Moodle workshop

As I mentioned earlier, I have been asked to give a workshop on moodle. Last week it was held in Bilene As you can see from the pic below, it's a great site to relax and enjoy the blue waters. Apparently in November until February this place is full of people. But it's not a bad site to have a workshop, eh?

View of the beach from the hotel. It's a lagoon that's open to the Indian Ocean .... Just absolutely crystal clear water!

It involved representatives from INED (Instituto Nacional da Educação à Distância, national institute of distance education), IEDA (Instituto de Educação Aberta e à Distância, institute of open and distance education), DINES (Direção Nacional de Ensino Secundário, national department of secondary education), INDE (Instituto Nacional de Desenvolvimento da Educação, national institute for educational development) and DTIC (Departamento de Tecnologias de Informação e Comunicação, information and communication technologies department). So why so many departments? INED has the mandate on distance education, they're the ones in charge of all programmes involving distance education. DINES and INDE have the responsibility for the pedagogical and educational material development, IEDA is responsible for implementation, and DTIC, technical support and infrastructure development, which also means capacity building of all involved with the computer resource centres within the education system and the ministry.

What made this workshop very interesting to begin with was that this group of people were chosen to setup and implementation plan using moodle as the core technology. But it became apparent quickly that more is needed for this to be useful in helping out the educational system. There are problems of teachers and school administrators guarding the computers and hoarding the Internet access for themselves. Or in some cases, computers were sent to the wrong location, others, the computers have been sitting in their boxes uninstalled for a year or so. Most of this is due to lack of proper communication and training, or the lack of technical support. So you can understand my confusion when asked to give a workshop on moodle: if we have so many issues with the basic infrastructure, how can we implement such a programme?

The answer is to proceed with what we've got. People here are very resourceful and very eager to make their country a better place for all Mozambicans. As advisers we need to assist them by pointing out the options and their respective pros and cons.

The workshop in the end was a success. We managed to get through an introduction of moodle, understand how this technology could be adapted, and, more importantly, what needs to be put in place and the amount of work needed to get a pilot project up and running. It was also great as we managed to shift the focus from using a tool, in this case moodle, to focusing on who was the client, in this case, the students. This meant answering the questions of what is it they need, what is lacking, what do they want, what do those helping them learn need and want, what would be the challenges, and so on. It is quite important in projects like this to consider the context and target, then look to configure the tool accordingly. Not the other way around.

Going back to computer programming, when I started learning it was more of forcing on the user the programming needs and behaviours. Today form and function are a must, no need to look far: look at the smartphones in your hands, look at the user interfaces of some of the dynamic websites, like Facebook, look at the Apple and Android products. It was really great to see the shift within this group.

It was also quite an intensive workshop from the content and language point of views. An entire week of working and having meals wit everyone meant that it was quite the language immersion, no doubt that this has greatly improved my competency in the language. Not only did I learn new expressions, but I learned a good set of technical terminology.

This past week was the conclusion of the workshop and proposal development. Yesterday, we, as a group presented it to the directors. All are in agreement with our proposed model: a central server within the Ministry of Education (MINED) that would synchronise with the satellite servers located at each of the resource centres. This helps us minimise the need to send out technical support staff to the sites, streamline content delivery, and keep the system up and running even with interruptions in Internet service. Furthermore, the satellite servers would then become central servers to the provinces' schools upon expansion of the programme. So far there will be 6 schools involved in the pilot project: 2 per province, the provinces being Gaza, Sofala, and Nampula. We would then have a central group of administrators of the server and moodle who will be responsible for the direct training of resource centre managers, tutors, students, and professors (those who would be adapting the content to moodle) - thereby avoiding the cascading training model, a proven failed model. These would be drawn from those who have the technical background to handle such responsibility. In addition, those would be adapting the content would be drawn from within MINED, but it is unclear whether we would be outsourcing the work. So far the discussion is in favour of developing the capacity within the ministry, as outsourcing, while could be cost effective, might hurt us in the long run - it would create an unsustainable dependability.

