I suppose it’s time I introduce my home and host family. Chibote is a peri-urban village about 11 km outside of Kitwe - Zambia’s second biggest city and the location of ZATAC’s regional office. I met my host family, the Kalombwanas, through my work in the community with ZATAC. They have been incredibly welcoming to this naïve muzungu from Canada. The size of the Kalombwana family changes. A lot. There have been as few as six and as many as twelve of us living in the home. It has been a very new experience for me. I don’t think that [View Full Entry]

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With many field visits and days in the office under my belt, it was time to crank it up a notch and spend some quality time in a village. Village stays are a valuable way to build trust with farmers, gain insight to the challenges faced by the farmers, collect valuable information for the evaluation of the project to date, and have a great cultural experience. I am, after all, working in rural development though I have spent the vast majority of my time in a big city. First, let me introduce you to the Kabuoyes, the hosts of my weeklong [View Full Entry]

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Working with Engineers Without Borders, one might expect me to be designing solar ovens or installing wells or developing new technology for Zambia’s development. But that’s not how we roll. We focus on building the capacity of local organizations. This essentially means that we help organizations who are already on the ground do their jobs better. In my case, EWB has partnered with the Zambia Agribusiness Technical Assistance Centre Ltd., a legally registered, independent, non-profit Zambian private organization. It may seem to be a misnomer that ZATAC is both a private organization and non-profit, but this is in fact the case. [View Full Entry]

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“Muzungu!” I hear this shouted wherever I go. Muzungu is a term that Zambians use for white people. It is not insulting or racist. In fact, it is usually said with a smile, sometimes followed by laughter. “Zidane!” This is something else that gets yelled at me while walking the streets. Apparently Zambians think that I bear a strong resemblance to Zinedine Zidane, a French football (aka soccer) player who is famous for being one of the best football players of all time as well as for head-butting an opponent during the recent final of the 2006 World Cup. (I have [View Full Entry]

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