Nthandadza School Party

I had the great pleasure of accompanying my friend Betty to the Nthandadza school for orphan children in a rural village situated 30 minutes north of the University. Betty has been teaching English to the children and quilt making to a small group of widows. Many of the children have lost at least one parent to AIDS/HIV. The majority of the women have also lost their husbands to HIV/AIDS, which means that many of them are living with the virus.

Betty asked me to play the guitar for her going away party at the school. Words can’t describe how fun and moving this experience was. The impact that Betty made and the impact that the school made on Betty in just a few short months was touching. I’ll spare you my reflections and let the pictures do the talking.

The look on the little boys face is priceless... I don't think many of the children had seen a guitar before.

I learned 'Twinkle Twinkle Little Star' and 'Head and Shoulders Knees and Toes', but the children liked 'Hey Joe' by Jimi Hendrix the best. They were singing a local song along to the rhythm.

Make no mistakes about it, children love juice and cookies everywhere.

Widow's quilt making group (Betty pictured left of centre in white shirt).

This little boy was one of my favourites. He was quite skeptical of me at first, but after juice and cookie time he came around. I played soccer with him and his friends for the better part of the afternoon.

Photo of the Day

That was the last time I walked across the grass...

Photo of the Day

Just another day at the office...

Photo Gallery

I have been building a collection of photos that I believe have some sort of artistic merit. I have been experimenting with my camera (this one’s for you Dad) so I hope you enjoy. I will also be dedicating a blog to urban issues, which will focus on the conditions within informal settlements. The following pictures don’t require much explanation. They are just my most recent efforts to capture life here in Malawi from a more artistic perspective. I will add to this archive as I take more pictures...

What's new from Mzuzu

Got to keep up to speed on the latest planning issues...

I admit it has been quite some time since my last post. The last 6 weeks have been extremely busy, even though the students have been on break since mid July. After 3 months at Mzuni, I am beginning to get a lay of the land and understand where my skills could be best utilized outside of my stock job responsibilities of teaching and mentoring students. When I first arrived, I expressed uncertainty as to exactly what I would be doing. However, what I mistook for vagueness in the job description was in fact flexibility, which has allowed us to explore opportunities related to capacity building here at the University, which is where the real value of this experience lies.

Since my last professionally related post, I have completed the first draft of a paper that focuses on the role of urban and regional planning in climate change adaptation here in Malawi, which I will present at the upcoming Malawi Physical Planning conference in Lilongwe. I will also be attending a conference hosted by the African Association of Planning Schools (AAPS) in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania from October 5-8. The conference’s focuses on curriculum development in response to the challenges facing 21^st century cities such as climate change, rapid urbanization and informal settlements.

On the capacity building front, we have been exploring opportunities with the newly established Centre for Water and Sanitation Excellence based out of Mzuni. The Centre is an independent agency whose mandate is to undertake applied research, and to implement its findings, in the fields of water supply and sanitation and to train men and women how to plan for, provide and maintain affordable, clean water and sanitation for the benefit of communities in Malawi and in the surrounding countries. Initially we were interested in helping the Centre with proposal writing, but this has since opened up new opportunities.

Last week Merrill and I attended the first meeting between the various public sector agencies involved in the provision of water and sanitation in the Northern Region of Malawi. The meeting was held to establish what will be known as the Northern Region WASH Alliance, which will be dedicated to improving the accessibility of water and sanitation to marginalized groups in the Northern region. Long story short, I am now the chair of a taskforce for coordinating the Alliance. The partnership includes the newly established Centre of Excellence for Water and Sanitation, a variety of NGOs and the region’s four District Assemblies. My first task is to coordinate a drafting committee to formulate a strategic alliance document that will articulate the mandate, objectives, governance structure, etc. to guide the Alliance forward... I am grateful for this opportunity... Didn’t see this one coming from a mile away... More details to come!

Trip to Nyika Plateau

The weekend before last, the interns from Mzuzu as well as Lilongwe ventured to the Nyika Plateau, which is Malawi's northern-most national park. I'll preface this post with this and this only; National Parks are best seen from the roof of a Land Rover!!!

Said Land Rover

Circa 1980

400,000+Km

Roof rack

Seating for 11 (not including roof rack)

Unsurpassed off-roading capabilities (not including more recent models)

Verdict: Priceless (or yours for 2,000 US)

Sitting atop Land Rover with fellow interns.

Small homes built of mud walls and thatch roofs line the road entering the national park. Children run smiling and waving as we pass.

My first Zebra!..Do they have black or white stripes?

Antelope/Elk like-creature (still unsure as to what exactly this animal is).

