Dávid from Zambia – XI. Blog Post

Ups and Downs! – Learn to Teach – Teach to Learn!

Hello everyone, and a huge shout-out to all! I've been thinking for a long time whether I should even write about this. In the end, I came to the conclusion, why the heck not? It's part of the program... and if I've managed to word the following thoughts well enough, many people might be able to reflect these on their own lives.

After nearly 6 weeks spent in Zambia, I think I can confidently say that we've gotten used to the African environment. However, this doesn't mean that we don't struggle every day with smaller or bigger challenges... but at least we're much less frustrated by them than we were at the beginning.

What really helped our team was the many conversations we've had, which we tried to approach with healthy self-criticism and constant support for each other – drawing conclusions from these talks to find solutions to our challenges – and of course, to stay grounded in reality and keep pushing forward towards our set goals.

This is definitely not easy! In fact, I'd say it's extremely difficult! There were days when we said to ourselves, "Alright, this is the end! Tomorrow, we're packing up and going home." But of course, we didn't go anywhere. Partly because we're trained as CICD (Certified International Community Development) professionals, and we're not the kind of people who give up that easily. And partly because we haven't been to the safari or the Victoria Falls yet... Just kidding! We're not giving up just because we face a series of challenges.

Fear often turns a person into a coward. Daily challenges only amplify and support this fear. I don't have to say much, it's a lovely combination... And because of this pressure, we sometimes find it easier to escape. Just because we have to deal with a new life situation – we want to get rid of it and run back to our comfort zone where we were so comfortably settled before – we don't want to hear, feel, or think about it. But the reality is, development is not possible without this so-called "suffering process." This is where experience comes from, or more strongly put: LIFE EXPERIENCE!

So... after successfully surfing through one emotional wave, we concluded that it's time to slow down a bit. Instead of talking and thinking so much, we decided to focus more on our environment and gain a deeper understanding of our project. At the same time, we also looked inward – mainly trying to figure out how, why, and what triggers our reactions in certain situations.

What challenges are we talking about, specifically?

Communication and Organizational Deficiencies:
It's extremely difficult to get used to the "slowed down" pace of life here. The fact that things don't move the way we were used to back in our European lives. The lack of organization and communication has created many situations where, unfortunately, we ended up on the wrong side of things – either as the ones at fault or the ones who were wronged. Sometimes this is completely acceptable, we're human, we make mistakes, but in regular cases, it puts a massive amount of pressure on your shoulders, especially if you have nothing to do with the mistake. It's hard to remain patient, calm, and objective in situations like these.

Time Wasting:
Phew! This is probably the hardest thing for me to tolerate – when something could be done in 1 hour, but instead, it's preceded by hours of theoretical lectures, planning, and meeting series, all for something that everyone already knows. Yes! Here (as I mentioned before), they love paperwork and detailed planning at the organization. Getting something done usually requires preparation. Yes, the plan needs to be made! The problem with all the "time wasting," though, is that it leads to delays, which puts pressure on everyone, and then everything collapses – and this usually happens! The positive side is that NO ONE, and I really mean NO ONE, points fingers at others saying "YOU, YOU, or YOU screwed up" – although I must add, most people don't like admitting that they've made a mistake, but at least there's no finger-pointing!

Flexibilityyyyyyyyyy:
You'll soon understand why I added so many "y"s to the word. You arrange a meeting for 9 AM. You go to bed early so you can wake up early, because you have to get ready and travel a long distance from point A to point B. So, you arrive right on time, and after waiting for 55 minutes, someone calls to tell you that you'll need to wait another 2 hours because the whole team is late. So, you take out a book or scroll through your phone to kill time. During this, about every 4 minutes, someone comes up to you asking for money, or if you can at least give them something to eat... We've talked about this before, and it's both sad and incredibly annoying.