So with the green light from the directors of all these units, we are now charged with the responsibility of writing the budget, terms of reference, and the exploratory work needed to fix the project plan. Part of the exploratory work is visiting Namibia, apparently they've been good at rolling out a distance education programme using moodle. So it would be good to see how they're doing this from a technical and policy aspect. It also is a relevant project as there are regional issues to take into account. By the way, I was informed that I would be leading this project ;) This is wonderful news, as this is an exciting project and an opportunity to tie in all the capacity building plans we have, and start introducing the use of Linux systems along with the associated technical development. In terms of the latter it would be the beginnings of the foundation necessary to start making a move towards using open source systems within the educational resource centres. But of course, as a volunteer I'm not supposed to lead these projects, that's INED's job, I'll be working from the background.

But step by step ...

On other news, my application for DIRE was accepted, this is the residency permit, the card should be ready by the beginning of October. But seeing how things work here, I might have to wait a little bit longer. While this means that I know longer have to leave the country every thirty days to renew my stay, it means that until I get the actual DIRE card, I'd have to get permission to leave the country if I have to travel outside.

 

Another workshop

So ... I've got the green light to go ahead and start creating a training workshop on how to install and configure Moodle, what are its capabilities, limitations, and how we can adapt it to Mozambican secondary schools.

The training is to be held in Bilene, a little place north of the city, just south of Xai-Xai. Supposedly a weekend get away for the citizens of Maputo, a little escape to get to enjoy some nice beaches.

But for now, I'm done with my first project, and onto my next. These next few weeks are going to be super busy, but I'm going to learn a lot from this experience, not to mention and excellent opportunity to improve my Portuguese. Thankfully, some if not all the attendents can speak English, and all of them are tech savy.

I must admit that I don't know much about pedagogy, but I do know a bit about technology and its use in knowledge transfer and management. But this is a new area for me ... Learning how we learn and how the use of such technologies such as Moodle facilitate and accelerate that process. In the case of education in Mozambique, Moodle is currently used at the pedagogical university for distance education of university students, although not all subjects are offered, a current project of theirs. This project will look at the introduction of Moodle to 11th and 12th graders, but not in the same sense, i.e., reaching out to distance students. No, it is seen as a possible tool to augment the capacity of a school as there are not enough seats to accommodate the number of students in demand for education. The reasons for that are not very clear to me, but from what little I know now, is that one of the major factors is the lack of teachers. Hopefully, I will know more after the workshop as the attendees are going to be from different institutions involved in secondary and distance education.

 

Got me projects

What a view, eh? This is from the balcony of my office at the ICT department, 20th (and last) floor at MINED. The view is facing south to Catembe across the water. I also get a decent workout when the elevators are not working!

And yes, I'm still waiting for my contract, but it's in its final stage ... the almighty signature. They say that this illusive signature should be put to my contract sometime this week. I hope so, but in any case, I think I should look into getting a new police clearance report.

But enough of that!

I've been working with MINED (Ministry of Education) for about a month now. First project was to create a web portal to capture information about the students of the teacher training colleges, some 8,000 - 10,000 students distributed through 24 schools around the country. Now that they are linked to the internet, it is theoretically possible. This information will allow MINED to manage the distribution of teachers throughout the country, make sure that everyone is converting to the new 2 yr curriculum, and then collect final marks at the end of the year.

Other projects I'm going to be involved in:

> Providing training on moodle to a core team that will plan and implement an eLearning platform for 11th and 12th graders in the distance education programme of INED (Instituto Nacional de Educação a distancia). The rough plan, if the green light is given, is to take a month understanding the needs, planning the configuration of moodle, then implementing the pilot project within Maputo city. The results of this phase will then be incorporated into the roll-out plan for the rest of the country.

> Creating another web interface for a student registry. This will contain the list of students (not sure, but I believe these are 12th graders) qualified to take exams. From there bar codes can be generated to affix to their scantron answer sheets. The scantron system works. The problem arises when students do not properly fill in the bubbles, incomplete numbers, or entirely illegible. Once these issues are sorted out, then the staff need to cross-reference the eligibility of the student before filling the database with the student's answers. Now, if the number of erroneous answer sheets were small, then this would not be a problem. It is a big enough problem to delay the release of results for about a month, sometime two. So the idea is smooth out the workflow by eliminating sources of error.

