I’ve been living here in Dedza for 9 months. There are days when that feels like forever; there are days when that feels like no time at all.
What has impressed me in those 9 months are the changes I’ve seen. The businesses and organizations that have started, grown, collapsed, left. The changing produce available for sale… From boiled groundnuts… to roasted groundnuts… to roasted and salted groundnuts (my favourite!). I’ve seen a new bank come into town. There are a few more shops, and some shops have started selling spices, pasta and apples… rarities here in Dedza. The Peoples and Metro (big convenience stores) have merged, and Metro has started baking their own bread, fresh and at a lower price.
So things are changing, slowly… or so I thought! Then I talked to Brenda (and collaborated this with colleagues and my favourite restaurant owners).
5 years ago, Dedza was little more than a village.
There was no bus depot. There was no town hall or big football/netball stadium. There was no girls netball team. There was no bank… then there was 1… now there are 6, one of which just opened! There was no micro-finance institution. There were no big international NGOs, let alone 5 of them. There were no government offices, or computers. There was no People’s or Metro or internet café.
All of this has been built in 5 years. Dedza has not been changing slowly… it’s been changing fast!! But because I’ve only been here 9 months, because I wasn’t here 5 years ago to see where it started, because my reference point is skewed, I didn’t see this change.
In our desire for swift and transformative change, how much of it is masked by the small view we have into a foreign context? How much of it is coloured by a lack of patience and failure to recognize success and growth when it right before us?
Much. Just wait until you leave, and then returna few years later. Then you’ll really see it!
Good post.
B
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Thanks for sharing this perspective, Colleen. I’m sure there’s some sort of parallel for the change you’ve gone through in those nine months too – probably sometimes it’s really visible, and sometimes not, but easiest to see for those who knew you before those nine months started.
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Colleen Reply:
August 7th, 2009 at 2:29 pm
Very true. I imagine that applies to everyone. Some of that was obvious from the recent trip back to the UK. Interestingly, the changes (in me) were hardest for the people who know me best… my family. But they are a good mirror for who I am and an annoying voice of reason for my ambitions.
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Hmm… good post, but it raises the question of what spurred this change? Was the town’s potential just waiting for the right spark/push to get it going? Or did people inspire one another, and once growth started happening more innovators and entrepreneurs were drawn from other areas? Or a mix of both? And is change at this pace replicable? (I’m not expecting an answer, I’m just thinking)
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Colleen Reply:
August 7th, 2009 at 2:16 pm
Elizabeth.
Good questions. No easy or obvious answers. Probably, it was a lot of things. Good location, changes in governance and government, an influx of organizations, some tourist venues (Dedza has a pottery), the natural growth and change of people and communities… I mean can you really describe how any town changes? Potential waiting to happen… maybe, but that’s easier said in hindsight.
To me, I thought it was worth observing that my skewed starting point influenced my perception of change so completely, particularly since we are always so focused on immediate, “transformative” changes that ignore the value of patience.
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