Baby Steps to Creating Change

Six years ago I embarked on a journey of learning and discovery that has ultimately changed my entire way of being in the world.  It began with a suggestion from my dad that I go to Zambia to visit with an old friend, Betty, who was teaching at a Zambian college. After connecting with Betty through e-mail, she informed me that I could stay at the college and spend my days at a nearby community school – the Racecourse Community School – for orphans and vulnerable children.  Having never been anywhere in Africa, and not knowing much of anything about Africa, I had to look at a map to figure out where the country of Zambia was located.  I found it nestled in the South-central area between a whole host of countries whose names I recognized because they were somewhat infamous.  Sadly, I don’t think it is uncommon in Canada to recognize countries that have been involved in situations of armed conflict.  Historically stable countries such as Zambia don’t tend to get a lot of media attention in the West.  Zambia certainly didn’t used to get a lot of my attention ... that is, until I connected face-to-face with the beautiful people from the Racecourse Community.

I made the decision to go to Zambia in my last semester of undergrad and I quickly filled all of my last remaining course options with African, and specifically, Zambian history.  It was because of this decision that I met one of the most influential people in my life, a history professor at the University of Alberta, who clarified a great many misconceptions for me.  He explained that Africa is not just a place with beautiful animals, and savannah, but in fact it also has millions of beautiful people whose stories are fascinating and need to be heard.  He explained that the different countries and regions around Africa have incredibly varied and shifting histories and traditions, and their people cannot be easily stereotyped or grouped into stagnant and unchanging ‘tribes’.  He explained that many people in Africa in fact live in cities and not just in rural villages with huts made of mud.  I was stunned to see photos of the capital city of Zambia, Lusaka, with skyscrapers as tall as those that I was used to at home, and learn that Zambia was a major copper exporter and had a long history of urbanization and ‘modernization’ – or what some have since termed, Expectations of Modernity.[1] 

I was also surprised to learn about the myriad of factors that contributed to the current challenges Zambians face: the negative legacies of British colonial exploitation, the debt burden that Zambians carried which left them tied to the demands of other countries and international institutions, the privatization of government owned businesses that led to massive lay-offs in the 1990s, the cut-backs in health care and education that exacerbated the HIV/AIDS crisis and lead to the demand for community run schools and health care. I began to realize that I had so much to learn, not just from my teachers at school, but also from the people who I would meet in Zambia.  I have been immensely humbled through my experience of the Racecourse Community School, not only in my experience there, but also in preparing to work with the school.  Almost everything I think I know…I find out later that I don’t fully understand.

Before getting too far into my preparation process I began to get nervous about the idea of travelling by myself.  I had never travelled on my own before and wasn’t sure if I was up for the challenge.  It was my good fortune that my best friend, Thulasy, decided to join me.  I tend to learn the most and challenge myself the most when I am in community with others, and so having this companionship resulted in renewed energy and excitement for the journey ahead.  Thualsy and I began to question.  We began to question the intent of our journey.  The notion of ‘helping’ people in Zambia began to seem very paternalistic and we began to think seriously about what we should do while we were in Zambia.  We were very concerned that we did not want to be a drain on the Racecourse Community that we intended to visit, and since we weren’t sure if we had any skills to offer the school, we decided that it would be best if we at least contributed some funds.  This was the start of our fundraising initiative.

The fundraising began small.  We had the support of some of those within our church and temple communities, and our family and friends were encouraging us.  However, we were constantly reminded that we could not expect people to donate large sums of money for years on end.  We were warned of donor fatigue and we were told not to get our hopes up too high.  With this logic firmly entrenched, we set about fundraising with few ambitions other than giving what we could to the school when we arrived. 

We held the first of our fundraising dinners and we managed to raise $2000 and a lot of energy and enthusiasm around the journey that we were about to embark on.  We also began to give presentations about the school to various community and religious groups.  People were particularly excited that this was a multi-faith endeavour.  In all, we were able to fundraise over $6000 before heading off to Zambia.  This amount was significantly more than we anticipated, and we were ecstatic to see what was possible. Having recently taken a course on human factors and ergonomics, I was acutely aware of the importance of feedback to any successful circuit or system so Thulasy and I embraced mass-communication for the first time in our lives and began a large e-mail list of donors and other interested parties through which we planned to send weekly updates about our journey. 

