why i heart independent studies:

because you get to choose your assignments...here's a project that i just finished for an international social work class going on back in the us of a:

Mr. Elephant

So, BEN Namibia has mainly larger bicycle projects, but we also partner with a couple of entrepreneurs who have started their own independent bicycle workshops. One such man is named Mr. Elephant. Mr. Elephant has a shop near the coast, but does not have a post office box. A while ago I was trying to send him a letter, and called to see where I could send it to. While speaking to him on the phone, Mr. Elephant informed me that I should simply call a courier and tell them that I wanted to send a letter to Mr. Elephant in Swakop. I told him that I did not think that would work, but he assured me that it would.

Well, the letter got to him fine, and I don't really know how as all I put on the postal slip was his name, but I was relaying this to one of my colleagues today as we are sending him something else, and he just laughed at my amazement and said, "that's Africa"...I love it. :)

BEN in the news...

So, one of South Africa's cycling magazines, Ride Magazine, just did an article featuring BEN Namibia...it's a pretty sweet article, checkity check it out:

BEN there, not done that

"The wheels of bicycle empowerment in South Africa have become so entangled in red tape that nothing much has happened lately, but fortunately such initiatives are not just going ahead, but actually gaining speed in neighboring countries. According to a report by Tanja Bause, which appeared in The Namibian, the Bicycling Empowerment Network Namibia (BEN Namibia) was started in 2005, mainly in support of the volunteers who provide home-based care for HIV-AIDS sufferers. Nowadays many volunteer organizations benefit from the bicycles discarded in other parts of the world, which sometimes offer the only viable transport solution available to them in remote and poverty stricken rural areas. BEN Namibia overcame challenges of cost, distribution and maintenance with help from the Canadian organization, Bicycles for Humanity, that has helped them establish Bicycle Empowering Centres (BECs) in a number of the remote rural centres, where this type of assistance is most needed.

A BEC is recycled shipping container, which is filled with about 300 donated second hand bicycles, as well as the spare parts and tools required to overhaul, service and maintain them. Volunteers from the local communities (mostly women) are trained to work as bicycle mechanics, and they are then able to distribute the bikes to volunteers, or sell them to the local community at an affordable price. This model has worked particularly well at Okathitu, near Outapi, where the BEC, run by an Anglican HIV-AIDS home-based care group, has not only distributed bicycles to volunteers and HIV-AIDS orphans traveling to school but also generated enough money to plant food to feed the children and improve their access to schooling.

According to the latest BEN Namibia newsletter; there are now 9 BECs, and 7000 bicycles have already been distributed by the organization. The target for 2009 is 10000 bicycles. Of particular interest, are the bicycle ambulances (basically a stretcher on wheels, pulled by a bicycle) of which there are already 106 in the field, and many more needed. Several top Namibian cyclists are patrons of BEN – remember when Dan Craven managed to win a race on his BEN bike? – and their example helps to bridge the divide between the bicycle as a transport option, and the pampered world of recreational and professional cycling. Visit www.benbikes.org.za/namibia for more details about the work of this dynamic organization."

The Great Zambezi

Okay, so I did a great majority of the touristy things while at Victoria Falls. And I don’t knock it, I am comfortable with and embrace my tourist status, however, the fact that I was in the middle of a whole lot of suffering and poverty did not escape me either. While jumping off of bridges and walking through the towns I told myself that I was contributing to the national economy through tourism, and that sufficed me to be able to spend more money on a free fall than most Zimbabweans have seen in a long time. I don’t know if that is an okay justification, feel free to correct, but that’s how my inner dialogue went…

So, my absolute, hands down, favorite thing about my little holiday north was the people that I met and the conversations that I had. I hung with some really great folks that I bunked with in my hostel (if you’re ever in Livingsone, Zambia, Jollyboys gets my approval), randomly met a few others that I got to share convos and meals with, and made friends with a couple taxi drivers and park employees. There are too many good stories to tell, but one of my favorites happened while rafting down the fourth-longest river in Africa, the Zambezi. And it’s my favorite not because it is all kinds of awesome, but because it was all kinds of challenging.

Here is how my story goes: One of the days that I was in Zambia I decided to go rafting with some Californian friends that I had made…the trip was loads of fun, although it made me very aware of how out of shape I have become the past several weeks as I was utterly useless during the last leg of the journey. This was probably not so bad, though, because the guide had us stop paddling and get down when we hit most of the really heavy rapids, which was a bit of a bummer at first, because, come on, what kind of adventure is that when you duck and cover for every rapid? But, when we hit our first class V rapid and the wall of water was coming up over my head and I thought for sure we were going to flip, I didn’t mind the fact that I was no longer paddling but holding onto the rope for dear life. Having worked for a rafting company in CO for a season, I had the opportunity to be in many boats, but seeing as I also knew all of the guides, I likewise had the opportunity to choose who’s boat I was in. Thus, I have never once been white water rafting and had the raft flip or where I have fallen out. I’ve heard that all you have to do is go swimming once and then the idea of it is not so bad, I don’t know, but I haven’t done it, and the thought of flipping in the middle of a rapid makes me want to pee my pants a little.

