While living in Ghana, Africa, as an exchange student, I became fascinated with the phrases painted onto tro-tros, those large vans that shuttle people around cities and throughout the country. The words sometimes offer praise, “Clap for Jesus,” or reveal an owner’s philosophical side, “What is written.” One of these sayings – “Travel and See” – has seared itself onto my mind. It’s a simple but poignant message. For me it is a call to travel to a place that may be unfamiliar, to ask questions, to talk with, and to live among the people there. And then, perhaps, a little more understanding of what life is like for people elsewhere will be gained.
It is this philosophy that I will carry with me as I begin my placement as a project management intern with the Blantyre Synod Health and Development Commission in Malawi.
I write this days before I check in at Pearson International Airport and begin the journey to Blantyre, which will be home for the next eight months. Amidst packing and saying goodbyes, I have moments of feeling overwhelmed. While living in Africa will not be new for me, I have never lived in Malawi or in a place that faces the same stark realities as this small central African country does. Will there be a role for me to play? Will I be able to adequately communicate the work I will be doing and the issues I will be seeing?
Working as a young adult intern with the Presbyterian Church feels like the culmination of many experiences in my life. I grew up in a household and in a church community that encouraged me to think beyond our municipal and national borders and to work in service of others. It therefore felt like a natural fit to major in international development studies at university.
While at Trent University I spent a year in Ghana, attending the University of Legon in Accra and working for a non-governmental organization. The NGO focused on food security, encouraging farmers to grow and consume soybeans.
After university I landed in Iqaluit, Nunavut, physically far from the places I had studied, but to my initial surprise, not immune to the same economic and social hardships. Most recently I worked for the Inuit government, helping to create an online database of Inuit-specific health data – statistics that up to now have been unavailable or difficult to find. It is a sad reality that Canada’s arctic inhabitants have some of the worst health indicators in the country, and sometimes the world. Social ills plague communities and trauma is passed down through the generations. By making it available, health data can be used to raise awareness and as a powerful advocacy tool.
At the beginning of this year, the opportunity to interview for a young adult internship position presented itself. After four years in the north, I was ready for a change. As the cold, dark Iqaluit winter dragged on, I began dreaming of the heat and energy of Africa, of that feeling of happiness I have when I am there. Fast forward to the present and I have a renewed passport, eight months’ worth of anti-malarials, a stack of books and the hope that I’ll find other readers in Blantyre willing to swap with me, and the sum of my material possessions packed into containers in storage.
In my moments of both excitement and uncertainty I think of the support and prayers from my family and friends, of my home congregation, Glencoe Presbyterian, Ont., and of the wider Presbyterian Church. I feel blessed to be representing a church that always taught me to look outward and serve others. And as I settle into my new life and try to bring meaning to what I’m seeing and hearing, I will remember the words on that Ghanaian tro-tro, “Travel and See.”
