Author Archives: Ian Chow

My students work and my current life

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Focus Group Discussion with community members

In the shade, under a huge tree of an unknown name (to me atleast), in the courtyard of a school in Paje, Zanzibar, Tanzania, my students begin their practice community assessment. On my side of things, it was a bit of a scramble to coordinate the placements with my Program Director between the students local NGO partner (ZANGOC) and the community leaders.

“Karibuni, you are most welcome to your village. Please come follow. Very welcome” The Sheha (village elder) lead Christine, my partner in crime volunteer buddy, and me to the court yard where the meeting will take place. All the village representatives were there from each part of the village.
“What do you do?” I get asked a lot these days.
In short, I’m in an vulnerable country teaching students about grant proposal writing while coordinating their practicums in different communities on Zanzibar. This will eventually give them the life skills in community assessment and community empowerment. This helps to alleviate and improve several different aspects of their lives in the community. I guess that’s not very short.
Member voicing their concerns

In a larger spectrum of things, my students are taught to solve community issues in their village or a larger town. Usually problems fall under the UN Millennium Development Goals. They are taught:

1) Assess a community for problems: This means gathering data, talking to community leaders, and different stake holders. Problems can go from access clean drinking water to uncontrolled dumping of garbage to accessing under-equipped medical facilities. This is currently where my students are, in the community assessing process.
2) Analyze their data that is collected: They find the most pressing problem in the community and set about a way to solve it.
3) Create a solution for the problem: This can take days, months, and years even to find a solution. And it could continuously evolve when new technology comes out. In the case of energy, finding solar panels as a solution. That technology changes rapidly. Or accessing potable water on Zanzi, they could use a solar de-salinator that can be easily built with pottery. Finding simple solutions with localized industries can take time to research and even more so to implement
4) Create a grant proposal: For funding should it be required, which most projects will. A successful grant proposal usually serves a the blueprint of how the project will be carried out. These are the classes that I taught before they went out to the community.
 
5) Implement the project: If the funding is successful, it would be hopeful that they themselves could implement the project. Not necessarily the case all the time though, although it would be advisable.
My students taking notes from the community members concerns

These are the things that I’m dealing with in Zanzibar. Obviously that procedure isn’t in complete detail, but it’s just to give an idea of what my volunteer job is.

For the next few days, I’ll be going to different communities that my students are sent to and checking up on how they’re doing. A few of my students are also placed in different NGO’s to work on issues they are interested in, which includes malaria, street kids, child marriages, clean water supply, etc.
Oh, woe is me. Time to tackle the worlds problems!

I was sent to volunteer in Africa…

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My students at it again!
  • Malaria
  • Women empowerment
  • HIV/Aids
  • Child marriage
  • Street kids
  • Corruption in government
  • Drug abuse

Encompasses a small list of what my students are interested about. Their average age is mid twenties and they’re all interested in tackling issues of this size. They want to volunteer at their placements and on top of that, observe other class members who have gone into at-risk communities to do their research on community assessments to identify problems and try to find solutions for those communities.

To complete a year long course of “Emerging Leaders” program, they are to complete 2 grant proposals from the research they have done from the previous course in how to assess communities. They find the weakest links of the communities and address those issues. As part of this, I have given them the opportunity to also be placed in another NGO that best matches their interests and to begin working on the issues at hand.

Not one friend I know back home actively pursue the interests of these likes, of course each their own, but the idea of contributing time to make real changes in the world, especially with all the harsh criticism that’s vocalized almost everyday and spewing onto Facebook.

The only thing I see back home are people complaining about what’s wrong with the world. Few take charge to write to their MP’s. Even fewer still goes out to protests. And still, even less – and at this point I’m scratching the bottom of the barrel to say anyone I know – goes out to volunteer time, effort and commitment to try and change anything that they’ve complained passionately about in hot debates while we were hanging out.

Working away!

Why do I feel like we carry this huge misconception in the “West” that everyone else in the world are lazy if they’re not “rich.” It seems the “West” is even lazier and all we know how to do is complain.

It’s not that the people in the country doesn’t want change. Everyone I’ve come across are adamant about it. They want change in the biggest way.

Even more so in the less developed world. I see the most enthusiasm for change here than at home. In fact, they are working toward it starting with the community level. Changes there influence key decision makers that eventually gather momentum. Most approaches and methods include contacting politicians and key decision makers to accomplish change.

I was not prepared for the amount of enthusiasm and energy my students want this change. They crave it. They are so hungry to do something about it. They are so motivated to make the world a better place. If we soak up even just 1% of their motivation and apply it to ourselves in Canada, the impact from that would ripples a thousand times and create change in the direction that all Canadians want.

My students are doing it, how are we as a more “developed” country so far behind?

If there’s something in life worth doing, it’s worth over doing.

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Workshops in Tanzania

4 hours of sleep on Sunday, two nights, 3 days later with a 17 hours trip in Cairo washing my pant leg clean from horse dung, I found myself in a car screeching to a halt in the gridlock that was Dar Es Salaam in Tanzania having not slept since that Sunday. Another two days I get the full report of what I was doing.