Anyways, the Zambezi acts as kind of a natural barrier between parts of Zambia and Zimbabwe, which is pretty cool because you are floating between two countries. Part way through the run, we saw a guy on the Zim side of the river (side note: you’re in a really deep canyon, where he came from or how long it took him to get there I have no idea) with a rucksack on his back hollering at us. Our guide spoke to him, and apparently he was asking for a ride across the river to Zambia (which wasn’t far, but the current is really strong). The borders between the two countries are fairly tight and the border police are not always the most honest of fellows, you will end up paying a whole lot of money trying to cross back and forth between countries, so the man was looking for a way across where he could avoid this. The reason being is that there is very little food in Zimbabwe right now, and the man was trying to get over to Zambia to look for food for his family. I can’t imagine being in a situation where I have to try and cross into another country because there is no food left around me, or that what little food there is has been marked up so much that no one can afford it, because there is certainly barely any work to be found, either.

Simple realities like this are the day-to-day existence for many of the people who live in this region, and encountering situations such as these in my time in southern Africa has broken my heart. I had a conversation later with a man who works in the park in Zimbabwe who was telling me how just 6 months ago there was basically no food at all to be found in Zimbabwe. The situation is still so bad, and to imagine that it is miles better than it was just a few months ago is not really comprehensible to me. I mean, I remember the crisis and the humanitarian organizations begin thrown out and the political mess, but I guess the gravity of it didn’t really register to me from where I sat in my own apartment with a refrigerator full of food. I asked him how people got food during that time, and he said they crossed the border to other countries. I asked him about the people who didn’t live near the cities, and he simply said, “they starved”.

As a social worker, I have to be able to see the small opportunities for change in the middle of such despair, but there is a massively overwhelming nature of poverty and injustice that is so very much bigger than myself. Things have improved in Zimbabwe since Tsvangirai began sharing power, and I can only hope that it is a path to continued growth for the country and for the people.

I also met a UN worker in my hostel that was on holiday from the Congo. We drank coffee together most mornings, and had some long conversations about coltan (Rusesabagina lecture anyone?) and the intense conflict in the DRC. Given the fact that I will hopefully be working in the world of international development come May, and given the fact that I maybe have boundary issues, especially when it comes to working with children, I asked my new UN friend for some social working thoughts for an aspiring development worker. To sum it up, the advice that was offered to me was to simply focus on your little piece, and do what you can in the midst of all of the craziness…

Ode to Vic Falls

Oh hello there friends...

So, last week I went on a little adventure north to see Victoria Falls. These falls are all kinds of breathtaking. The local people call them Mosi-oa-Tunya, which means something along the lines of “the smoke that thunders”. You can see the mist or “smoke” from the massive falls from miles/kms away…I had a blast on my little journey, which went a little like this:

I got on the Intercape Friday after work. (The Intercape is South Africa and Namibia’s Greyhound equivalent.) We then drove for about 20 hours north, broke down for about three hours, and arrived in Livingstone, Zambia on Saturday around 3 or so…a bit of a marathon journey, but breaking down in Katima (which is in the northern Caprivi region of Namibia) allowed me time to make some new friends, which included a couple other Americans and a Zimbabwean who I ended up spending a good bit of time with while at the Falls…

Anywho, once in Zambia, I was able to explore Vic Falls from the Zam side…

…then I hiked down lots of rocks and through small streams to see the gorge at the bottom of the falls:

Then I walked to the bridge that connects Zambia and Zimbabwe…

…and jumped off of it:

And then decided I should raft down the Zambezi River, which runs between the two countries:

To finally walk over to Zimbabwe to see the falls from the Zim side:

I got absolutely soaked with mist, which is more like a monsoon of waterfall rain, and loved every minute of it! I walked about a million miles, met loads of really great people, had tons of interesting and challenging conversations, and basically spoiled myself rotten for my quarter of a century. J

Much love.

Mary

mopane worms

A taste of Namibia...for Kat Adams. :)

The Aid Debate.

