Naming our own world

I met with a couple of my high school friends this weekend, and they were kind enough to agree to support my fundraising initiative. As expected, the question, "So, what will you be doing?" came very soon after. I paused for a moment as usual, trying hard to find words in my head as soon as I could.

I then said, "Well, the original placement I applied for was in Botswana with the Southern Africa Development Community working with the Gender Unit. They do a lot of work around gender equality in decision making processes, facilitating workshops to help women with all sorts of different skills, setting up programs to ensure girls get to go to school...etc. However, that placement has been put on hold so now I have applied to another placement.

This new placement is with the Farmer's Union of Malawi. They have 21 farmer organizations under the union, with its mission to act collectively in the interest of the farmers during decision making processes. The position I applied for involved doing research and collecting information to create briefing notes or instruction material on various topics, with a goal to build capacity in these organizations and promote coordination. I still don't know though, the field office hasn't confirmed yet."

My friends then asked, "Do you get training before you go? How would you know how to do all that?"

I then replied, "Well I am sure I will be briefed when I arrive at my placement..and I am guessing it'll be a lot of just learning on the job. Of course I can do as much research and preparations as I can before I go. But to a certain extent, it does seem like there is only so much I can prepare. My role there isn't necessarily to "do the job". Instead, it's more important to facilitate. I have seen how frameworks are developed here in Canada. Can they be adopted and applied to the Malawian context? That is something they have to decide for themselves. I'm not there to tell them how we do things here in North America; rather, I'm guessing it's more important to get into conversations with them, understand what the underlying issues are, ask the right questions, and help them come up with their own answers."

It was a great evening. I had a lot of fun seeing my old schoolmates. On my way home, I kept thinking about what I said. I noticed I was very careful with words such as "helping" and "teaching". Then I realized I was talking like what Freire has said in his book Pedagogy of the Oppressed. He always talked about how people strive to be more human, by naming their own world. I wrote the final exam essay not too long ago, so I still remember the famous quote, "Liberation must not be bestowed as a gift. Instead, it must occur through conscious action and reflection."

I am happy that I am starting to be able to relate what I have learned last term to the placement. I guess it shows I did learn something from the book. 

I'm not sure if I'm treating this whole thing with the right attitude. I'm not sure if I'm asking the right questions. Once in awhile I still struggle with the question of "Why am I going?"

One thing for sure is, I have more questions than answers.