If Something is Wrong in the World, Take a Step to Right it.

You know that feeling: you've just spilled water on someones cell phone, broken someones toy or you miscalculated the rocket fuel measurements and ended up blowing up your apartments elevator. There is a gut wrenching queasy feeling and you start to sweat, the apologies begin to bubble forth and you feel like an idiot. In my case I was at the T'Souke Lady Bug Garden, a community project that feeds the entire community with its produce every Tuesday night, fills out meals for wheels orders for the elders and is displayed in contests. While weeding the tomato bed, I stepped on the wooden box and snapped the side off. Uh oh. Just as the apologies started to bubble up, the gardener Wayne surprised me. "No worries," He said, "I'll just cut off another piece of wood and fix it." The apologies died in my throat. Wouldn't it be nice if everything in life was so easily fixed? If everything was made from resources easily accessible in our own environment and therefore completely sustainable?

That is the point of sustainable international development, to go into a community, train the people living there to use materials from their own environment and knowledge to be able to fix things. It is nice to go into a community as a volunteer and build a bridge, but if that bridge washes out a few years later and the community doesn't know how to make a new one or fix the old one, the community is no better off. It is better to go into the community, hire villagers to help build the bridge, train them, show them how to access international aid or send a proposal to their own government for money to build the bridge so that when the bridge washes away, that community will be able to independently build a new one.

I have a project for you, and I mean that in a YES YOU sense *points* Are you up for a challenge?

-Put a sign on a paper towel dispenser in a  public bathroom that reads "these come from trees" and you will save 100lbs of paper a year from that dispenser alone.

-Why not build your own sustainable garden? You only need a small space, a couple hours and you'll contribute to saving the planet. If families of 10 people in Uganda can survive off a small plot of land in front of their house, so can you! The first thing you will need is some soil, which you can make yourself! Isn't that magical? Making your own soil? Star with a small compost bucket in your house and fill it with raw (uncooked) vegetables and peels, throw in egg shells, orange peels, even biodegradable bags! Maybe you'll want to get your neighbours to start saving their compost too and start a community garden? Then take your compost outside and dump it in a container and keep it in there for 6-8 weeks (longer in the winter, shorter in the summer) and let the worms get in. Worms eat 6 times their weight everyday and their waste product is soil! It is not necessary to add the worms in, they'll find the container themselves. Transfer it to a second container and once it stops smelling, you know it is ready to be used as soil, which is the third step. Some people like to use manure in their gardens, just remember not to use fresh manure, you only want manure that is 4-5 months old. Yum yum. You can also add 1 cup of lime, 2 cups of organic matter and new soil to each bed, each year.

You can kill pesky weeds with vinegar, make a fence to keep animals out and change where each plant is placed each year as different plants use up different nutrients in the soil. So if you plant tomatoes in a container, don't plant tomatoes in the same spot for the next 3 years. The best part is sustainability: You can make beds out of planks of wood, line them with plastic so the water doesn't leak out and nail a wooden lining on top, connecting the plastic to the wood.

The thing I'm most excited about? (I mean besides the fact that you are all going to have delicious gardens and be frequently inviting me to dinner ;) I'm a fan of garlic....just saying) is this wooden T structure. You can build yourself one very easily, it is great for creating lines in the soil to plant seeds in and then smoothing over the top layer of soil.

This is a "garden in a bag," which is a different garden than I have described. It is a bit slow to watch, but shows how you can sustain yourself with very little soil. http://vimeo.com/7264277

Maybe you'll get very excited about this Do it Yourself project and start making your own clothes. Now, hold on a moment, I'm not crazy, stay with me here. I'm reading about the many sweat shops used by Guess, Sears, The Bay, Walmart, Liz Claiborne and Disney that employ women aged 9-26 to work 6:50am till 10pm, 6 or 7 days a week with two 30 minute breaks, a maximum of two bathroom breaks each shift that require a key for the locked bathroom door and a propensity to fire anyone that talks about unionization. All for $4 a day. So next time your friend wants to buy a shirt from Walmart, remember that it might cost $20, but the woman who made it was only paid about 8 cents, not enough to cover food, shelter, medicine and clothing for herself and her family. Your own stitches might be clumsy but I would definitely give you a high 5 if you tried to make your own clothing or decided to buy clothes from companies that don't employ sweat shops.

And as always, hello to Moosmas, Janelle, Matt, David, Dad, Donald and the new members Flissdave of this blog!