In short, I am “to help the students find problems in the community and fix them” Said Stella, the regional director for YCI, the NGO I’m working with.

Or more indepth, I am to support Emerging Leaders (project) to link the problems identified during community mapping visits into project identification techniques and support Emerging Leaders to organize their ideas of  the problems identified in designing a project, and  discuss with them tips on project implementation, monitoring and evaluation. In more academia terms, increase the capacity of the community by strengthening their self-efficacy.


I gave a blank stare to Stella.

The youth have already gone through several months of skills development including leadership skills, community mapping, and other skills development, with other volunteers previous. Then I come in to finish up the curriculum by having them finally carry out their task by approaching community leaders, partnerships, other NGO’s and community members. This is daunting.

“So, this sounds like something I should be already an expert in!” I cried. My heart sunk as I have no training in this field!

As I start to learn more about what needs to be done and what the youth need to develop, the more my confidence began to grow. There are things I haven’t done before, like train a group of youth to ask for funding. I haven’t even done that! My fundraiser isn’t going so well, I think I have a lot to learn from them about that!

But then there are things I’ve done, such as giving classes. English classes. But this time the theme is proposal writing for funding and grants. Computer classes on how to turn on the machine and turn on a word processor. Life skills that we otherwise overlook in our daily lives.

All these projects are recommended by the UN Millennium Development Goals, given to Canadian Development Agency to different NGO’s to achieve goals by 2015.

Well, sink or swim time! Roll up my sleeves and dive in. This will be the funnest project I have given myself since scaling a mountain in Nepal. This is what I set out to do, it’s time to do it.

One of my more favourite quotes that I’ve been reciting these days:
“If there’s something in life worth doing, it’s worth over doing”

Skiing in the desert

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Atlantic Ocean in the horizon

“I will take you to my world record sand dune, Ian. It’s bigger than ‘The Matterhorn Dune.” Henrik exclaimed excitedly.

I was already huffing and puffing up the sand dune in ski boots with skis on my back. The sand found its way in the ski boots and bore two nice holes in my shins.

“Let’s do it!” I cried.

I’m in Namibia looking to get my skiing fix. It just so happens I was in Swakopmund where Henrik’s office is based. I couldn’t tell you where I saw an ad for his place, but it was from the corner of my eye. I Googled “skiing in Namibia” and he was the first hit that pops up.

Henrik holds the world record for the fastest time skiing on sand, clocked at 92.15 km/h. Henrik worked over ten years developping his special wax formula specially suited for skiing on sand. It’s hard for him to hold back his excitement when he talks about the technical aspects of skiing.

Henrik at the top of Matterhorn Dune

From modest beginnings in East Berlin before the wall fell, his amazing story took him from competing in ski jumping into Namibia. After a life threatening accident, he climbed onto his skiis to set the world record and make a name for himself.

Sand skiing, especially in Namibia, is the most surreal thing ever. Being an avid skier, I was craving to get myself back on the slopes, but where to go except that giant pile of sand in the desert? When I climbed up to the top of Matterhorn dune to do a few runs, you could see right across the desert. And the Atlantic Coast line. It was the most bizaare site ever. It’s like I was skiing in the world’s biggest beach, as Namibia’s desert ends right at the ocean.

Our camp for the day

His adventure lead us well into darkness, when the sand is at the optimal condition for skiing on because the wax required cool air, not because it was light sensitive. The last run I end up doing was on his dune that he set his world record on, under the stars, under the moon, no winds and next to the ocean.

Perfect conditions.

To find out more about Henrik and skiing in Namibia, check out http://www.ski-namibia.com/

Could’ve suffered much more at night… Have you considered mosquito nets?

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PermaNet hanging out during the day. Not in anti-mozzie mode
just quite yet!

I woke up in the middle of the night from the swelling, itching and a thousand mosquitos finding their way through the giant wide open windows to the already stuffy room in India to eat me alive. It was mosquito netting time. I didn’t think it would be as bad as it was considering how the evening was so mild. But then again, I’m the kind of guy that mosquitos love, to my demise.

Thank goodness, Vestergaard Frandsen had provided me with wonderful oppurtunity to try out their mosquito nets, aptly named PermaNet. This fantastic company, in short, helps improve lives of those in vulnerable countries through supporting the UN’s Millenium Development Goals. And this mosquito net is one of the big products. It helps with fighting malaria in the most hectic mosquito ridden places.
Make shift the net; notice pack shoved
to increase height in feet space
Mosquito nets injected with insecticide
The one I received from Vestergaard Frandsen was big enough to fit two people in a rectangular prism. All four corners can be strung up with extra material to lift the mid points up. Or be creative and figure out how to fit your sleeping accommodations.

And embedded in the mosquito netting is insecticide. And my gosh does it work. The insecticide, Deltamethrin, is harmless to humans at that potentcy. However, I would still recommend washing your hands with soap thoroughly after handling it, as it can cause a burning feeling if touched in more sensitive parts of the body. It could last up to 2 days.

