A summary

Mwalibiya buti!!

Since this is my first blog entry, I wanted to start with a short summary of my time in Zambia so that subsequent entries will flow a bit easier…

August, 2005: I arrived in this beautiful country in the middle of the night, landing in the capital city, Lusaka. I would be working with WaterAid Zambia, a UK based non-governmental organization whose vision is to provide safe water, sanitation and hygiene education to the most vulnerable of people. If anyone’s interested in learning more about WA, their website is www.wateraid.org. We are one of 15 country programmes around the world.
*Major lessons learned: Don’t give your phone number to everyone that you meet the first week in a new country!

August-Sept., 2005: For the first two months of my placement, I was based at the WaterAid’s head office in Lusaka. I lived in a middle class compound called Libala with a widow named Rose. No one called her Rose though. Her name to most was ‘Mommy’, and this is what I call her to this day. My tasks at work during this time involved learning as much as possible about WaterAid, forming relationships with my colleagues, and helping develop my placement for the upcoming months. I’m not a big city girl, and by the end of September, I was ready to move to the village.
*Major lessons learned: Ensuring you’re present and involved in the daily activities of your workplace builds trust faster

Oct.-Nov., 2005: I was sent to Luyaba, a village about 25km from a small town called Monze in Southern Province. WaterAid had hired a community development worker, Rue Simoonga, to work and live with me. We stayed in a house near the rural clinic with a bachelor named Saul. He worked at the clinic as an environmental health technician (EHT) and had stayed in Luyaba for 3 years. I was exposed to village life – fetching water from the hand pump, using a latrine, cooking on the fire, going to bed at 8pm, and being woken at 5:30am by the neighbour’s roosters. I met some inspiring people and learned much about the social dynamics of living in Luyaba. These two months were spent working with Rue holding village meetings and encouraging/monitoring latrine construction at the household level.
*Major lessons learned: Don’t assume that I understand why people do the things they do. I’m probably wrong

Dec. 2005: Due to a shift in my placement strategy, I moved from the village to Monze town to work at the WaterAid field office with the programme officer. I lived with a Japanese volunteer named Satoko in a small 2 bedroom house on the outskirts of town and was provided with a motorbike to conduct my field work. Field work involved Rue and I visiting various villages, monitoring their progress, educating people on proper hygiene practices, collaborating with local leaders, and relaying the observations made on the ground back to WA head office. I spent Christmas with a family in Livingstone – home of the famous Livingstone falls – and found my little dog, Mwayi, who is still with me today.
*Major lessons learned: In order to truly be effective, I needed to find a balance between building trust with people in the field and building trust with people in my office.

Jan.- May, 2006: I moved to a new home with a high school teacher named Barbara and her 2 year old son, Andrew. Our house was in a compound called Site and Service, much closer to town. At work, I was busy conducting an analysis on dams and water points constructed by WaterAid in Monze District. We were also assessing different organizations in town to determine if there were any with whom we could engage as implementing partners (WAZ doesn’t actually implement the water and sanitation programmes. They support local organizations with funding and guidance to do this. This will, hopefully, increase sustainability). In early May, I had an accident with my motorbike (and a stealthy local cyclist) that required a week in the hospital, 24 stitches in my knee, and about one and a half months of walking like a pirate. I have since healed.
*Major lessons learned: 1) Don’t swerve
2) Don’t take people for granted. There will be a moment in time when you’re going to need them

June 2006 – April 2007: A new programme officer was assigned to Monze – Febby Busiku. This lady has taught me an immeasurable amount about how to deal with people to achieve your goals. I was also given a new assignment at WaterAid Zambia. We had received some unexpected funding that needed to be used that fiscal year. It was decided that the Monze District Council would be engaged as a new partner and I would be given the opportunity to act as project manager. We would be working in Chipembele ward, an area comprised of 33 villages and 13,000 people. Rue was again asked to act as the community development worker, along with another man, Justice Shilumwemwe. Over the next 10 months, we worked closely together implementing the water, sanitation, and hygiene education (WASHE) programme. By March, 500 latrines and 12 boreholes had been constructed, and 2 wells had been rehabilitated. All villages had been instructed in proper hygiene practices and committees had been organized to ensure that the programme would last after we left. I had gained a vast amount of knowledgeable in project management, bureaucracy, and myself.
In December, I returned to Canada for Christmas and the conference. It was wonderful seeing my family, friends and colleagues. I had missed them so much. It was really difficult, though, experiencing the differences between the world I had known for the past year and a half and the world in which I had grown up. It took a conscious intervention to overcome these emotions and truly enjoy my time at home.
*Major lessons learned: Being a ‘people person’ does not automatically guarantee that you’ll be a good manager. I learned this lesson after several frustrating months

May – present, 2007: After much consideration, I decided (along with the country director) that my skills would be best suited to conducting research on recurring issues within WAZ. These took the form of essentially 3 topics: Productive uses of water, Rope pumps, and MDG gap analysis.
Productive uses of water (PUW) is a topic that I feel could contribute toward hand pump sustainability if properly understood and considered when designing our programmes. If people are generating income from the water in the pump (ie. gardening, brick making, etc.), they may be more likely to contribute toward its repair when it malfunctions. It also has to be ensured, though, that the water used for productive uses is not compromising that which is needed for drinking and washing.
Rope pumps are a new, low cost technology currently being piloted by WAZ. They can be made from local materials by local artisans, and are able to provide a fairly good yield. Unfortunately, there are concerns over its durability and ability to extract water from the lowering water table in Southern Province. Contamination may also be a problem.
The MDG gap analysis is a system used to measure a partner’s progress over time against what is required to meet the MDGs by the end of their programme. I developed this so that the partners can have a more logical way of identifying need in their respective operational areas.

As for my living situation, I moved into a new home in February with 3 friends, Slady, Kebby, and Claire, a one month old baby, Chipo, and 2 dogs, Mwayi and Porcha. I love this new arrangement and I’m crossing my fingers this is my last house in Zambia before I return to Canada next year.
*Major lessons learned: There will be an instant in everything you do when you feel as though you’ve really grasped the concept. That moment gave me the confidence to think about my work at a 30,000 foot level

This is a VERY brief skim of the past 2 years of my life. I wanted to present this to you so that (hopefully!) most of what I write in the months to come will already have a context.