Culture Shock

Like Christianity's 10 commandments, First Nations people have the 7 Grandfather teachings: love, patience, humility, truth, wisdom, respect and honesty. My favourite is love, because it states that when people are feeling weak, they need more love. I think that will be very useful when homesickness and culture shock sneak in and the other interns need support. The IAYI Pre-departure Course for the 2012 International Aboriginal Youth Internships Initiative has culture shock down to a science. Our Metis presenter Leanne explains the culture shock pathway, "It starts with the honeymoon period, when you get there and are amazed by everything. Then a downward spiral of culture shock occurs and you can feel homesick and isolated. At this point many people tend to further isolate themselves through electronic use with loved ones back home such as skype or phoning (yes, they have phones in Africa, and for cheap, you can buy one for $15) , by falling in love, "going native" (by rejecting their culture and taking on the local one) and experiencing physical symptoms such as excessive weight gain or loss." She says it is important to explore the culture because the more you understand, the more comfortable you'll feel. Leanne recommended taking time to be alone: read a book, drink some tea and to connect with nature. Our elder Shirley from T'Souke Reserve said it would be helpful to find a place of worship, to support each other and wear colours like orange and red for energy. Once we recover from homesickness and adjust, we should be fine as we, until it is time to return to Canada, then we should expect pre-return anxiety and to go through the 4 stages of honeymoon, shock, recovery and adjustment again.

The most important thing I picked up from this workshop is to not delude yourself that you know someone. Each person comes with their own values, thinking and beliefs that affect their behaviour. So if you try to analyze their behaviour without any other knowledge, it is going to lead to frustration and misunderstandings. For example, I have perceptions about the world, and I experience it in a different way than a 50 year old male living in Uganda would, due to my gender, age, cultural background, family values and morals and education.

We had two presenters come in from Uganda and Zambia to talk to us about cultural differences. Apparently, as a woman, when you meet a man, you are expected to shake hands by getting on your knees, avoid eye contact and to keep one hand at their wrist to show respect. This is going to be a challenge.

We played an amazing game that helps to illustrate cultural differences.

1. Divide a group of people into 3 groups: three observers, 2 interviewers and the rest, who will function as the community. Tell the observers 2 things about their "culture," for example:

-the women can only talk to women and the men can only talk to men
- When answering questions, answer "yes" when the interviewer smiles, and "no" when they don't smile.

Then send the interviewers and observers into the "community" and have them ask questions to find out about the culture and what the rules are. I know in my experience as an interviewer, I delivered rapid fire questions and while grinning wildly, I demanded to know if their culture was Star Trek. Hopefully your students will do better.

And as always, love to Moosmas, Davey Baby, Shirley, Kienan, Dad, the other interns and everyone following this blog

If the Canadian Government Ignores Global Warming, So Can I!! Or Can I?

Today we had a seminar about energy conservation because in Uganda we will have to effectively use electricity and water. I'll be "showering" with cold water I've collected with buckets.  Walking a 4km round trip for water, only to find out mid-shampoo that I did not collect enough, is not something I want to experience, so I decided to pay attention.

It is the same story, told over and over in elementary and secondary schools across the country; reduce, reuse, recycle. Each student listens carefully to their one hour assembly and vows to make a change, only to return to their old ways of energy usage. Until today I did not understand why in British Columbia, home of clean energy, we needed to conserve energy, after all I wasn't impacting the environment was I? So during a seminar at T'Souke Reserve I asked Andrew, the project manager and elder, what the importance of energy conservation was. Apparently, our energy needs are expected to increase by 60% in the next 20 years. Just look at your text messaging and computer playing friends and family members and you can see why; we are addicted to electricity! So how will we meet this energy demand? By building more Hydro Dams which can destroy habitats and wildlife and by buying electricity produced by the Alberta Oil Sands. With increased need for energy the Harper Government is seeking to implement the Enbridge Oil Pipeline. We can blame the Harper Government but are they really to blame for wanting the pipeline? After all, as Canadians we demand more and more energy and the government is trying to fill that need. As Canadians we need to show the government that the environment is more important to us than a pipeline, and we can do that by conserving energy.

I've recently learned that several schools in Kamloops are following my blog, I would like to challenge classes to change their habits and save energy. I know that if I hear something, I forget, but if I participate I remember forever. For each class that comments on this post and writes about what their class has done differently in their lives and schools to conserve 10% of their regular energy use,  I promise to bring you back a gift from Uganda and speak to your class.

