to know that the students that are also working 8 hour days and earn about 2 millions Dongs (100$) a month and need to pay from 1 million to 1.5 million Dongs for their living accommodations, not including food and expenses, which doesn’t leave much for savings. The majority of the students are far from their hometown and their families and are trying to build a future with the resources they can access.

The students also shared a new reality that touches many families due to the economic development the country is focusing on. Everybody is working full time and most need a second job to be able to fulfill their needs. It was shared that the quality of the relationship in the family has been regressing. The parents are not present as they used to be for their children’s education and socialization. I think that this could eventually bring the young generation to gain a different culture than their parents. Not receiving the full attention from the most important aspect of socialization, their families. Also,the new generation is more and more in contact with the media and internationalization of culture. This is building the personality and values of a generation that will differ from the values of the generation preceding them, and could nourish new conflict within a family.

I discovered a few hidden aspects of Vietnamese culture since the beginning.
A big percentage of the population practice the ritual of worshiping their ancestors by praying, burning incense and offering gifts on the altar they have for this purpose in their homes, on the death anniversary and on every 15th of each month. Members of a family have a reunion each death anniversary of one of their members, have a big lunch, pray and go to the cemetery to bring offerings to their ancestors. This explains the big respect they have for the elders.

I had the chance to get to the south, in Ho Chi Ming City, which used to be called Saigon. Going there, I got to discover a very different Vietnam and noticed there are some ‘’natural tensions’’ between people from the north and people from the south, since I was able to be around many Vietnamese from the north while being there. The history explains this tension between these two parts of Vietnam where at one point separated and in conflict with each other. I grasp that these conflicts were present only two generations ago, must be imprinted in the collective memory. Finally, as much as the north venerate Ho chi minh, the leader of the revolution which won Vietnam’s independence… people from the south don’t relate to him as much.

In terms of my internship itself, the last month has been very charged and overwhelming. After planning my activities, the last month was the time to give the final result and lead workshops with the students. I am proud of the work that I did and the tools I developed for my placements. The students got to develop soft skills that will serve them to be efficient when working in team, by participating in team building activities. I also got to prepare a manual on team building that is being translated and given to the student population in order to facilitate their own teams build activities and this will also be available in English for future volunteers. I got to conduct many activity days with the teachers and other volunteers and had another workshop with the students on communication and presentation.
Finally, I am currently in the ‘’wrapping up’’ state of my internship, I finalized my activities, working on my reports and planning my goodbyes. As much as they will be sad goodbyes, I am excited to go back home. Friends and freedom are two things that I found difficult to come across here in Vietnam due to the reality of the culture that I had to accept. Before my internship, I was ready to live a new experience, live culture shock and feel a certain discomfort. I am now ready to trade this for a feeling of freedom, a social life, new knowledge, friend and family, and the comfort of feeling home.