> The third project is a doozy!  MINED spends something like USD45K/yr on software licenses for all the schools with computer labs around the country. With a growing number of schools getting computer labs and connecting to the internet, this number will continue growing, eating up a major chunk of the budget. One solution is to bargain with the suppliers, i.e., Microsoft, for better education prices. However, that will eventually reach a limit. The other logical solution is to move to open source operating systems and software. So the question how would we do that when the capacity to support such systems is either non-existent of very very small. Yes, this is like planning to dominate the world!! But other organisations, municipalities, and education systems have shifted to the open source model. And why not? you have a fully functional and stable system for free, thousands of supporters around the world, multiple languages to use, robust security, and more importantly, very easy to remotely managed. So, yes I've got my hands full with this project. I hope that by the end of my placement we would have at least started a pilot phase, if not start rolling out the conversions and building capacity.

You may have detected a recurring phrase here ... capacity building. A continuous process with all you interact when working in international development.

"Capacity building, also referred to as capacity development, is a conceptual approach to development that focuses on understanding the obstacles that inhibit people, governments, international organisations and non-governmental organisations from realising their developmental goals while enhancing the abilities that will allow them to achieve measurable and sustainable results" - wikipedia

I've noticed that many have the skills, the thought processes, the know-how, and the resourcefulness to achieve their objectives. However, there are many challenges, and not many perceived solutions. This is a delicate process: first build the relationship and confidence with your counterpart(s), then you build their confidence in their abilities, and then you can start to work in earnest at the tasks at hand. A lengthy process, especially when there are deadlines to meet. So no, I don't know all of what is encompassed in the term "Capacity building", but I'm learning.

Now onto the geeky stuff. Technical warning: I will indulge in a bit of geekery, but this is not a programming post ... those will come later ;)

I'm using CakePHP to program the database interface (frontend), while the database (backend) is PostgreSQL.

CakePHP has the same conceptual framework as RubyOnRails namely, it provides the internal bits and bobs to create a dynamic web portal/site, and all you have to provide is the code to handle the content. It is a MCV framework: M = model, C = controller, and V = views. The idea is that the model represents your tables within your database, the objects within the model are the data, the methods are then used to retrieve, delete, edit, or delete objects and their relationships within the tables. The Controller contains the code on how to handle the data, as well as any needed data processing, which is then passed onto the views. The views are the templates for the content that is presented to the user. There is another PHP framework called Symfony that seems to be used more, but I must admit, that approached the selection of a PHP framework from the point of view of RubyOnRails. I will endeavour to use it in future projects. However, the beauty of these frameworks is the ability to define relationships between the models. RubyOnRails has a beautiful implementation of these relationships. For example, a database of students, their cars, and classes would have the following relationships:

• A student has a car
• A student belongs to many classes

So in the definition of the student model, one would write: "hasOne: Car" and "belongsTo: Classes". We now have an object oriented programming interface that makes life so much easier. It also means that one could write the code for a fully functional system, and by changing a couple of lines in the database definitions one could switch between the myriad of database systems available. For example I could have developed using sqlite3 then switched to MySQL, Oracle, or what-have-you for the production environment.

So where am I with this software project? It's completed ... I just need to translate the interface into Portuguese! But I'll have help from the team. One of whom is interested in programming :D so I'll start building a software development team with him.But not all is well and good ... there are problems. I've been provided with an office, space to work, and a computer. So yesterday, I was asking the my boss about the need for login credentials. "Not needed, if you do, then I'll create one for you. No problem." So here I am standing over a computer that is beeping ... a sound usually associated with a fried motherboard. So the curious monkey that I am opened it, and what do I find? No not a monkey, nor dust bunnies. It's clean ... its memory banks are empty. Yes, the memory cards and of several other computers were stolen. And now that the hunt is on, two computers were found missing along with hard drives, some mice and keyboards. An inside job.

You can dance!

On the cultural front, I wanted to share with you a bit of the music, especially the dances ... I've included a clip from a concert and another of a traditional dance during the children's day festivities ... take a look:

It is quite amazing to see people dance: so happy, so relaxed, so into it! The music definitely drives you. I've already started to learn pieces of mozambican rhythms on the djembe. Several weeks ago, ok ... more than a month ago, we were at a going away party for a dear friend and I ended jamming with a few musicians ... more of me learning their rhythms and styles. Due to the form of the arabic tabla and the normal way of holding it, one uses more their fingers and almost always one hand is dominant as it sits across your lap. With the djembe secured between your knees you don't have the same restrictions, therefore you could do some crazy rhythms! I definitely need more practice, but what usually happens is that you struggle for a few attempts and then you flow with it, especially when you're drumming with others.

