Blogs from Zambia, Africa - page 86

These past few weeks have been interesting, to say the least. Much has happened, much has changed. When I left off, we were about to board a dhow from Mombasa to Zanzibar. That journey, slated to take ~16 hours, took closer to 40. It was incredible, and dhow is my new favourite means of transport. My most vivid memory of the trip was sitting out over the front of the ship, legs dangling over the cargo below, with 4 of sailors. We sat for hours - in a motionless silence- from sunset to stars to the first shades of light before the sun hits the horizon. The ocean has this way of numbing the mere human into a trance and holding one captive with memories, thoughts and ideas. Anyhow, we arrived at the Zanzibar sea port ... read more

Well, I had some issues with my last entry, and probably could have just combined it with this entry, but figured since it was all finished, and I hadn't done and update in awhile I'd just start this one fresh for Zambia. We were dropped off at the border and caught a ferry across the Zambezi river, the overland group on board wouldn't really acknowledge us in their hot shot truck and thus upon reaching the other side just sort of took off even though we were going to ask them for a ride into Livingstone. We managed to get into a minibus packed full of bananas after quite awhile negotiating, and even though we had a shuttle from the Hostel coming to the border it was about 6 hours later and this particular border crossing ... read more

My project in Western project is still waiting for my potential partner Africa Parks to finalize their relationship with PROFIT, so for the time being it’s a no go. I have thus traveled south to the wonderful town of Choma to get trained up in one of the most active regions of the country. A lot of the things I will be trying to start in Kalabo, Western Province are already happening here, presenting great learning opportunities. Tuesday I traveled back up north to near Mazabuka to see a vet begin her involvement with a group of rural cattle owners. PROFIT has been working to increase access to veterinary services for small holders all over the country, and this was the very first community to actually get everything going. The vets develop and price a herd ... read more

Yesterday I finally made first contact with my project office. Dave, who I know from Calgary, and who is the director of projects for EWB in southern Africa, arrived from Canada, and took me the the PROFIT office in Lusaka. Dave is currently with this project, as well as another Junior Fellow named Bnyam who will be in Chipata, out east. PROFIT stands for PROduction, FInance, and Technology, and is a United States Agency for International Development funded project that is run by three different Non-Governmental Organizations. I am trying very hard to avoid acronyms here, but it's a bit long... The project seeks to increase the efficiency of rural economies by various means. In the simplest model we are try to make working with the poor profitable for companies. Some examples include facilitating the provision ... read more

Toronto is a beautiful place to have a training session. I am spending a week here preparing for my trip to Zambia, and am loving it. The university of toronto where the majority of the training occurs is incrediable. Sorry Calgary folk, but this place makes my school look pathetic. Like I said, beautiful. All the junior fellows going to Zambia and french west africa are here this week together, staying in a house that EWB rents. The house is a tiny duplex that is currently trying to hold 25 + over energetic youth. The neighbors must hate us. Sleep is hard to come by, as there is always tons of great discussions just waiting to happen we every person here. Also our sessions always seem to go a bit (*cough*) over time. The session today ... read more