Impressions of Africa

I just finished reading Stephen Lewis’s Race Against Time. It is a printed version of his Massey lectures delivered in 2005. It is a fast and interesting thought provoking read and I highly recommend it if you are interested. It made me very happy to be here, and to be working with a local organization. He is refreshingly pro-African (and I say that since we are constantly with development workers who, even though they are here, are sometimes negative about African structures, leadership, corruption etc.).
About corruption, Stephen Lewis makes an excellent point about throwing stones in glass houses – what about our own sponsorship scandals etc? He hates to see 53 sub-saharan countries lumped together because of the negative experiences of a few, and I wholeheartedly agree. He also makes some excellent points about the need to respect the local leadership and way of doing things. The IMF and World Bank Policies of associating access to funds with imposed conditions has done a great deal of damage to Africa, especially after colonialism.
To relate a personal experience, I am working with my local organization on a proposal, with which we are passionately arguing with our donors – they are insisting that staff be cut from the program where we as a local organization feel they are desperately required. How can a donor come in and tell local organizations what to do? They are not acting in the manner of a partner, but as a parent, and it is not right.
On the topic of cross cultural misunderstanding, I have to relate an experience from today. I was asked to facilitate the first section of a workshop a colleague of mine is running on Monitoring and Evaluation. I sucked. Spectacularly. I just didn’t have the audience, everything fell flat and no-one participated. I have a lot to learn in terms of what Malawians expect and their learning and participatory styles. My colleague then tool over and (though he took an hour to go through his section that was slotted for 15 minutes) he had the people participating, laughing and answering questions.
I think it would be helpful if I could learn the language, but though I started out strong, I am now so busy with work and out of town so often that I haven’t been able to fit a lesson in for 4 weeks – how frustrating.
I am also fluctuating at the moment through incredible highs and sudden lows – I love it here and am so enjoying working with my co-workers, living in the warm and beautiful country, and learning and growing. Sometimes I will just be walking down the street and then will stop to gape at my incredible surroundings and be so grateful to be here. Then at other times, all of a sudden, I will be gripped with a longing for home, for things familiar and comfortable, where even through there is great disparity between rich and poor there is just no comparison to the disparity here.