Work!

So what I have been up to in the past few weeks ... I've been busy.

While I've finished training of staff at the CJE Mozarte project. More importantly, is that I've started working at MINED, although in a telecomputing form. We are in the last parts of wrapping up the contract with MINED: it's in the hands of HR, hopefully next week I'll be able to apply for my residency permit.

So what will I be working on? Capacity building is the key word in all of the responsibilities that'll have. To give you an idea of what is needed and what is planned please take a look at the technology in education plan (Plano de tecnologia da educação) link: http://www.ptemocambique.com. The plan is both in English and Portuguese. At the recent ICTE (Information and Communication Technology in Education) summit the head of the ICT department of MINED, Moçambique (my boss) presented earlier in the year. You can see his presentation regarding this plan to his overview

According to this plan MINED needs to collect information now that the schools are connected with Internet access. So I'll be creating web portals to collect, process, validate, and present data to allow for proper decisions to be made and install accountability within the system. The data would cover all aspects of the education system: student registrations, teacher education, teacher placement, etc.

In addition, I'll be working with the team to build on their abilities to create and maintain such systems. Otherwise this would be all for naught. This would include training on computer programming, software architectures creating databases that are adapted to the context and intent of the online systems, IT training and maintenance. I'll also have plenty of opportunity to travel throughout the country to the different ICT centres to install and train staff on maintenance, use and responsibilities off the centres and to it's users.

While ICT knowledge needs to be developed, access to Internet and knowledge is paramount for any development to proceed. Just as importantly is knowing how and that one could access information to promote and develop themselves. In short learning how to be resourceful in today's knowledge based world.

All this plus I'll still be consulting with the CJE/Mozarte initiative as well as other projects within VSO. Yes, I'll be busy and I'm happy about that.

Swaziland

So we needed another carimbo (stamp) on our passport. We're still waiting for our work contract to get our resident permit, till then we need to exit every 30 days. This time we decided to go to Swaziland to change things up. To get there we took a chapa to the border, then another bus from there to Manzini. On the way to our accommodation we got lost - started walking in the supposed direction and ran into some school kids. After chatting with them it was revealed we were heading in the wrong direction. Thankfully, there was a minibus passing through and offered us a ride to a junction where we could grab another bus, this time dropping us off at the correct road. The sign said welcome ... you've got another 3.5 km to go ;) so we started walking, thankfully a tour guide bus picked us up and drove us the rest of the way. Thank you!

Mlilwane Wildlife Sanctuary is quite a unique place. It started out as a tin mine, along with employing the local population it brought electricity to the area. In the '60s it was converted into a big game reserve  to protect the local wildlife from further persecution. Today you can stay in a traditional beehive hut surround by friendly animals, but of course you need to stay clear of the water unless you fancy a close encounter with either a crocodile or a hippo! The day was capped of with great conversations with our fellow travellers (the ones who gave us a lift) around a camp fire that supposedly been lit for the past 40 years ... topics ranged from computer stories from the 60s to philosophy.

View of a part of the Mlilwane reserve

The beehive accommodations

Hmmmm ...

And yes ... you are?

Our way back was a bit easier. We also had met up with a couple from Holland who are touring around South Africa and Swaziland. They gave us a lift to Manzini, from there we took a comfortable chapa to the border. After getting our stamps and answering a few questions we then had to ride at the back of a pickup truck to the next bus depot. The ride back to Maputo brought new definitions of the saying "like a sardine in a tin can". First the only things that seem to work on the dashboard of this heavily loaded minibus was the fuel gauge and the indicator lights. Seatbelts? why would you need them when you're squeezed between two very wholesome african mamas??? Yes we were each squeezed in our respective rows until we reached Maputo. Let's see what the next visit to the frontier would be like ... if that is, we haven't received our permit by then ;)

Inauguration night

As I mentioned in my previous post, I've been working with CJE Maputo to put together a resource centre for youth employment and development. This past Thursday was the inauguration night opened by the US Ambassador to Mozambique and the Minister of Youth and Sports. It was an opportunity for VSO to highlight its collaborative work in Mozambique, in particular, CJE Maputo, Bonga Mbilu (Changana, a Mozambican dialect, meaning "Thanks from the heart"), the USA Embassy, Mozarte, and the Ministry of Youth and Sports.