So, after you've waited, FINALLY someone shows up and tells you that the meeting won't happen today because the whole team is unavailable... and now the meeting is rescheduled for 2 PM, but at a completely different location. (The question that pops into your head at this point is, "Why couldn't they have just taken care of this over the phone? Why did they need to have us come all the way here for this?" Anyway, let's not get into the little things...)

You go home (walking 5-6 kilometers), grab some food, then later go to the new meeting place, which is also 5-6 kilometers away. The meeting ends up taking 3 hours because everyone is late, and then they tell you that the whole team couldn't make it because... (there's always a good story), so let's try again tomorrow morning at 9...

Just one of the many stories! This happens at least 2-3 times a week, and sometimes I feel like they do it on purpose. "Here, be flexible, and let's hope the project moves forward!" And then the golden question comes from everyone: "I came here as a volunteer, I want to help, and I'm the one being treated like this? They won't even come to a meeting? So now, what's next? What's the point of all this? It's all nonsense!"

The reality is, this is the experience for most people volunteering in Africa. It's been my experience too, and I've had similar questions on my mind. However, I managed to dig deeper and, based on what I learned at CICD, I found answers to some of my questions. Then, from the remaining questions, I shaped just one question:

It's very important to understand that when living in a completely foreign culture, flexibility, openness, and a desire to learn are essential. If one of these three is missing, our chances of a successful project are greatly reduced. After all, we're living in a totally different environment every day – here, we need to learn before we can teach. After all, we don't even know how these people perceive life, how they understand it, and why.

Here in Zambia (in poorer areas), people don't avoid work because they don't want to or because they're lazy, or because there's no work. They don't work because they lack the skills for most jobs, and because of the lack of both theoretical and practical education. From this, we can immediately infer why people are so unorganized.

Only a very small percentage of people continue their education. In fact, most people drop out of school at a very young age... and why? Because brutal poverty replaces their daily priorities. Instead of focusing on education, they focus on daily survival – usually food or money. This interrupts their ability to continue their studies and development because either they don't have enough money to continue, or their family gets into such a bad situation (e.g., a parent gets seriously ill and the child has to step into the role of breadwinner) that the child has no choice but to leave school and work.

It's also generally true that most local people don't develop a sense of responsibility. The reason is incredibly simple. Most people are never held accountable for what they do or how they do it... In simple terms: most unemployed people don't have a boss who would hold them accountable for being late. Why? Because they don't have a job, and therefore no boss. So there's no consistency or guidance in most people's lives. There's no structured "plan" for the upcoming days or for achieving future goals. There are no goals, only instincts – but this isn't development, it's just survival.

If we summarize the points above, we quickly realize that the problem is much more severe than it is portrayed on TV or summarized in research papers. Of course, these reasons also explain why we need to have long discussions about something that seems self-evident to us. Yes… it's self-evident to us, and that's because of the knowledge we've gained.

I should add, this is just a few observations from the past few weeks. There are countless other problems we're not even aware of yet, because we don't see them, or if we do, we don't understand why things are happening the way they are. And that's exactly what drives people crazy and makes them collapse: when they don't understand something.

Not understanding something... Simply not understanding something, but still doing it... that's an unbearably frustrating feeling. It's this feeling that creates thoughts like: "I feel useless, pointless, and frustrated because I don't understand something." We in Europe have learned to handle this because we know these periods are temporary; they last until we reach a certain level, and then we change, and that's it. But here, without opportunity and knowledge, people don't interpret this the same way.

After all this, I think it's legitimate to ask: How does an African living in poverty feel, instinctively functioning, lacking basic knowledge and information about the world around them and the opportunities available to them? At the same time, they're suffering from constant, unknown frustrations day after day...

It's much harder here in Zambia to do something good and lasting rarely, than to do a lot of bad things frequently. If you're not careful, you end up causing more harm than good... And what was the question I asked myself to find a way to cope with these frustrations?

The question was: "Is what we're doing even good?"

After a few days, I came up with another question that helped me answer it:

The real question is:

"Are we even doing it right?"

~ March Highlights