Plateau surrounded by mountainous landscapes.

Finding a vantage point of such a vast landscape is actually quite challenging.

Stoking the fire with new friends.

View from our cabin at 6am.

Roads follow the peaks of hills to avoid flooding during the raining season. Also affords amazing vistas.

Forest suddenly opens up to reveal deforestation.

Smoldering brush started by a park ranger.

... turns into a full-out controlled blaze.

A great trip!!!

HAPPY BELATED CANADA DAY!!!!

Myself, fellow interns and party goers at 'the Father's House' on Canada Day

My first Canada day away from home has come and gone... but not without a rather unorthodox and highly unexpected celebration Malawi style!! Unfortunately, my camera was giving me some problems so I could only get one good shot of the evening.

The week before Canada Day, I received a phone call from a Canadian who was interested in putting together a Canada Day party to be hosted at 'the Father's House" for all the Canadians living in Mzuzu. As an overly inquisitive, perhaps at times disruptive youth in Sunday school, I have to admit I was initially slightly skeptical. However, the seven of us happily headed off for the party, which turned out to be a blast!!! In addition to singing the Canadian national anthem, we were also welcomed with a series of traditional local songs song my the Sisters. It was remarkable to feel so Canadian in the heart of Africa on Canada Day. Where they found the maple syrup, I don't know... but it was sensational.

It is impossible for me to describe the party's environment. But as a recent newcomer to Malawi, it was totally surreal to spend Canada Day in a rural area on the outskirts of Mzuzu City with a collection of prominent community and religious leaders gathered to celebrate our nation. Like many experiences I've had over the last seven weeks, I was completely taken off guard. So, Happy Canada Day!

Student 'Sit-In'

Mzuni students arrested and detained during 'Sit-In'

It is inconceivable that any university in Canada would lack functional computer labs equipped with colour printers. I certainly took full advantage of Ryerson's computer labs, which were always available 24-hours a day and with minimal printing cost. Nevertheless, when encountering those pesky error messages such as 'load tray' or 'toner low', I would often mutter under my breath over the two-to-three minutes it would take me to log onto a different printer. Many of you may recall the scene from the cult classic film "Office Space" that captured a defiant employee (Micheal Bolton) destroying the office printer with a baseball bat in the middle of a secluded field because of its incessant 'PC Load Letter' error message... The point that I am trying to make is that minor technological glitches can often frustrate us to no end because we expect our gadgets to work, especially when we need them to most.

Now imagine that you are a cash strapped undergraduate student without access to a functional printer for eight months. What would you do? Well, during our second week just two weeks prior to exams, the student body held a 'sit-in' (strike) allegedly to protest the administration's failure to repair the sole printer used by the entire student population. The police armed with rifles were called in to suppress a small minority of students who were aggressively protesting. Unbeknown to me, teer gas was fired within 10 metres of the Physical Planning Building, where I was quietly preparing a lesson plan for a class the following day. In addition to the teer gas and the odd gun shot fired into the air, I continued to work rather contently I think in large part because of how calm the faculty were about the situation. After talking with one lecturer, it became clear that irrational behavior is typical of the police. Hence, the situation going on outside was almost expected... Just a few irrational policemen running around with tear gas and assault rifles... no big deal...

During day two of the 'sit-in', the President of Malawi's brother gave a speech on campus in an effort to gain support for, amongst other things, a proposed amendment to the Constitution that would permit the President to appoint his successor. In this case, the successor would be the President's brother. In a seeming gesture of good faith, the President's brother donated two printers to diffuse the issue. Regardless of whether the donation was politically motivated or not, the students returned to class the following day and a notice from the Registrar ordering all students to vacate the campus indefinitely was rescinded.

Mzuni students prepare to vacate the campus after an order was issued from the Registrar

I learned an important lesson that day. And that lesson is to avoid getting involved in any event that could go awry... and to avoid taking pictures of the authorities... so these will be my last!

My New Job

This post provides a more detailed description of my roles and responsibilities here at Mzuzu University (the exciting pictures of lions, tigers, monkeys and all the other stereotypical images of Africa are coming I assure you... but with more of an urban planning flavour!). Before I embarked on this adventure, I attempted to describe to many of you exactly what this position would entail based on the original job description I was given. In other words, I didn't really know what I was going to be doing. All I knew was that this experience was going to be amazing and life changing.