Three weeks into my stay here and I had to give a speech! Thank goodness no one recorded, as it was a mash of portuguese and spanish … something about how this room is a part of the objectives of CJE Maputo in creating a space where youth can develop their careers, further their knowledge, and get some mentoring and training in working in a knowledge based world.

Of course, as with any event such as this, there has to be a cultural component … have a listen to some wonderful music using a couple of Mbiras.



Here are a few photos from the event ...

Demonstrating the computer to the US Ambassador and the Minister of Youth and Sports.	Enosse presenting (in proper Portuguese!) the objectives of CJE Maputo and how this resource room would be used.
Minister of Youth and Sports (left) chatting with the US Ambassador to Mozambique (right)	Joaquim (far left), a VSO programme officer, the Minister, and the Ambassador joking about the use of the computers.
Enosse checking his phone	Speech time, MC'd by the Director of Mozarte
Really relaxing music using Mbiras	The US  Ambassador is presented a gift made by someone at Mozarte

Walking around town

We've moved into our new place which is a bit closer to downtown. I'm still within a 10 min walk from the VSO office and about a 10 min walk from the Ministry of Education (MINED). It's a great place and like with many places that you move into it needs a bit of attention before it becomes "home". Either, it needs replacing or repair … hopefully it'll be done before too long, or I fear we'll have some flooding on our hands.

View from our bedroom towards Maputo Bay	View from Balcony towards downtown and the port
French Cultural Centre	Cathedral near City Hall

It looks like there is going to be a delay of about 3 - 4 weeks till we actually start our placement as we brush up and improve our Portuguese. So far I've been getting by with portuñol! But I'm not sitting idle till things get sorted out - I got involved with another related project setting up a computer resource centre for Mozarte (Mozambique centro de arte).

I worked with Enosse from CJE Maputo who was great. We walked quite a bit through Maputo: one day to plan the layout of the room, another to obtain quotes for hardware, yet another to get the cash to purchase, and one more to actually make the purchases. Sometimes it took us quite a bit (like an hour) to actually pay … they love stamping paper! Nothing is official without it. But last Friday we finished the installation, this week I need to update software and install other stuff. However, it was a valuable experience in terms of understanding how things work here, the culture, and importantly, practicing/learning portuguese. Without him, I would have definitely shied away from taking the chapas - a bus, either mini or small bus. The saying goes that there's always room on a chapa! And indeed that is the case. On one trip I was standing in a minibus between two bank of seats, braced against the ceiling while trying to avoid falling onto the lap of an older lady. These rides get even better when the music is blaring ;)

View of the courtyard at the MOZART Centre 

Umm ... that's a lot of cable!

Plugging away ...

Wires are installed ... let the unpacking begin.

Plug in what? Where?

Computers installed, yea!

You can walk a lot around Maputo, there are of course some areas you have to be aware of - either for security reasons or olfactory. And while the sidewalks are quite wide, it is more of a hike than walking in the city. There's always some construction to deal with water main repairs, telecom installations, or its broken up because the tree roots didn't like the pavement.

Have I mentioned that they love music here? Well, I'll say it again. They love music here - anytime, anywhere, and any reason to get up and dance. OK, not everyone. But many places love to share their music with the local neighbourhood by cranking the volume as loud as it can get.

It's definitely interesting … we found a fruit/vegetable street vendor lady on our home over the weekend. Very lovely lady with decent prices and a good seller too.

However, we did run into someone pretending to be "the guy" who admitted us into the country at the airport. He said that he remembered us, but we probably don't remember him because he's out of uniform. Asked us how we were getting along and so forth. The only problem with that story was "the guy" at the immigration desk was a lady! Yup, he wanted something: some gas money. Though it would be very unfair to say that no one is nice here. On the contrary, it's been easy to say hello to people, be they be guards, street vendors, or storekeepers. After a few times they recognize you and you get some great tips on where to go to get decent stuff. Most of the time they are very patient with me in explaining how things work.

But yes, I am enjoying it here and looking forward to meeting my colleagues at MINED.

Até logo!

Arrived!

