In June and July, a group of Douglas College students are working with communities in
Zambia through our Zambia Global Leadership Program. Each student will be
sharing their experiences in a couple of posts. Today’s post is from Tefa.

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After a couple rough weeks everything is back on track!

Being part of a project like this has its ups and downs! Not everything is sunshine and rainbows but the key is to not forget why are you here, what makes it all worth it and most importantly what can you do to make it better. It’s a growing process!

The first month was a perfect month, lots of learning and good experiences. “The honeymoon stage.”

After this perfect month where everything was new, exciting and fun, my experience starting getting really tedious, I got used to my new routine and realizing that Zambia is a different society where things move extremely slowly compared to our fast pace back home was a big slap in the face.

So after a rough week of just complaining about what is grown here I realize that there are things that I can change! I can’t be focused on what I can’t fix but I definitely can do other things. A positive approach!

So instead of focusing on the lack of funds for certain projects or the fact that sometimes there is “nothing to do” in my placement I decided to take matters in my hands and remind myself that there is a reason why I -along with all my friends here- was chosen to be in this program: because we are the kind of people that keeps moving no matter what.

So now instead of waiting for my boss or my organization to give me things to do I am actually working with them as well as doing my own  projects.

This past week, instead of being sitting around in the office, I’ve been giving talks to the community. HIV talks, hygiene talks, health in general.

Sharing information that I’ve accumulated through school as well as my placement here and passing information to people around is great! I’m not saving the world, but I am definitely making a difference for some people.

You know what they say: “We can’t change the direction of the wind, but we can adjust the sails…”