So... Malawi?

(note: Most of the country links will take you to a map of Africa with the country highlighted.)

Here's some interesting information about Malawi that I've collected as part of my pre-departure training and/or that I remember finding interesting during my BA.

Let's start with the most important detail of all (as far as my rural Canadian upbringing is concerned): the weather.
I will be arriving in Malawi at the beginning of the rainy season, which runs from
November to May. Though rainfall and temperatures vary (depending on altitude, nearness to the lake, latitude, etc.), the country averages 725-2500 mm of rain per year. The rainy season also happens to be the hottest part of the year (yay...) so it'll be nice and humid when I arrive. That being said, all the weather sites I've checked say that temperatures don't tend to go much higher than the high thirties, so it might not be so bad.
The dry season tends to be cooler (depending on where you are, it can get down to about 6 degrees Celsius at night), with daytime highs capping around 25 degrees Celsius.

Anyway, the political science nerd in me wants to move over to the facts and figures, so here we go.

History in Brief
The Republic of Malawi gained independence from Britain in 1964 (after decades of effort on the part of Malawians to establish an independent state). From 1964 to 1994, the country was governed as a one-party state by "His Excellency the Life President Ngwazi Dr. Hastings Kamuzu Banda."
I'm going to gloss over Malawian politics for now (mostly because they're fascinating and I want to devote a whole post to them later). Suffice to say that the country has had two presidents since Dr. Banda. The current president is Bingu wa Mutharika and the next general election (presidential and national assembly) is slated to take place in May 2009.
Malawi currently ranks 164/177 on the UNDP Human Development Index (HDI): it is therefore categorized as a country with "low human development" and is considered to be one of the twenty poorest countries in the world (the three poorest/least developed being Guinea-Bissau, Burkina Faso and Sierra Leone). (more on the HDI later) In 2006, Malawi was approved for relief under the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) program through the World Bank.
Agriculture (especially tobacco) accounts for more than one-third of Malawi's GDP and 90% of export revenues.

Fun(ish) Facts

Offical Languages: English and Chichewa

Capital city: Lilongwe

Biggest city/Urban economic centre: Blantyre

Geographic size: 118,480 sq km (the CIA world factbook helpfully informs us that this is slightly smaller than the state of Pennsylvania)
est.

Population: 13,931,831 (compared to Pennsylvania's 12,440,621)

Life Expectancy:
total population: 43.45 years
male: 43.74 years
female: 43.15 years

Religions:
Christian 79.9%, Muslim 12.8%, other 3%, none 4.3%

Literacy: (defined as those age 15 and over can read and write)
total population: 62.7%
male: 76.1%
female: 49.8%

Per capita GDP (PPP): $800 (Canada's is about $38,400)

Major exports: tobacco, tea, sugar, cotton, coffee

Major imports:food, petroleum products, consumer goods, transportation equipment

Economic aid: recipient of approx. $575.3 million annually

External debt: approx. $894 million (Canada's currently sits at about $758 billion - not that it's a helpful comparison, really)

Currency: Malawian kwacha (MWK)

Current exchange rate: Malawian kwachas per US dollar - 144.400

Interesting Trivia
One of the most striking geographic features of the country is Lake Malawi (aka Lake Nyasa if you're in Tanzania) which runs along the eastern border of most of the country. Lake Malawi is the ninth largest lake in the world and part of the East Rift Valley lakes system. Lake Malawi is also one of the most biodiverse freshwater systems in existence, hosting more fish species than any other single lake in the world.

Malawi has a national cricket team which has placed fourth at the African championships in two consecutive appearances.

On August 16, 1914, Lake Malawi saw a brief naval engagement when the British gunboat Guendolen, commanded by Captain Rhoades, heard that World War I had begun and received orders to "sink, burn, or destroy" the German Empire's only gunboat on the lake, the Hermann von Wissmann (at the time, Malawi was the British protectorate Nyasaland and Mozambique/Tanzania were the German protectorate known as German East Africa(. Rhoades's crew located the Hermann von Wissmann and disabled it with a single shot from a range of 2,000 yards. Apparently, it was a big deal at the time.