In a small village in Uganda the children recieved a soccer ball...that quickly deflated...not to be disappointed, they tied plastic bags together and formed their own soccer ball. That new ball is sustainable, fixable and made of recycled items. Do you think you can match that creativity?

There are several things youth, adults and elders can do to conserve energy and save our communties. I have pledged, along with the other Ugandan interns to start a compost bucket in our kitchen that will be distributed outside in the flower bed, to give up my car and buy a bus pass and unplug appliances that are not in use (computers, microwaves, phone chargers). Using cloth bags for grocery shopping, travel mugs for drinks, cold water in the washing machine and air drying clothes are all great ideas. I have a secret for you, but I'm sure you won't tell anyone will you? The interns and I watched Jersey Shore last night. I know, I'm not proud of it, but it was our day off. I think that stopping watching that show on our computers and limiting our internet usage will also be a good energy conserver, because when  really think about it, how many hours of watching fist pumping do you need in a day?

Check out these links on the pipeline!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aO4s4P7eFk4

and this link is for all the youth, because you are going to lead the next 7 generations into sustainable living!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9dBrlDXVsk

And as always,
Hi to moosmas, davey baby, donald, brittany, kelli and to the teachers and students following!

Privilege

Lately I have been thinking about privilege. I remember hearing in secondary school that all North Americans have won the genetic lottery because we live in Canada and have access to things that are unattainable for 90% of the world. That is incorrect because according to recent research by the United Nations and the book Dances with Dependency, Canadian on-reserve conditions for most indigenous peoples are consistent with developing countries. In fact, if you compare a village in Uganda to many reserves in Canada you will see many similarities: unsafe water supply, lack of food security and inadequate housing. Economic poverty does not mean spiritual poverty though, seen through access to elders and ceremonies on-reserve. It is my hope that by learning skills in sustainability from T'Sooke Reserve for use in Uganda will also be applicable to reserves across Canada.

It is a privilege to be with this program because I enjoy being surrounded by community support and culture. We tend to smudge with an elder once a day, Chief Gordon comes to visit us and often brings his drum and a song and many members of the community have expressed their support for us. As someone who rarely prays, (and usually only when I am feeling in need of divine intervention,) I find myself, and the other interns seem to be more gentle and thankful each day we are here, and commonly initiating prayers of good luck and gratitude.

This pilot project is by the Victoria International Development Education Association (VIDEA) and is the first of its kind, by taking 10 aboriginal youth aged 18-30 and training and empowering us to help international villages, we hopefully will return and help our own communities. The organization is under pressure to document this internship and all outreach will be collected and sent to Steven Harper in the hopes of securing funding for this project next year. If you are interested in this project and would like to apply, check out the VIDEA website and look for next year’s application letter, available at http://www.videa.ca/index.php?pageid=1

VIDEA works with other smaller organizations to send them volunteers, among other things. I will be working with the Ugandan Rural Foundation, found at http://www.ugandaruralfund.org/

I've also included a video about Northwestern Uganda in 2005, it is the first part of a 10 part series you can find on youtube. It is highly emotional but a great story.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3o40iteImCI

I would like to leave you with a famous Cree quote, "Only when the last tree has died, and the last river has been poisoned, and the last fish has been caught, will we realize that we cannot eat money.”
And as always,
Love to Moosmas, David, and everyone reading

Pictures from T'Sooke Reserves Solar Panel Project

First Days of the Internship

Hi Everyone!

Things are looking exciting again, now that the homesickness has passed and I've met the 9 other people that will be my family for the next 5 months. The last week I spent in Victoria will definitely go down in the history books as one to remember and I'm feeling refreshed and ready for an adventure.

Living together in Sooke feels a bit like we're wannabe supermodels contestants on Americas Next Top Model, as we're set up in a beautiful vacation home decorated solely by aboriginal art and complete with a massage chair, waterfall showers and a flat screen t.v.
http://www.sookeoceanresort.com/photos/sooke-ocean-resort-2.html Living in luxury feels odd, seeing as how we'll be living in houses made of mud in Uganda very soon.

Our group of interns have already bonded and are sharing inside jokes, I feel like I'm going to be making friends for life, which is important, considering we are going to be each others only support for 5 months in another country. I've come down with a cold but there is another woman in my group that is also sick, we decided to "man up" and support each other. I'm elated I didn't spend the day in bed trying to recover because we would have missed the opportunity to learn about T'Sooke Nation.