The dinner and e-mail list were just a few of the steps we took and plans we made to ensure that we maximized the time we spent overseas and the connections that we forged throughout the process. I am very glad that we put so much forethought into our involvement with the Racecourse School because I believe our preparation process brought many other important people into the relationship and the hope that we were beginning to build with the school.  Our dream became to bridge the gap between the Canadians we were fundraising with and the Zambians we were hoping to meet.  We wanted to connect people across the globe and share hope and positive energy to ultimately overcome the apathy that so many of us in Canadian (and Zambian?) society succumb to in this day and age.

In Zambia our experience at the Racecourse School began with a meeting of the teachers.  The Head Master, Ringthon, explained to us that he and a few other local leaders had founded the school in 1999 in an attempt to house the large numbers of students in the Racecourse Community who could not afford to attend the government schools.  We learned that the school was the largest community run school in the Copperbelt province of Zambia (as of 2008, there were over 1700 pupils).  The teachers were voluntarily running the school, with little to no training, however, they received a small monthly allowance from ‘well-wishers’ in the UK.  Their allowance amounted to 1/10th what a government school teacher was making at the time, and these teachers had over 80 pupils in each class!  The school ran from pre-school until grade seven, after which point, the School Board was attempting to sponsor their graduates to carry on their studies at nearby government schools.  Thulasy and I were in awe at the amazing local initiative that was demonstrated by these teachers as they filled many gaps in social service provision.

Early into our stay we realized that we were not needed to teach the classes.  The local teachers were much more proficient at teaching; having taught for a number of years, and of course having knowledge of the local language, customs and curriculum.  We supported the teachers as best we could, by marking assignments and teaching songs and crafts when it was requested.  We found that one of the most important contributions we could make to the community was to break down some of the stereotypes that existed around muzungus (white people).  One of the negative legacies of colonialism that tends to be reinforced by many foreign visitors to the Kitwe area has been that local people view foreigners as quite different, and in some ways, ‘superior’ to them.  At the time of our visit there were many misconceptions about muzungus. Some of those misconceptions were that muzungus: do not wear flip flop/thong shoes, do not walk places, do not ‘goof around’ or act in a silly way, can not eat local food, and the list goes on.  We set to work being as ridiculous as possible and participating in as many local activities as we could.  My moment of glory came when we had the grandmothers of the community rolling on the ground in laughter at the spectacle we made of ourselves doing the hokey-pokey.

One of the most alarming misconceptions of muzungus that I heard was from a young 8 year old named Enness – the daughter of the Deputy Head Mistress, Naomi.  When telling Enness about my plans to return to Canada she asked me, “are there any children in Canada?” When I told her that there were children she said, “then please give them greetings from Enness!”  It was then that I realized how few Canadian children had ever visited the Racecourse Community.  In fact, how rarely any of the weak and vulnerable of Canadian society – of any society – ever visit anywhere distant from the place where they live.  Despite doing my best to erode misconceptions about muzungus, I realized, that as long as it was I who was trotting around the globe, instead of the many in Canada who cannot afford it, I would ultimately be reinforcing misconceptions and truths of muzungus as being by-in-large wealthy, well educated, and somehow worthy of global experiences that Enness could only dream of.  This reality of the inequalities inherent in global travel was sadly very apparent once again when after months of preparation and planning by folks in Zambia and in Canada, Enness’ mother, Naomi, was turned down by Canadian officials when attempting to secure a visitor visa to Canada.  Canada would not accept Naomi as a visitor to our country, ostensibly because she voluntarily taught hundreds of orphans and vulnerable children and did not have a formal contract that would ensure her return to Zambia.  How embarrassing that was to me…how embarrassing that is to me… as a Canadian.

During our time in Racecourse, the greatest need that the community expressed was for us to continue fundraising for the school from Canada.  What an honour it has been to serve the community of Racecourse in this capacity.  The determination that the teachers and students and other community members demonstrate in their drive and their will to improve their lives is truly inspirational.  This inspiration has driven me to continue fundraising and visiting the community for the past five years, and in that time we have collected over $150 000 CAD in donations and hundreds of Racecourse Community School supporters across Canada and the UK.  They have inspired me to give new meaning to my life in service to others, and towards that end, I now leave to Zambia for my third visit to ask questions, reflect on and critique and hopefully improve the impact that foreigners have on this amazing community.  We must remain mindful that those of us who are excited to be a part of such exciting initiatives, are ultimately not the ones driving it, but if we are lucky, the Zambians who are in the driver’s seat will be kind enough to welcome us to ride along with them.

[1] The book, Expectations of Modernity, by anthropologist James Ferguson is a very worthwhile read for those interested in learning more about the history of the Copperbelt Province in which the Racecourse Community School is located.