It has only been 3 days ... Maputo is like any major bustling city in the world: noisy, eventful, and challenging sidewalks. Although it is walkable, which is great for us to explore and get to know the place.

Early morning view out of our apartment over looking
Av. 24 de Julho.

Our travels were long, also 3 days, but was fairly smooth. We were met by Katia, a member of the VSO Mozambique office staff who was great in helping us get oriented, even though we were quite disoriented ourselves. The guest house is nicely situated: it's about 6 blocks from the VSO office and conveniently for me, next door to the Ministry of Education! Next week we'll start our in-country training and get as much stuff sorted out, primarily our living and work arrangements. But as the city goes, its ok. The sidew

Other volunteers had heard of our arrival, but did not know the details. Although we happened to meet one of the volunteers when we stopped by "Livro abierto" (open book), an NGO working to improve literacy amongst primary school children. As it turns out there was a get together of volunteers in Maputo to celebrate a birthday and the departure. There are about 15 or so volunteers in Maputo out of 35 in Mozambique. All working in rural livelihoods, education, or health. A new volunteer from the UK arrived a day after us, will be stationed in Manica working on assessing micro-dams for generating electricity.

Saturday we went walking around the south end of our corner of Maputo, stopping by the Casa do Ferro (Iron House). Yes, it's a house made out of iron plates, designed by the guy who did the Tour d'Eiffel, Gustav Eiffel. And yes, it is quite inhabitable without a crazy amount of air conditioning in this part of the planet. From there we made our way to handicraft market and stopping by the Brazilian Embassy that was hosting a "Portuguese Day" event, got treated to quite a bit of poetry and music. We then made our way home to then head out to the volunteer's party, which was a great party and included a lively bunch of drummers, thanks so much!

Hmmmm ... foood!

Hello :) Drummming!

I've recorded a bit of the Portuguese Day event, the capoeira, and the drum circle, and compiled it into a podcast. For sure, there's lots of room for improvement so any suggestions are welcome :)

Company BBQ

A big thank you to everyone that came out to the company BBQ last wednesday. You help me raise a further $350 towards my goal!

Again thank you!

The company is E-One Moli Energy (Canada) Ltd. Their work: high end rechargeable lithium ion batteries. I had the pleasure of working with a wonderful and knowledgable team within the research and development (R&D) department at the Maple Ridge offices, and with the development team at the Tainan, Taiwan offices.

Moli – short for the company name – has had quite an influence on the lithium ion battery field. They have produced a number of "firsts" ahead of their larger competitors, and in doing so, setting the standards for such technology. If you're involved in original equipment manufacture (OEM) then you may come across their products ranging from small products such as cell-phones and professional cordless power tools, to bigger stuff such as hybrid electric vehicles (HEV).

Below is the presentation I had running while talking discussing my assignment in Mozambique. Perhaps this will help improve the "Moza what?" polls ;)



Cuso International presentation by Fadi Asfour

Delays, and more delays

We've been waiting for a while now for our paperwork to come in. These are needed to obtain our entry visas into Mozambique. Now before you jump to conclusions, it is not a beaurocratic issue ... in fact it is not clear what happened. The papers were sent, but they were not received. But it doesn't matter, there are other things that require our attention such that we won't be leaving prior to the end of April.

One thing though, it allows us to celebrate some very important events in the lives of some dear friends!

So always look at the positive side of things. We now have had the wonderful opportunity to celebrate some important events in the lives of some dear friends. One had succesfully defended her Ph.D., and the others have just become new Canadian Citizens! I'm so glad we were here to celebrate these events. It also gives me the opportunity to spend more time with friends, cycle around town, and enjoy our awesome library. In between I've started on my Portuguese lessons - similar, but not so similar, to Spanish. It's weird: with languages I need to hear to learn, with other topics, I need to read. Probably has something to do with the way brains, or my brain, is wired.

But check out the following language learning links:

• http://www.easyportuguese.com/ 
• http://www.livemocha.com/ - You can also learn other languages here.
• http://www.sonia-portugueseforkids.com/
• http://www.bookbox.com/ - Basically lots of videos in various languages. Each as subtitles that change colour, very similar to karaoke.

If you know of others, please add to the list in the comments below.

