Under a Tree

One of the goals of this blog is to make a record of my impressions and thoughts, no matter how naive they may be.  Of course, I greatly welcome your impressions of how naive I am in saying what I am saying.  I welcome you telling me that what I am writing is right out to lunch.  One of the fascinating things to me about Connectivist Education is how deeply it invites us all to fail and unlearn.

For example, a couple of days ago I got to sit in the shade under a large maple tree in my yard for about a half an hour.  I don't come from a culture that particularly prizes time spent meditating (napping?) under trees.  But there is something about the shade and trunk and life-line of a tree that gives you crazy ideas, if you just listen.

One of my greatest fears, as I have already written about, is that I will inadvertently be a part of introducing some infrastructure to Kibombomene that is not sustainable in the long-run; or that I will introduce something that will irreparably alter their culture and make it more like mine.  I don't want that.  The maple reminded me of the maples that stood in impossibly sprawling groves near Kitigan Zibi of the Algonquins.  And I was thinking about how the Awazibi syrup folks use modern techniques to harvest the maple syrup, but they're still harvesting syrup, as they've done since, roughly, the last ice age.  And though I never talked to any of the company's workers, I think they're likely just as happy that they have rubber hoses and electric pumps.  And it validated for me a little bit the notion of using technology and modern techniques to bring a world of information to this village that wants accessible education so badly.

The second meditation that I had was about greetings.  Kim told me that the greeting customs in Kibo are something to get used to — that every greeting is a long one, and nuanced, and heart-felt, and that one needs to clear an hour to walk for five minutes in case there are people about.  For the past week, Goderich has been like that; it has been wonderful.  For us, it took the devastation of an f3 tornado (I love my FU f3 T-shirt, you can order some if you want, by the way) to shake people into this sort of momentary awareness of each other.  I hope it sticks in some small way.  And I think it was good training, from what Kim says, for what I am going to see in Kibo.

Why?

Stop trying to 'save' Africa, wrote Uzodinma Iweala in the Washington Post in 2007, to headline a deeply rational and at once impassioned plea to notice how "Africans... are used as props in the West's fantasy of itself". He points out that condescending headlines like "Can Blair save Africa from poverty?" smack of the heyday of colonialism, when European powers decided that Africa would benefit from their take on "civilization".

I bring this up because whenever I tell someone that I'm going to Africa, I seldom so much as take a breath before adding, "This isn't a 'Save Africa' project. The people of Kibombomene do not need to be saved. They certainly don't need to be saved by me".

Upon telling people of my impending journey, I get a range of responses, but none so wise as a question from my Great Aunt Jan: "Do they want you over there?"

This is the question that everyone should be asking first.

Why African Charity?

There is a phenomenon called "Western Guilt" that I am altogether lacking. There were grave injustices carried out through Africa during the colonial periods, but I didn't perpetrate them. I feel no connection to them, and I take no responsibility for them. I have a clear conscience.

However, it is true that decisions that some people have made, without my consent, have detrimentally affected other people, and it just so happens by cosmic accident that those decisions have resulted in more opportunities for me and fewer opportunities others. I'm not guilty, but I'm not thankful. I'm going to try to take whatever extra opportunity I have through no fault of my own, and share it with people who don't have it through no fault of their own. And ironically enough, because of Western privilege (I call this a "Western opportunity surplus"), I can.

Why Same World Same Chance?

The founders of SWSC, Kim Hurley and Marissa Izma, are geniuses. Fresh out of university, they showed up in Africa, motivated by a strong passion for service. The long story short is that the people of Kibombomene, a small village about fifty clicks from Solwezi, contacted them with a problem. The nearest high school was inaccessible to most of them. Some of their youth wanted the opportunity to have a secondary level education. Could they help? And they said, "Yeah, I think we can totally do this".

And they helped Kibo to do it, but what's remarkable is how cleverly they did it. In particular, the elements of the project that impressed me the most were:

• The Zambian Board calls the shots. The Canadian Board is instrumental in planning, execution, publicity and fundraising, but at the end of the day this project starts and ends with the people of Kibombomene. They wanted the school, they built it, and they are developing their own infrastructure to maintain it, with a little help from Western opportunity surplus. This is a Zambian project.
• The project is organic. As Western opportunity surpluses have found their way to SWSC, the people of Kimbombomene have been able to build a health clinic, install solar panels for electricity, and start up a cash crop operation. The work evolves as it needs to. Some governments and NGOs are so focussed on targets and timelines and rubrics and goals and success indicators that projects continue in directions long after they have ceased to make sense.
• The infrastructure is sustainable. SWSC isn't setting up cycles of dependency (which are always colonialism in charity clothing); we work to ensure that we are building nothing that will crumble and create a liability someday. Everything is created smartly and purposefully, in a way that is sustainable in the medium and long term. As things get more expensive to maintain, the capacity to grow the economy is augmented. As the school program is expanded, Zambian teachers are recruited to teach.

I see SWSC as a true capacity development project, and I find that to be very exciting.

Why Me?

My experience is in multi-jurisdictional accreditation, connectivist learning, instructional design and curriculum implementation. I have the ability, by teaching and writing with Virtual High School, to live on my own dime in Zambia to help develop the school program in any way that I can. I have no wife, I have no child, I have no house, and all of these 'have nots' are at my phase of life a tremendous opportunity, a great uncommon 'have'. I don't pretend exclusive wisdom or knowledge, and I expect to learn more than I teach, but I can do something, and it would be irresponsible of me not to move on it.

Iweala finished his article by saying that "Africa wants the world to acknowledge that through fair partnerships with other members of the global community, we ourselves are capable of unprecedented growth." I truly believe that SWSC is such a partnership, and I unreservedly offer my service, for what it is worth, to them.