Are these three different things?
Hi all,
Welcome to the first real post on my blog! For a little over three weeks now, I've been in Toronto training to go overseas with Engineers Without Borders Canada. This will be the biggest change of gears that I have ever experienced, but I am undertaking it for what is hopefully a more worthwhile reason than any I have had in the past.
This blog represents a significant step (and experiment) for me personally because I've never been one to keep any type of successful diary for myself, let alone having the discipline necessary to keep my other people informed as to my goings-on. Whether it was when I was in Germany or somewhere in Asia, I've always been so bad at keeping people informed as to what's going on with me: what I'm thinking about, what I'm doing, whom I'm with, what matters to me. I think the biggest reason for this is that I've never been able to truly fathom that anyone would be that interested in reading my musings about all of that stuff.
This time I'm taking a different approach: I'm just going to write, and I hope that there will be something interesting in here for you. For my family and friends, this will be a way for me to keep you abreast of what's happening with me, Mike. For those who are simply interested in an implementation-level perspective on international development, I'll be attempting to tell stories about people, systems, what's working, what's not, and what I believe we need to think about.
Notice that I put "people" first. Being involved with EWB for the last 3 year was a process that brought me from knowing nothing about development to where I am now: preparing to undertake a project aimed at the improvement of development implementation in Malawi. And if there's anything that I've come to believe in those 3 years, it's that any kind of human development, regardless of approach, scale, or vision, will only be truly valuable if the humanity of those it is meant to benefit is always at the forefront of one's mind.
Thanks for reading! I'll post again very soon regarding some of the things I have been thinking and learning about here in Toronto, as well as some more information about what I'll be doing once I get to Malawi.
Bye for now,
~Mike
Or the same thing from three different perspectives? (Different parts of the visible light spectrum as seen from different angles through a glass that's acting as a prism. Cool eh?)
