It’s been a strange last two weeks. I’m still finding myself thinking a lot about my time in Zambia, the people I met there and how I’m going to let this experience affect my path through the next few years. The fact that my time in Africa affected me so deeply is an encouragement for future travel/photography/design possibilities. While I would absolutely welcome the chance to return to Zambia to visit the people who took us in, I’d also love to visit a number of other countries to experience their cultures and traditions.
Now, the tough part. What do I do here in Edmonton to find fulfillment in my job? For the past year, while my nights and weekends have been focused on design and photography, my day job has been at an industrial supply warehouse. Not a glamourous job, but fulfilling in the fact that I work hard and earn my wage. I don’t feel this is the area where I’m meant to be for the long term, and I’m pursuing a full-time graphic design position again. I need to find a position that matches my desire to work for a meaningful result. To work for a company or project that is more than just rampant consumerism and irrelevantly ephemeral.
I’ll keep you updated on the journey. In the meantime, here’s a video that made my day last week.
…with a whole new appreciation for life, social justice, and raising awareness.
I’m going to attempt to put the words that have been spinning around my head in the week that I’ve been back into coherent paragraphs and sentences. It’s been a huge switch to come back from Zambia and I’m just now beginning to find my routine again. I’m not sure if that’s a good thing…
The last thing I want to do is come off sounding all “preachy”, but I honestly believe with my whole heart that everyone from our western, North American culture should take a trip to a third world country to learn from the people there. Yes, LEARN from them. Despite having so many more worldly possessions and making more money in a few weeks from my warehouse job than the people there will in an entire year, the people in the villages taught me so much about living a life that is meaningful and impactful on those around me based on their example of how they exemplify the concept of Community.
As much as I had been expecting to see a country and people different from anything I had experienced before, I wasn’t prepared to have it make me feel so humbled by their example. The friendship and brotherhood shared by the people in the villages where we slept was something so far advanced from any community that I had seen before. There is so much love and care for their fellow Zambian. In our Canadian, industrial, “cold” culture, so much of our life is spent focusing on the individual, making sure one’s own needs are met that we often neglect the needs of those around us. Seeing how one village cared for a mentally disabled man – making sure he always had enough food, that his house was always kept clean and stocked with any necessities he needed, offering him a meal or supplies if he was lacking – was such a stark contrast to the coldness we often show the mentally ill people living on the streets of Edmonton. We’re so quick to turn up our iPod as we walk past, to look the other direction so that we don’t have to meet their gaze and their requests for help.
How can we change from our ways? Let me know what you think…
I really don’t know the answer, other than being exposed to how impactful and more fulfilling the idea of Community can actually be. We all need a chance to see it in action. To step out of our comfort zone and just to get a taste.
Here I sit, roughly 24 hours before my flight leaves to take me to Zambia. The total travel time to get to Zambia will be almost 24 hours. I’m nervous, excited, prepared, unprepared, scared, anticipating and ready all at the same time. Our team of 4 has been preparing and meeting for this trip for approximately 8 weeks and we have been briefed on what to expect, how to act, what to do and what not to do.
Our meetings have focused on poverty; its causes, solutions, misconceptions about it and our role in dealing with it. I’ve realized that we’ve been conditioned to believe that we need to give money to poor people to make their lives better. Is this always the right answer? Does throwing money at a problem make it disappear? History shows us that this is not the best solution. Perhaps a better alternative is to develop relationships with people who are in need. Talk to them and learn what their needs really are. The Zambia Partnership that we are working with is trying to do just this. Our goal is a long-term relationship to develop methods of allowing the Zambian people to be self-sufficient and able to use their own gifts and skills to increase their quality of life.
It’s been eye-opening for me to realize that this journey will be more about developing relationships with the people than building a school.
I’ll try and post one more time before I leave, but if I don’t get the chance, I’ll talk to you again in three weeks.
I’m less than a month away, so here’s another update on my upcoming Zambia trip.
Our team of 4 leaves from Edmonton International Airport on January 27th on a direct flight for Heathrow Airport in London, England. After a brief layover there, we continue on to Nairobi, Kenya where we will transfer to a flight to Lilongwe, Malawi. From Lilongwe, we drive the remaining distance (approx 600km) to Chipata, Zambia to meet up with the Zambian team who will be hosting us.
In an effort to help raise more funds to pay for this trip – which is now only 2 short months away – I’ve set up an online gallery of photos that I have made available for purchase. Details can be found by clicking on this link.
I’ve been given the opportunity to travel to Zambia, Africa in early 2010. This both excites me and terrifies me.
Excites me in the sense that I will finally be using my education and background in English, graphic design, and photography to work with a cause that is more than just commercialism. To be able to use my photography to create awareness of the work that our church (The River) does with a group of villages in South Eastern Africa is a dream come true. As much as I can appreciate the beauty, planning, and time that goes in to creating commercial advertising campaigns and publishing great design, I’ve always wanted to do more with the skills that I have learned.
Terrifies me in the sense that I really will have to take a leap of faith for this trip. While I’ve traveled extensively throughout Canada and the United States, overseas travel is something that I have not had the chance to experience until now. It will be interesting to see how I deal with foreign customs, two new continents, unfamiliar food, and yes, foreign washrooms. I’ve grown up in a North American bubble for 26 years and have become too complacent in my surroundings. I know this trip will shock my system of beliefs in what life and its hardships actually are. Will I complain and gripe over the cost of fresh vegetables and fruit after I return from a region with so much poverty and food shortages? Probably not. Am I going to let a traffic jam ruin my day? Probably not.
The challenge for me over the next two and a half months is to raise the money I need for travel and other expenses. It’s a big cost ($4000) that I need to find somewhere. Be prepared for me to ask you to help support me in my fundraising, be it through the sales of Fair Trade Coffee, sales of prints of my photography, or some other means. All gifts will be tax deductible! Please email me (nvandriel@gmail.com) or post a comment if you have any questions or words of encouragement.
Thanks for reading. Please keep me in your thoughts and prayers over these next few months.
