Getting to know GAAVC

My first week on the job was about getting acquainted. I attended a number of classes to get a grasp for the student’s curriculum, and it was quite the experience. As to my first big event, I listened in on their weekly debate, and as luck would have it, their debate was about the statement: Western culture is the key source of destruction of African culture.

I thought that there would be a clear-cut conclusion, but there wasn’t because as they debated, we realized it was really difficult to separate culture from education, development, and technology. And what I found from the experience was that in fact the destruction of one’s culture is the result of one’s choices. For instance, I have rejected the Chinese culture of female foot binding. Yes, Western culture has destroyed this component of Chinese culture, but it was my choice. I could have said, “I want to live like my ancestors and have my foot bound,” but being in Western culture, I realized it’s awesome to have the freedom to move, to run, everything. Western culture was not responsible for the destruction of this tradition, but rather it was I who was responsible for the destruction of my own culture.

The debate left me smiling inside, as they brought up many points I often wonder about myself—how cosmetics has caused people’s skin to break out, how cancer has risen with the movement away from natural herbs and roots as treatment, how the only negative part of communication was someone’s phone exploding and endangering the user’s life. I realized that the technological advances that concern African culture also concern Western culture. I realized that one’s culture is a part of who you are, and no matter the influence, you will keep the culture that matters most. Rather, one’s culture is continually developing.

Besides the debate though, I attended kuchomelea [welding] classes as well as life skills classes. I found it fascinating that the technical welding course was taught in English and that these students did not let this language barrier stop them. As for life skills, I never realized how much I took it for granted. But here, students were being taught about decision-making and critiquing videos of life scenarios. They were just eager to learn.

As for appropriate technology curriculum, I introduced it to the class. And at the end of it, much to my surprise, they didn’t really want “labor-saving devices.” They wanted to build furniture from bike parts and generate electricity. I realized that these students had watched Bernard’s creations, and they, too, wanted to do the same. And thus, the week ended.