Shortly after being introduced to my new office in the Physical Planning building (shown above), I quickly discovered that my job pretty much entails filling in wherever I am needed, which has included lecturing, preparing proposals, reviewing dissertations for fourth-year students, networking with other departments and overturning rocks in search of more interesting projects. My multiple roles is not surprising considering that the Department is under-resourced both in terms of faculty (3 full-time lecturers) and teaching materials (particularly current literature). As such, the lecturers are more than happy to have me on board.

I was initially a little nervous to take on these brand new tasks, but to paraphrase a great friend and mentor, 'what you don't know initially can be made up with confidence in your abilities and the rest can be figured out as you go along'. I think that this mentality (coupled with diligent preparation!) will continue to help me adapt.

I should also mention that this year marks the first graduating class of seven students for the department's Physical Planning stream. I couldn't imagine a better place to build capacity.

Job Description

I am one of seven multidisciplinary interns sponsored by the University of New Brunswick in partnership with the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). Our team includes interns with backgrounds in urban and regional planning, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), Geographic Positioning Systems (GPS) and computer engineering. Over the next nine months, I will be working with the Department of Land Management (Physical Planning) at Mzuzu University to build capacity.

Current Responsibilities

So far, I have been assigned three planning courses to teach, which has been hugely challenging but also hugely rewarding. The largest challenge has been relating my planning experience in North America to the planning issues here in Malawi. However, this has made for great in-class discussion and debate, which is providing an opportunity to build a rapport with the students and learn more about the local context. The fourth-year students have even offered to take me to an informal settlement area in Mzuzu to observe the squalid conditions that the urban poor face (pics to come!).

Upcoming Projects

I’m also discussing an opportunity to partner with a lecturer on a research project comparing informal settlements in Malawi and Zimbabwe, which would be a fantastic opportunity in every respect. Informal settlements are unplanned communities that are inhabited by the urban poor. Such areas are characterized by substandard housing and a severe lack of services and infrastructure including water and sanitation. With increasing rates of rural-urban migration, these communities are expanding rapidly from the edges of cities in a totally ad-hoc fashion. The problem isn’t lack of planning. Rather, it’s the inability to coordinate infrastructure funding with policy objectives. As the lecturer I work with, Mtafu A.Z. Manda, put it, one professional footballer’s salary is equivalent to the Government of Malawi’s entire annual budget (World Cup analogies are very popular at the moment!).

The good news is that Department of Land Management will graduate its first class of seven Physical Planning students this year. The program is seeking to build its capacity to take on more students and is applying to the Royal Town Planners Institute (RTPI) to receive professional accreditation. Lots happening here in the world of planning and certainly no shortage of interesting and meaningful work!

My New Home

Myself and the six other interns live on the Mzuzu University campus (or ‘Mzuni’ for short), which is located ten minutes north of Mzuzu by car. We share a bungalow (pictured above) on campus that serves as a guest house. We have electricity and running water most of the time subject to frequent outages, which can make cooking, laundry and mostly any housekeeping activity a tad bit challenging. During our second week, we experienced a 48 hour power outage accompanied by frequent water shortages. It’s amazing how much more organized and resourceful you have to be without the guarantee of water or electricity. But life goes on, as do lectures and meetings. I find that this reality forces you to rely much more upon yourself rather than technology.

The campus is centered on the main administrative buildings and classrooms, which is surrounded by student residences that sprawl outwards. The housing is characterized by bungalows surrounded by large expanses of well vegetated open space. It is common to see people gathering and walking through each other’s properties where well travelled pedestrian paths have formed.It only takes me three minutes to walk to work by cutting through four different yards. As such, the campus is remarkably communal. We often play Frisbee in the street and string up the ‘slack line’ in the yard, which is a rope suspended between two trees that you walk on like a tight rope. This peculiar activity usually draws people from all directions and has allowed us to make a few friends.

Welcome to My Blog!

For those of you who know me well, you know that I much prefer face-to-face communication, the casual drop-in, maybe even carrier pigeon to the increasingly popular world of new media. However, as of about eight weeks ago, I had no idea that my first job as a planner would take me deep into the heart of Sub-Saharan Africa far away from my friends, family and the world I once knew. As such, I have started this blog to share my personal and professional experiences with you here in Malawi over the next ten months.

Please expect a flurry of activity as I attempt to document the last 6 weeks of my life in Malawi! I'll begin by providing a more structured description of why I'm here... followed by pictures of my adventures, such as the one featured above. This picture was taken in Nyika Plateau, which is a national park that borders Zambia in northern Malawi. I'll dedicate an entire post to this weekend trip. I sat perched atop this rock for quite some time pondering the series of events over the last two months that led me to this particular rock in Africa. It was a surreal moment. For this reason, I think this picture is highly appropriate to kick off my blog...

Stay tuned!