Quantum physics

By now you most likely have come across the video about Joseph Kony produced by KONY2012. The narration is quite moving, the movie well produced, the story ... yes, very sad and troublesome. And yes, I am totally ignorant about this story.

One of the topics we tackled at our SKWID training was that of "the single story" - keeping to one perspective of our world, rather than searching and understanding other alternatives of the story. Chimamanda Adichie has an excellent TED talk describing what this is and its impact.

Chemistry, like the real world, has a lot of unknowns. A professor once told me that we probably know at best, about 10% of what's to know about chemistry. Of that there's like 1% of the reactions that are so well known that you can effectively predict the outcome of the reaction, and more importantly, repeat the experiment reliably. Discovering new reactions, creating new compounds and materials requires lots of resources and time to properly investigate. Why? Because we cannot rely on one source of information. We have to constantly test our hypothesis, always asking "are these results real? or are they a phantom of our imagination?"

Look at the hot discussion in physics today: 1) The mounting evidence supporting the observation of the Higgs-Boson particle, and 2) The hint that the speed of light is not the absolute - it could be broken.

These are quite important experiments as they have great ramifications on our understanding of this universe as well as our technologies. How so? The discovery and verification of the former - also referred to in the media as the "God particle" (physicist really dislike this term) - would complete an important physics model called the Standard Model. By doing so, we begin to understand how particles get their mass. Implications? We have particles for light called photons. We are taught that atoms are composed of electrons, neutrons and photons. However, there is one observation of our physical world that we have yet to verify the particle responsible for it: gravity. According to theory, there should be a particle - a graviton. Its validation would in turn help in our understanding of String Theory - perhaps you've seen What the bleep do we know

While the latter, if found true would have meant the dismantling our understanding of physics - particularly quantum physics. As it turns out, by looking at multiple aspects, and "checking in" with other scientists you'll be happy to know that the speed of light remains absolute!

So, back to Kony. There's got to be more to this story than just the Jedi vs. the Sith, or good vs. bad. Where did he come from? Why is he doing this? What are his motivations? Why hasn't the Ugandan army been able to do something about it? Why hasn't the UN done something about it long time ago? Wait, the war ended like six years ago? Well what about the reports of the behaviour of the Ugandan army?

While all are valid questions, I do not understand the issue enough to discuss it here. All I can do is look deeper into this topic with an open mind ... avoid a single story. I encourage you to do the same.

To get started here is the TED talk I mentioned earlier:

And here are some links that I just came across:

1. Grant Oyston's post on his Visible Children blog
2. The Telegraph - outrage over KONY2012 movie

So you are in a car ...

Your good friend was driving the car, you were the passenger ... he/she was driving too fast for the posted speed limit when you hit a pedestrian. Later, the lawyer is asking you to help out your friend by testifying in court that they were driving within the speed limit. Do you agree? Yes or No

I'd be interested to read your opinions and answers.

So what's with this question anyway? It's part of our training ... Dealing with other groups cultures. Learning how to be an intercultural effective person.

There are three parts of our training as we get set to travel to Mozambique. One is your own research about the country, your placement, and technical resources you'll need to fulfill your duties in your placement. The other is online training that Cuso and VSO had setup. The third is the SKWID training in Ottawa about a month prior to our departure.

Yeah ok, but get back to the question. How would you answer it. Well as you may have guessed ... It depends. It's all about context - I need more information. Such as how much in excess was my friend speeding, what time of day, what happened to the pedestrian, was the pedestrian talking on the phone when they got into the street/ got hit, etc. It would be perfectly ok to side with your friend in some parts of this planet, while others it would absolutely not be acceptable nor expected. But these are the kind of questions you'll be dealing with, all the time asking yourself what's the real story behind what I'm observing.

Now, no matter how well trained you are, or how much you've traveled I suspect you'll fall once in a while: fail to recognise the cultural context of your actions or those of others around you. For example nodding of the head while saying no. Or placing your palm of your hand in someone's face trying to tell them to stop, but in reality your cursing them!

I'm sure you've got your own stories... So by all means please share them in the comments below.

About Mozambique

You'll notice that there's an ongoing poll in the left side-bar. I'm curious about how much people know about Mozambique, so please complete the survey after all it's one question. I must admit that I did not know much about it other than where it was located geographically.

