The First Post!

Hello everyone!

It’s about time I posted …sorry for the delay!

For those of you who have not heard of Engineers Without Borders (EWB) before, I encourage you to check out the link to EWB’s national website. EWB has student chapters across the country and I have been an active member of the University of Waterloo Chapter for almost a year. We increase awareness of international development issues on campus and in the community, as well as develop the leadership skills of chapter members. Every summer EWB sends approximately 40 student members to Burkina Faso, Ghana, Malawi, and Zambia to work with partner organizations. These 40 students are called “Junior Fellows” (JFs).

The three JFs this summer from Waterloo are Sylvie, Sam, and myself. This summer I will be working with WaterAid Zambia (WAZ) in the Milenge district of Luapula province in Zambia. WAZ works on water and sanitation projects through other organizations in Zambia. EWB’s partership with WAZ has existed since 2005 but my position is brand new! I will post more information on my position once I know more about it. Milenge is a rural area and my coach, Trevor, tells me I will have very limited internet access. I’m not scared about the lack of internet access, as it will help me fully integrate with the community and if I need to contact someone I can always use my cell phone.

Zambia:

Province of Luapula:

Who is this guy Trevor?

Trevor is one of EWB’s Long Term Overseas Volunteers (LTOVs). LTOV positions are not for undergraduate students as they are 13 or more months long! Trevor first arrived in Zambia in early 2007…you can read more about what he is doing on Trevor's blog. Trevor has created my JF position and, as my coach, will be my main EWB contact throughout the summer. EWB staff are available if I need them and I will send them regular work reports, but for most of the time it will just be me in this new environment!

What have we been doing so far?

For the past four months the JFs have been working on few things to help prepare us for this summer. First, we have been attending Coffee Shop Mentoring sessions, which are facilitated by a returned JF. We were lucky in Waterloo to have two returned JFs facilitate our sessions: Wayne and Dane…nicknamed “Dwayne”. The purpose for these sessions was for us to learn from the past experiences of Dwayne and for Dwayne to coach us through our Personal Development Plan (PDP).

And that leads me to the second way JFs prepare for our placement: our PDP. The PDP is a set of goals you want to reach, how you will reach them, and how you will measure if you reached them. I made a PDP back in January for the four months of preparation time. Some of the goals I set, for example, were to learn more about Zambia’s history and improve my facilitation skills in meetings and workshops. I have not reached all of the goals I set in that PDP, but as I am writing my PDP for the summer in Zambia, I am realizing how helpful it was to have experience with PDPs already!

The third area of preparation has been EWB’s Foundation Learning Program. The program includes a number of assignments, posting responses on myEWB.ca discussion forums and personal reflection.

Of course, I have also been getting a bunch of vaccinations (they’re all done, don’t worry Mom!).

As for the next four months, my schedule looks like this:

Apr 24 – May 7: At home in Mississauga
May 8 – May 15: Training at the “EWB house” in Toronto with the JFs that will be going to Zambia and Burkina Faso.
May 15 – Aug 26: Zambia
Aug 26 – Aug 29: Reintegration training in Toronto

There is still a bunch of work I need to finish before I leave for training. I hope this post answered a bunch of your questions about this summer. Please email me and/or comment with any further questions!