HIV/AIDS prevalance (as of 2003) stood at about 14.2% with an estimated 900,000 people living with AIDS. Malawi has the 8th highest prevalence rate in the world, behind Swaziland, Botswana, Lesotho, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Namibia and Zambia. In 2003, the annual estimate of HIV/AIDS related deaths stood at 84,000.

Travel Advisory: There is no official warning at this time. Travelers are, however, advised to "exercise a high degree of caution."

Sigh... yes, Malawi is perhaps best known at the moment for being home to Madonna's adoption saga.

(thanks to the CIA World Factbook, Wikipedia, voyage.gc.ca,certain pages maintained by the Government of Malawi including the National Statistics Centre and various arms of the United Nations.

As sure as it gets.

Looks like I'll be working with PlanMalawi in the water & sanitation sector of developmenty-type things.

I'll be posting some additional info later. Right now I have to call my mom and dad! :)

95%

There's been a minor delay in the matching process for OVS (which is fair, since I've been holding up the show with a major delay with my forms), but my placement is about "95%" sure.

Stay tuned for the "99%" sure announcement early next week!

Earrings for Africa! - Update

(Recap: Earrings for Africa! is a fundraising project that my good friend Jenna is spearheading to help me as I prepare to take off on EWB's dime)

First of all, thanks so much to everyone who joined the Facebook group, invited friends, or bought jewelry in these first two weeks. I'm really, really grateful for your support.

Here's a brief update, by the numbers:
Day 14
Number of people in the facebook group: 38
Number of items created (including several non-earrings andthanks to the efforts of a number of my crafty friends): 35
Number of items sold (thanks to the support of all kinds of wonderful people): 16
Funds raised so far: $106

If you know of anyone who is not on facebook that might be interested in supporting our fundraising efforts (or just likes shiny jewelry), please feel free to get them to email me. I'd be happy to send them photos via the bits of the internet that aren't facebook.

Thanks again for your support! Those are amazing results for two weeks in the summer.
I'll post another update in another couple of weeks (which will hopefully include some updates that involve me doing other stuff to raise the funds).




PS: No word on where or what yet. I expect to hear back in the next two weeks or so.

Not an Engineer. Not a Problem.

When I tell people that I'm going to be working on a development project for Engineers Without Borders Canada, I often get some version of this response:

"That's great!"
[pause, and a puzzled look]
"I didn't know you were an engineer..."

That's where the plot thickens: I'm not an engineer. My degree doesn't leave me with a professional designation (as one ill-fated ad campaign once said, I can "Be Anything" with a Bachelor of Arts. Har, har).

So what's an organization called "Engineers" Without Borders doing hiring a specialty-less Arts student-turned-adult like me?

EWB Canada (and for that matter, other EWBs) don't exclusively work on technical projects requiring the highly specialized skill sets of Western-educated engineers. Though all of their projects have technical components, the organization approaches those projects from a the starting point of working towards human development.

According to the United Nations, human development is...

about creating an environment in which people can develop their full potential and lead productive, creative lives in accordance with their needs and interests. People are the real wealth of nations. ... It is thus about much more than economic growth, which is only a means—if a very important one—of enlarging people's choices.

(taken from "The Human Development Concept," UNDP edition)

Apparently, I strike the folks at EWB as someone who might be good at helping to create environments in which people can develop their full potential and lead productive, creative lives in accordance with their needs and interests. That, in a very vague nutshell, is why I was offered this opportunity.

In a more specific way, there are a list of attitudes that EWB looks for in candidates for overseas placements available here. Those of you who know me already can probably judge for yourselves whether or not you think I might be creative, enthusiastic, or possessing "ruggedness." Those of you who don't will have to judge for yourselves over the coming months. In my application and interview process, I would say passion, empathy and adaptability were characteristics that were definitely stressed over and above technical proficiency.