So, this is going to be a long one, but something that I have been increasingly interested in the past few months is the debate about aid to developing countries. And, currently living in a developing nation, my inner debate in the decision making process on where I stand on this subject has been amplified. There are several schools of thought regarding international aid and development, and I have yet to fully decide whose soapbox I’d like to join, but here’s some it:

One school of thought falls in line with economists like Jeffrey Sachs. He’s written loads of books, but one that fuels a lot of the debate is his book “The End of Poverty”. I love a lot of what he says in this publication, and honestly agree with much of it. Sachs is aligned with the One campaign and is buddy-buddy with Bono, so if you are familiar with Bono’s soapbox on international aid, I think you’ll have a pretty good picture of where Sachs stands. Much of what he says in his book is putting out the idea that global poverty is beatable, but one of the key factors to achieving this is aid. He thinks that the UN’s Millennium Development goals cannot be met unless developed nations step up and give more, as well as canceling some of the debts of impoverished countries. He also discusses things like democracy and hyperinflation, but I think some of the most controversial bits of his stance on the topic are around this idea that aid is the major solution to poverty. He says that governments and countries that are struggling will not be able to develop without the resources that already developed nations have to offer. People don’t like this. Suggesting that countries should give 0.7% of their GNP is offensive to many. My social worker self thinks that 0.7% is really pocket change if you look at where we spend the other 99.3%, but that’s a conversation for another day...and, I think that there are only a few countries that have actually met this goal, Sweden being one of them (Michelle). Socialism works for them…anyone else wanna give it a go? :)

Anyways, people have big qualms with Sachs’ stance, and there is much literature out and about refuting his ideas. Most notably (well, notably meaning that it sits on my bookshelf at home) is William Easterly’s book “The White Man’s Burden”, or recently Dambisa Moyo’s book “Dead Aid”. I read Moyo’s book right before I left for Namibia, and I’ll tell you, that woman is feisty! And, while I honestly don’t agree with here stance on aid as a whole, one theme that she continually points to is that aid, in its current form, is not working and does not work. I would tend to agree with this. Moyo and Easterly, though, think that Sachs’ stance on poverty, and how to curtail it, will only make the situation worse. If I remember correctly, in the opening chapters of “Dead Aid” Moyo remarks that the discussion on aid to Africa, specifically, has been colonized in the same way that Africa was. Ouch. She says that money has been poured into Africa in ways that have only made the situation worse, by funding corruption and fueling conflicts. Basically, Moyo thinks that Africa’s development needs to be left up to Africa.

Now, I can see where she comes from, but again, being a social worker, I believe that we have a responsibility to each other. My thoughts are that social justice will never be achieved if we just turn our backs to each other’s suffering. And, if you like John Rawls, then you’ll agree with the idea of justice as fairness, and I could never see how children going to bed without food, or people dying from preventable diseases, or lack of access to quality education or health care is in any way just or fair. Therefore, I count these as some of the great injustices of our time...Helen Keller said that social justice will never happen unless the great mass of humanity begins to take responsibility for one another’s well being. I love that quote…I think I butchered it, but I love it nonetheless.

So, here in lies my personal debate. I don’t agree that aid should be stopped, quite the contrary. I agree with much of what Sachs stipulates and I like the Millennium Development goals for what they are. (On a side note, if I’m correct, I think that Sachs also thinks that capitalism is a necessary structure for development…this is a thought that I would also like to philosophically explore sometime, because I’m not really a fan of capitalism.). However, I don’t think the system of aid that has been in place is a good one, and I do think that it has often done a lot of harm in many instances. So, what’s the solution? I really don’t know, but I am beginning to think more and more that if there could be a way to funnel aid more directly into micro-loans and other income-generating endeavors, that aid could be more assuredly given to the areas that need them, instead of into the pockets of government officials. (There was an anti corruption rally in Windhoek recently, and I was about glued to the tv screen. Democracy in action.) Anyways, I don’t know how to make it work, but I’m wondering if aid could be given directly to organizations such as IMF or the World Bank, and then distributed better through their programs into more grassroots endeavors? I don’t think that the trickle down effect works for the distribution of taxes, and I don’t think that it works for aid either. I think Sachs suggested something like this as well, but more along the lines of creating fewer sources that impoverished governments have to be accountable to, so therefore better monitoring for both sides.

Well, long story long I have many thoughts about this, and I obviously don’t know the right answer. But, I do know that dropping aid like Santa Claus and then peacing out is a disastrous model, and I have seen the negative effects of it already in my few short weeks in Namibia. That is one of the reasons why I love the model of BEN Namibia so much. The essence of what they do is with the idea in mind that the projects they are starting need to be able to be sustainable in so many ways, but importantly without BEN Namibia there. (Yet another inner debate I have come across: sustainability. I don’t know if I even know what that means anymore…) Not that this is an easy feat, but every project at BEN Namibia is begun with the intention of giving individuals the tools necessary to run the business of the Bicycling Empowerment Centre, in hopes of transforming and empowering their community, by their own hands. And, as BEN is finding that even after a project is formed that their main office here in Windhoek still ends up being a supplier of parts and services (which is not what they are structured to do) they have developed this conference that I am helping to plan with the hopes of being able to connect each of the Centres, from communities all over the country, with dealers and with the Ministry of Trade so that they can become a thriving network within themselves. I think it’s great, and I love this model…more like this, please.

The moral: I’m still a bit lost on the aid debate…who knows, but hopefully those making the decisions will get it right sometime soon…