An Intense Month of Training
Monday, November 17th, 2008Right from the start, there was a mixed atmosphere of curiosity, questioning, excitement, and nervousness. Ten EWB volunteers were meeting in Toronto to embark on a journey in Africa, ready to take on the challenges of development.
EWB breeds a culture of learning, critical thinking, and action. A fine balance between the three is a recipe for effective development. Without learning, we maintain a narrow focus and are unable to expand our minds and see the big picture. Without critical thinking, it is difficult to get to the root of a problem and understand the intricacies of complex systems and the implications of decisions. Without action, there is no impact. It is great to dream up and analyze possibilities, but if they cannot be tested and put into action, there is no progress. During the training, we dove into these concepts and learned a way of thinking and not what to think.
On the second night of training after a full day of workshops, we were given our first homework assignment which was based on a multi-functional platform (MFP) case study. An MFP is a platform that supports one motor which can drive a number of different processes related to agricultural production. EWB had previously partnered with a local non-government organization in Mali on this United Nations Development Program (UNDP) project.
The two facilitators, Levi and Robin, had sent us an email with the assignment. We were to provide recommendations on a proposed evaluation and monitoring tool which would be used to gather information from the field to plan for the project’s second year. Background documents were also emailed which totaled around 450 pages. We were given the night to read (more like skim) through the documents, understand the project, develop recommendations for improving the evaluation and monitoring tool, and develop a strategy for how to present our recommendations to the director of the local organization in Mali. We worked until 1:30am sifting through the data, and forming ideas for improving the tool.
The following morning, we arrived to training at 8:00am, to find both Levi and Robin dressed in traditional African attire. They introduced themselves with a Malian accent, there best attempt at least. Levi was playing the director’s role and Robin was the assistant director. They sat us down and wanted to hear our ideas, which we proceeded to share. By the end of the meeting, we were exhausted. Not only did we have to try and organize our recommendations into coherent sentences after getting only 5.5 hours of sleep, but also had to accommodate a director who insisted on being spoken to first, and an assistant who was persistent on the technical aspect of the evaluation being weighted higher since the social indicators were hard to quantify and were not important.
After the session we had a debrief and discussed the dos and don’ts of meetings in Africa. Levi shared with us his actual experience since he was the EWB volunteer who was working in Mali with the partner organization. His depth of knowledge and insight into the workshop made it that much more meaningful.
This is just a small taste of the training which lasted a whole month.
Our final session of the month was with Parker (Co-CEO of EWB) and he left us with some wise words of wisdom. It’s a relatively popular prayer, and very relevant to the work we do overseas. “Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; the courage to change the things I can; and the wisdom to know the difference”.
It’s November 7th, the night before leaving for Africa. I gather with friends and family to celebrate the release of my band’s new CD titled “Everybody, Okay”. Saying goodbye to so many of the people I love was emotionally tough. But afterwards I felt very peaceful knowing that as I depart on this trip for a year, there are so many people that support what I am doing.
Chebsi-ra (to bid farewell in Dagbani, one of the local languages in the Northern Region of Ghana)
- Dan
The whole EWB team heading overseas