We spent today at the T'Sooke Reserve and had the pleasure of learning about their use of sustainable technology with the hope of sharing this knowledge with the rural villages in Uganda. http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DtZ9GA4qRfJc%26feature%3Dplayer_embedded&h=zAQHwuqNCAQE-hJezH970mOM9Erpkw314J6kg3_zk-l-Kvg Their vision statement is to have a healthy and safe community that is self sufficient and they are certainly well on their way to achieving that. As the number one user of solar energy in Canada, the community uses solar panels placed on the roofs of the band council office, fisheries department office and individual family homes. They are using sunlight to power their electricity needs, hot water tanks and making a profit by selling the energy surplus back to BChydro. In addition to no longer relying on Hydro for electricity 11 months out of every year, they created 40 new on-reserve jobs by having the installation company hire and train local people.

What I found interesting is the use of solar energy is fairly affordable. Each solar panel costs $1000 and is subsidized by federal government funding and grants. In fact, T'Sooke nation had 100% of it subsidized and these solar panels will provide free energy for a guaranteed 25 years.

Tomorrow we will be traveling to Victoria to receive our travel vaccinations and while I'm used to giving other people needles, the thought of receiving the necessary polio, yellow fever, tetanus, Hep A and B, etc, is not a particularly exciting thought. What is an exciting thought is continuing to receive an education is sustainable development. On Friday we will be participating in a "Zero Mile Diet," which involves hiking down to the ocean and eating whatever we find, whether it be clams, fish or seaweed. I am starting to truly believe that the first nations people of Canada will lead our country back to sustainable living.

As always, love to Moosmas, Davey Baby, The Social Work class of Shelly Johnson and Natalie Clark and special appreciation to the people of T'Sooke reserve for having us as guests on their land and sharing their knowledge with us.

Meegwetch

Last Day in Kamloops

I would rather say that I am emotionally-numb, like Sheldon off Big Band Theory, than admit that I am emotional about leaving Kamloops. In fact, I've convinced quite a few people that I am always up for an adventure and happily leave behind family and friends for months at a time. After all, I've spent the last 4 years moving back and forth every 4 months from Kamloops, to Ryerson University in Toronto to a midwifery placement in Kingston; but somehow, those sad emotions still sneak in. One minute I'm discussing how much aspirin would really be necessary to kill a walrus and the next I'm clutching my cousin/father/friend and using them as a human Kleenex.

So today I've managed to cancel my car insurance, return random clothing to people, return textbooks to work (where I gave my notice), finish university applications and finish packing. Ok...I lied about finishing all those things...but I'm planning to get them done and still have time for dinner out with my family and be ready for my 4:30am flight.


To Avery, remember, you're half way to summer vacation, so keep doing a good job at school.


To Misty and Robbie, mom may say shes ok, but I know you'll check on her anyway, thank you.


To my brother Kienan (who secretly follows my blog) those shoes were really ugly and you can't compare Louis Vuittons to camping shoes, even if they both have red soles.


To Mom and Dad, I'm only a text message to Uganda away, and if that doesn't work you have my permission to pretend I'm working 4 jobs and that's why you never see me.


To Donnie, thank you for trying to "turn off" the water works, and just remember, frat boys need love too so try not to take it out on them ;)


To Matt, you need to send me a video of our awesome TRU promotional clip.


Allison, Brittany, Darby and Holly, you girls are great, good luck with school and I'll see you in 6 months!

Packing

Filling a 50L bag with everything you'll need for 5 months in Uganda is quite an incredible feat. Must haves include ankle length skirts and enough tablets of aspirin to kill a walrus.

First Steps

I've been sent to a rural community known as Mosaka, Uganda which is 45 minutes from the nearest town (town is an overstatement, it actually consists of two hotels and a grocery store) near Lake Victoria, located at the source of the Nile. I will be accompanied by 2 other people: Leandra and Greg. My 5 month internship position is called a family empowerment officer and my resposibilities will be to present workshops on issues such as hygeine, sex education, domestic violence and health. I also will be checking in on child-headed households, organizing a womens spirit day and starting a community garden.

I will leave my hometown of Kamloops, British Columbia on January 8th, 2012 and travel to Victoria, British Columbia for a month long training orientation. Luckily, I am travelling a week early so I can reconnect with my old high school friends and boyfriend David. The orientation will start in Sooke for two weeks and end in Victoria for the final two weeks. I will leave for Uganda on Feburary 12th on a 24 hour + plane ride.