So what have I learnt so far? While its development was influenced by many local groups, heavy interaction with the Islamic Empire was part of its growth up to the arrival of the Portuguese. Similar to other parts of Africa and the Middle East, the latter interaction with the Europeans had quite an impact on its development. Please refer to this timeline[1] and economic report[2]for a better understanding of this region.

We've been talking to other volunteers currently placed there, as well as expats who have lived there - they all like and love it! Some want to live out their retirement there. Other volunteers have extended their stay through other placements. In terms of reception, it seems that foreigners are very much welcomed. As many places in this world, you'll have to be patient with the paperwork regarding permits to work and reside within the country.

It's hard to write more about Mozambique without living there ... it seems to distant to write extensively about it. All I can do is read more and prepare for our trip, which will be in the latter part of March. I plan to have regular postings once I'm in-country.

______________________________

References:
[1] http://crawfurd.dk/africa/mozambique_timeline.htm
[2] http://www.doingbusiness.org/data/exploreeconomies/mozambique/

Help make it happen!

Cuso International is a non-profit, international development agency that works through volunteers. Each year, they place hundreds of volunteers who collaborate on development projects in Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa, Asia and the Pacific. As a strategic alliance partner of VSO, a worldwide network of Voluntary Service Overseas organizations, they make up the world’s largest non-governmental, international development organization that works through volunteers.

The organization places educators and health professionals overseas, but also sends volunteers from many fields of expertise, ranging from agriculture to human rights, from community economic development to AIDS prevention, from eco-tourism to technology. Volunteers work collaboratively with local people to equip them with the skills they need to ensure they can exercise their basic human rights. These include the right to a livelihood, an education, basic healthcare, a safe environment, a say in the future, and equal access to opportunity.  

As a charity they ask all volunteers to undertake a target of fundraising to help sustain our work in this vital area. In this case there’s an agreement between Cuso International and the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) with regards to leveraging funds: CIDA will contribute $9 for every $1 Cuso International volunteers raise. This ensures that Cuso International can continue to send volunteers overseas.

I encourage you to make a donation and help me reach my fundraising goal of CAD $2,000. Of course, you’ll receive a donation tax receipt if you’re in North America. If you are in the U.S.A., there are US 501-C3 tax receipts if you give through this link, please mention my name and it will be credited to this effort. If you can’t donate, please do pass on the word to colleagues, friends, and family.

Many thanks :D

Why volunteer?

“If we are to make poverty history, we must have the active participation of States, civil society and the private sector, as well as individual volunteers. If our hopes of building a better and safer world are to become more than wishful thinking, we will need the engagement of volunteers more than ever.”
- KOFI ANNAN, UN SECRETARY GENERAL 1997–2006

Donating your time, energy and skills are important in a civil society, especially when it's in the form of volunteering. While I am no expert on volunteering, it seems to me that its a valuable opportunity. One in which an exchange of cultural views and beliefs, ways of thinking, and information are freely exchange amongst those involved. In short: Education.

Why am I doing it? For exactly the reasons above and more importantly because I want to be part of positive change in this world. Be it helping out companies in the Alternative Energy or within the society.

I've had great experiences and have learn a great deal from my volunteer experiences. Be it as a volunteer snowboard instructor with VASS or with organizations such as the VEF and the GreenTech Exchange.

Obviously, this placement is a much larger commitment, than a couple of hours a week snowboarding down the slopes of Grouse Mountain! It's an opportunity to be on the ground and involved in international development, especially within the area of education. A long time ago I used to think that technology would provide the solutions for our problems. I've since learned that while it's good to have useful technology around, it's ultimately the choice of society as to use it or not. That's where education comes in, and I want to learn more about that process ... it's all about sharing and exchanging information as succinctly presented in the following Cuso International ad.

Cuso International introductory video ad 

Preparations ...

View from another lens ...

So ... I'm off to Maputo, Mozambique! Why? As a CUSO International volunteer to help out the ICT department of the ministry of Education. This is a good opportunity to learn from others and to help out however I can in the further development of Mozambique.
 
Well, actually not so fast ... there's still two months to go that's absolutely filled with preparations - paperwork, vaccinations, packing, arranging stuff & logistics, not to mention travelling!

I'm looking forward to living in yet another country! The world is such a small place nowadays that, for me, it would be sad not to travel and experience what there is to offer.