Macaroni!

Good Morning, While It is the morning here in Lusaka, Most of you are sleeping and catching some zzz’s.

I cannot stress how much and how grateful I am to be here. I wish you all could be here to experience everything with me. I wish you could smell all the new smells. Feel the African breeze on your skin and the see a beautiful Zambian sunrise. I wish you could feel the warm sun on your face and be completely happy.

I don’t know if you know the feeling, but when I am in Lusaka and walking on my way to work, I feel so peaceful and so happy, knowing all of this is worth it and thankful for such a rare opportunity. This came at the perfect time in my life, I know the creator guided me here, because everything happened so perfectly and everything fell into place smoothly. My dad always said that when you have to fight with something or it is constantly a battle, it isn’t meant to be, you’re fighting something that isn’t on your path.

Africa is not what you would expect it to be. Africa is beautiful. Africa is Alive. It is so beautiful beyond words. I truly wish everyone could see how unbelievably gorgeous the land is and the work ethic among Zambians is truly inspiring and empowering.

People ask me all the time in Lusaka, on why I came to Zambia. I tell them I’ve come to live and learn in a culture on the opposite side of the world to help my own peoples at home. I’ve come to observe how people so similar to First Nations can achieve sustainability.

I live in a community whose quality of life has been compared to such a low standard of living. I read in a sociology text in my first year university that First Nations Peoples in Canada live the same quality of life, as developing nations. I remember reading that and I was infuriated and I was so bothered by it. I made a vow then and there, I would not be a statistic.

Who is to say, my quality of life is less than that of another race. How would you make that assumption/accusation. I know it is based on statistics from the HDI. Just because we are poorer for many reasons (mostly from the effects of colonization) does not mean our quality of life is worse. My family may not have as much money as others but were happy. We have our health. We have each other.

Writing this almost brings me to tears because I truly care about the work I do and the future of my community and for the First Nations peoples everywhere. I have a purpose in Africa to complete a job here in Zambia but I see so many of these skills transferable to home. I’m always trying to link or modify what I learn to apply it in a situation at home. I want life for young youth to be meaningful and full of rich experiences.

If I wasn’t a feminist before, I sure am now! I look at my own culture and how we are still a patriarchal society. Regionally all the way to the National level .I know these are our traditional values, but these traditional values are hindering development within the Nation. Women can be just as great leaders as men.

My goal is to empower young women and youth to become leaders.  I look at my own leadership ,3 women council members out of 12. All of the support staff for the chief and council are women. How is this supposed to empower women to become leaders. I know this extends to other reserves as well, not pointing fingers at my leadership, they have been doing an amazing job! In the near future, I would like to see more women at all levels of leadership be more involved in policy making and political issues.

As a young Indigenous Women myself, the stats are against me, I am most likely to not achieve a high school diploma or any post-secondary education, I’m more likely to be poor, I will be paid less than a male & most likely suffer from mental health diseases.

The same goes for Women in Africa, when there husband dies, the wife will lose the land, women do not have access to education, women are poorer because they have no skills to make income. Women are more likely to be raped because there word against a mans does not mean anything. Women in Zambia are responsible for all the cleaning and cooking and taking care of the children. Women are more likely to contract HIV/AIDS, and leave orphan children behind.

Just kind of want to let you know a little what I’m advocating here, and at home. I understand it is very easy to point fingers at leadership at all levels, but the first step is acknowledging the problem. I’m always the first one to point our faults with governments and how there failing First Nations peoples in Canada, and prior to this, I have always just been all talk and no action. I will be the first one to admit, however, I have chosen to be a voice for change.

I encourage you, as the reader to not be so passive to social issues, but stand up for what you believe in. Sorry my posts have been very critical to issues in Canada, but I promised I would educate people on these issues and open people’s eyes. I feel if I help one person from all my experience and become a positive role model for one single person, that all of this work in this internship will have all been worth it.

Ash-WFC Intern

Ps: Just a kind reminder, if your going to use my blog for your own use, please cite it, These are my words and my work! Thank you! <3

**This one’s for you Ally- I listened to Good life right before I went on my safari and I laughed, because I remember before I even heard of the Africa  internship, that this always reminded you of an African Safari, and when I played the song, I laughed because It was so true. Miss you chicklet.