One of the many things on my list of things to learn and do before I arrive at my placement is to deepen my understanding of what EWB Canada is aspiring to achieve with a people-first, project-driven approach to their overseas work as well as to achieve a deeper understanding of what participating in a human development project means to me (the good and the bad).

At the moment, however, we seem to still be in the "attitude is everything" phase. Actually getting a sense of "how to" is buried in the hundreds of pages of pre-departure resources that EWB has kindly sent along to keep the boredom at bay this summer.

Earrings for Africa!

As part of my placement with EWB, I'm expected to do a bit of fundraising.

My good friend Jenna, being amazing and all, has decided to sell hand-made jewelry (that she normally makes and distributes as wonderful gifts) and donate the proceeds to EWB.

Check out the Facebook Group or leave questions here for details!

The Story So Far...

For those of you who don't know her, Amanda (aka me - this post will probably be the only one that I write in the third person) is a recent graduate of the University of Alberta, holding a Bachelor of Arts with a double major in Political Science and Middle Eastern & African Studies. She was recently offered a position volunteering overseas with Engineers Without Borders Canada (EWB), a non-governmental organization (NGO) dedicated to poverty reduction through capacity building in the developing world and raising awareness in the developed world (especially Canada).

Without further ado, here's the scoop so far...

November 2004 - Amanda volunteers at a U of A Students' Union High School Leadership Conference where one of the keynote speakers is a returning Junior Fellow of EWB. She's, as they say, hooked.

Winter 2005 - Amanda attends a paltry 2 EWB events put on by the U of A Chapter.

March 2005 - Amanda gets roped into 2 jobs, likes one of them better than the other, and disappears into the inner workings of the U of A Students' Union, with her free time going to the U of A High School Model United Nations Conference (and not, as it happens, EWB).

Summer & Fall 2007 - Escape from full-time work! The return to full-time studenthood means more free time. Kind of. Amanda renews her connections with U of A EWB, attending events casually and helping a bit with certain awareness events held on campus.

January 2008 - Amanda has a chat with a friend (we'll call him "Jamaal") where she is encouraged to apply to volunteer with EWB.

Reading Week 2008 - She does.

March 15th - May 10th 2008 - Two phone interviews and one in-person interview (aka a whirlwind trip to Toronto) later, Amanda is offered a position as a long term OVS and jubilantly accepts. A great many people have already been tremendously helpful and supportive. Thanks to you all (I think I've thanked you all individually already. If not, I'm sorry and thank-you very, very much for your help and encouragement).

May - July 2008 - The paperwork starts, including a matching survey designed to help EWB identify placements on projects/with partner organizations that have the best chance of the most success, based on a variety of factors (and years of experience).

[Aside: As of right now, I know the following:
Contingent on not having anything awfully unexpected happen (like not being eligible for a passport or something), I will be working with EWB and a partner organization operating locally in Africa on a development project. I will be leaving Edmonton in early October for approximately a month of pre-departure training in Toronto before I leave for my placement in early to mid-November. I will be gone for about 12 months and return to Canada after that to debrief and figure out my next steps.
I will know more about all that (like narrowing down from "Africa" to a country and "development project" to at least some field of work if not an actual, specific project) in a month or so.]

August 2008 - December 2009 (and beyond? who knows?) - Stay tuned to this blog to keep updated on Amanda's activities and musings related to her work with EWB. In particular, stay tuned for the following three things (in chronological order):

1) A series of posts on Amanda's take on issues related to development work generally and a sort of introduction to the field.
2) Real-time (ish) updates on interesting things that happen in the lead-up to departure. This will eventually include the much-anticipated announcement detailing where she's actually going and what she's actually doing. Expect some things on the blog (the news and the title, for instance), to change as this information becomes available.
3) Notes from the field, updated as regularly as possible.

Cool, eh?