Where in the World is Colleen?

The latest series of posts have been rather thought-oriented and a bit heavy.  Here’s something to lighten the mood: a series of shots from my trip with George Roter from Dedza to Mzuzu and back.  (Mzuzu is about a 5 hour drive north of Dedza, and is home to EWB’s Rob Borzychowski.)

George and Hazel, harvesting sweet potatoes

George running stuff from a potato field

Our expired "Certificate of Fitness" on the rental car that delayed us at a police roadblock for over an hour...

... interesting sign on the side of the road...

As I wake up on the final day of what has been a marathon retreat, I find myself thinking back to this past week, the changes, the connections, the learning and laughter. I came in, looking forward to see friends and relaxed, but at the same time feeling pretty disconnected and frankly a bit indifferent. I am leaving full of delicious food, good memories and laughter. I am leaving sad to say goodbye to all these amazing friends. I am leaving excited and motivated to hit the ground running.

Here are some of the highlights and stories of this week:

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The Tree of Trust – the round tower built into the rock and what in normal days would be a lovely sitting room looking out over the lake. For us, this room became our “tree of trust”; the place to share the highs and lows, our feelings, emotions, frustrations, appreciation, good music, laughter and tears.
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Cooking and eating delicious food… and then a little bit more even though we were already too full. (We love you Melissa!!) Coconut rice curry, guacamole sandwiches, tuna and cheese, soups, pastas, French toast, beans, pancakes, potato salad, sweet potato chips with flavoured dipping sauce… I’m pretty sure we all went home 10 pounds heavier than we arrived.
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At the end of Q1 training, 9 of us sat around the dinner table, talking late into the night. It was one of those conversations where everyone participated, where the conversation was engaging and kept moving forward to new and interesting ideas and ended only when we were too tired to keep going.
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Sharing notes of goodness – we finished the retreat, seated all around in our Tree of Trust, we shared letters of appreciation and caring. Sometimes it’s just really nice to get encouragement from a good friend, a kind word to send you on your way. Although Rob’s ode to Melissa’s cooking set a pretty high bar for the rest of us.
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Flipcharts plastering the walls of our house, markers on every table surface
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Multicoloured lizards that grew braver with each day (and fatter!), ant invasions and monkey attacks
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Swimming and volleyball, the tilted bar out in the lake that looked like it would fall down at any minute
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Chatting with Amanda and Alynne in our room about our challenges and frustrations, fears, doubts and hidden opportunities, finding solace in the companionship.
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Staying up way too late drinking Chibuku (local maize beer) and white wine having a fascinating discussion with Amanda and Hans.
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Sessions on Values, Strengths, Strategy, Theories of Change, Successes and Challenges, discussions on finding balance, on remaining humble while taking action, on being reactive or deliberate.
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The quiet contemplative time spent pilled on couches listening and singing along to the strumming of Mike Kang and Owen Scott. Singing Disney songs and Enam’s djing talents.
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As the WatSan team pilled into the mini-bus, the remaining few of us stood around, sad to see them go, but comforted by songs featuring The Beatles, Chantelle Kraviazuk and other good, cheesy oldies, adapted for the moment. I don’t doubt that while our serenading was appreciated, the WatSanners were more than happy to take off from our singing and swaying.

All your bags are packed,
Your ready to go.
We’re standing here outside your mini-bus.
We hate to stay behind and say goodbye.

Oh, you’re leaving,
On a mini-bus.
Don’t know when we’ll be back again.
Oh friends, I hate to see you go.

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While the WatSan team left on Sunday afternoon, the Agric Value Chain team opted to stay and work an extra day. There was certainly a lot left to talk about and it took most of Sunday night and all of Monday to get through half of it. Sunday night, after a mind-crunching session on strategy, we were all in desperate need of a break. Why not some night swimming?! We stumbled our way down the path and over to the beach and it’s cold water. All in a line, holding hands, we made a run for it, just in case anyone was not quite ready to face the waters by themselves (because they really were cold!!). Ka-Hay got left behind. As we were treading water to keep warm, someone asked about crocodiles… silence. Someone piped up that they only come out at night… and two seconds later, Ka-Hay disappeared with a scream! Crocodile Hans Hesse had got her into the water after all. Singing Celine Dion, N’Sync, some Shania Twain, we made it back and collapsed in bed.
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After months of waiting, debating and anticipating where I’ll be going and what I’ll be doing, EWB has finally provided an answer.

Location: Malawi

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Partner: Concern Universal

Work: Value-chain analysis and agriculture business development (more on this forthcoming)

Departure: November 8th, 2008

Length: 13 months

Now that I have a great organization, an interesting project, a destination, and a cool team of volunteers to meet, I’m super excited! I can’t wait to share more with you soon, or at least as soon as I know. Please, don’t get too attached to this turn in events. EWB is highly dynamic, so while I’m really excited about this particular placement, I have no doubt that little details will change as the departure date progresses.

Those of you who know me well will realize that there is an emerging theme in the events of my life. It is that everything I thought and declared with certainty would never happen, does. Maybe I’m searching for change. Maybe I enjoy pushing my limits. Maybe I’m just confused. There’s probably a bit of truth to all those statements. Let me give you some examples.

Driving back from the mountains with my Dad one day after a tiring day of skiing, he suggested that I should do a Masters degree. I laughed, declared I was tired of school and was ready to get out and work as soon as I was done. Fast forward 2 years, and I’m in the final weeks of my dissertation (like a mini thesis) for my Masters Degree from the University of Cambridge. While I’m not sure that this degree was what my Dad had in mind when he made that comment, it has been both unexpected and one of the most rewarding years of my life.

I came into this degree and this year with a very clear vision for what I would study and where my life would lead me. I was going to study wind energy (especially the distribution and efficiency of wind turbines) in the UK. Within a month, those plans had been turned on end. Instead, I researched the roles of for-profit and not-for-profit organizations in the development sector with a focus on irrigation in Nepal. Not a lot of parallels between the original and actual ends.

Some of you may remember well that along with my plans to study wind energy, I had aims to pursue a career in this field with a UK or International consultancy for a few years. Despite my previous involvement with Engineers Without Borders (EWB) Canada, you may also recall that I was not (nor did I expect to become) interested in pursuing development work in Africa. It should, therefore, come as no surprise that as of January 2008 I became actively interested in EWB’s overseas work, as of March I had applied to an overseas position, and as of May I had accepted a long-term (1 year) placement with EWB Canada in Africa.

So ending this intense year with redefined priorities and perspectives and going into a new one that promises to be even more drastic,  I’m left wondering what else I’ll “never do” because if this year is any example, there’s a good chance that that is where my path will take me next.