Engineering student Lauren Cuthberston spent her summer in Malawai as an Engineers Without Borders Junior Fellow. What follows is her final blog entry, Piece 21: Last Post?, from her time abroad. To relive her entire experience, visit her blog, Pieces of Change, at piecesofchange.wordpress.com
* * *
“We are made wise not by the recollection of our past, but by the responsibility for our future.” – George Bernard Shaw
Contrary to Shaw’s insight, as I reach the end of my junior fellow placement, I find myself reflecting on the past four months. Only by sorting through and processing the myriad of conversations, observations and experiences can I begin to make sense of the implications of it all. Then, in accord with Shaw, these implications can be applied to shape the role I could, should, and possibly, will play in our future.
It is slow and often confusing; I am far from having achieved clarity.
My time in Malawi has been a combination of highs and lows. Some of the best experiences of my life were contrasted with the harsh realities of the average Malawian’s everyday life: The incomparable beauty of a sky that stretches uninterrupted in every direction, while surrounded by the smell of burning garbage; feeling lonely yet having no alone time; one minute in love with the friendliness and warmth, the singing and dancing, the colour and life and the next moment frustrated by the slow pace of work and cancelled meetings; cooking nsima on the fire, wearing traditional chitenge and feeling part of a family, juxtaposed with sitting on a minibus feeling like a total outsider as everyone speaks in Chichewa, laughing and pointing at the ‘azungu’ white person.
The differences in language and culture, while wonderful, challenge me every minute of every day.
At times, I feel helpless and useless when thinking about the seemingly insurmountable problems in health care, education, transportation, infrastructure, access to water and goods, and waste disposal. Yet, if I learned one thing, it is the incredible resilience that exists in every person. Communities here are stronger than anything I have seen in Canada and people are always willing to share the little they have. (Not that individual material wants and their associated status don’t exist. I have seen families with little cash for food with a large television and a fancy speaker system on prominent display.) Where services are lacking people band together. With no banks in Santhe, villagers pool their money and even trust in each other to provide loans. Rarely in my two homes did I feel badly about my family’s living conditions. While it is hard work to carry water from the borehole, it is also the local gossip place and where I bonded with the majority of the women in my community. Kids may not have video games or fancy toys, yet I’ve seen them have more fun with games made from bottle caps and plastic bags. What does make me sad is my relative ability to study, do and be whatever, and whomever, I want. No matter how hard HSAs work, they can never advance. I am encouraged to dream big and to reach for my dreams, however more than 80 per cent of Malawians will have no choice but to spend their lives working in agriculture.
I am not foolish enough to believe I have a complete understanding of the water and sanitation sector or Malawian culture, but I have learned a lot. Understanding, though, is only the beginning. Conviction and commitment to the shared responsibility of our future is needed, combined with a balance of practicality and idealism. Although my vision of the role I will play in the future is not yet clear, I am committed to playing a role.
And I’ll go from there.