The results
You can actually see the mosquitos collect on the net and around on the ground. I had no idea mosquitos loved me that much! It was quite satisfying to have a full night rest without having to worry about being eaten alive.

The implications of this, other than my own comfort, is that when this mosquito net is distributed to the vulnerable countries, it actually will prevent malaria. Any mosquito net will do, really, but when there’s insecticide, it will greatly reduce the chance of the having more mosquitos around. 

Practicality
The best part of it, especially for those hardcore backpackers, this mosquito net is pretty easy to set up, pack, and throw in your pack. I usually carry some cord when I travel (being me) and I can string it up in a makeshift way. Even when I don’t have all four corners, I can shove my pack in the appropriate spot to elevate the net to not touch my feet. I love the fact I have a retangular prism, it provides ample amount of room under the netting and keeps it off your face. It’s possible to fit 4 people in it easily.
Net shoved away during the day.
In short, if you’re going to some mosquito infested regions, don’t leave without this mosquito net, PermaNet. It’s an amazing product that I had never considered until I was introduced to it.

All respiratory masks suck. Except for this one

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Totobobo Mask

I’m not a man to give reviews very easily, unless it was bad… or spectacularly amazing. And this one is it, amazing. I’m talking about the Totobobo Mask, of course.

After a few years of use, it was about time I had written something more significant.

My Criterias: Light, Not hot, breathes easy, and non invasive
When I was still working in South Korea, spring time was also a time for a phenomenon called “Yellow Dust”. Fine particles of sand specs picks up from the Gobi desert, collects air pollution as it travels through China and then dumps it in Korea. This can also last throughout the summer. Needless to say, I got sick a lot during the spring. Finally, I had enough and decided to look for a good mask. My criteria was that 1) Was light 2) Not hot 3) Breathes really easily 4) Non-invasive

You can rock climb with it!

After searching awhile online, reading reviews, I found that most other masks were lacking in atleast one of these criterias. Some were made of neoprene, some were “good” but once the filter goes on, it’s very hard to breath, and some were just a huge thing in your face. Just as I was about to give up, I found Totobobo Mask.

They matched all my criteria.

Light
This mask is incredibly light. You can even mash it up, fold it in your pocket and carry it around with you. No harm will come to this mask.

Not hot
Despite scorching 36 degrees and 110% humidity, the mask doesn’t make it any hotter when you breath into it. Ok, a little bit, but despite that I’m a sweaty guy, (I use a sweat band that channels sweat instead of a sweat absorber in high cardio exercises in the summer) the mask doesn’t really make that much of a difference.

Breathes Easy
Yeah, as I said, I do lots of sports outdoors. And so breathing hard into this mask is no problem. The air flow doesn’t really slow down. It does a bit, but not that significant.

Non-invasive
Once I got it, I started wearing it riding my bike to work. And wouldn’t you know, I didn’t sound like someone who had been smoking for 10 years and you can see the physical debris of dirt that gets caught up in the filters. Not only do I ride my bike with it to work, I also rock climbed with it. It never got in the way.

After using it for biking and rock climbing, I had brought it to India and Nepal. Even just sitting in the rickshaws in Nepal for 20 minutes, I had realized my mask is completely filthy and needed a filter change. With good foresight, I had bought a lot of filters.

Some other cool features?

30 minutes in a can in Kathmandu, Nepal

Filters
How good are these filters? Well, if you don’t know what N95 is, that is pretty much the standard for “The American National Standard for Air Purifying Respiratory”. This means it filters out practically every airborne pollution, which refers to 95% of the pollution. Also, I ended up getting N96 filters too!

Changeable filters, renewable everything! Less waste!
Unlike other masks where you have to throw out the entire thing and get a new one, Totobobo only throws out the filters. This produces a lot less garbage and being environmentally aware, I feel a lot less guilty doing this. To be honest, I didn’t think this was a thing I’d really like about it, but it has grown on me. Recently doing lots of construction work, I’ve been throwing out and purchasing a lot more face masks than I feel was necessary. This changed everything

In a nutshell
Get it. My lungs and health significantly got better, you can see the pollution being filtered out, it’s not invasive, not hot, light, easy to wear and reusable. There are so many pro’s about this one filter! I’m very happy with it and you should totally get one, by clicking right here!

Everest Trek – Day 15

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The guides, minus 1, Won

Day 15 – Retreat to Dingbuche

After the longest approaching of our lives; 12 days hike, of which 4 days was for acclimatization, and 8 hours of actual approach to the top of Lobuche, we begin the journey downwards. For the past 5 days We lived at no less than 4,900 meters.

A solid night sleep at base camp, we naturally wake up at 6am. As breakfast was prepared we suffer our last bit of AMS and pack our packs. We are to carry our 20kg packs all the way down to Lukla where our flight awaits us back to Kathmandu.

We were told we can lighten our loads and give our climbing gear to the porters who’ll leave the gear in Lukla for us to repack. We were not going to deny that.

Shortly after, we start our first of lasts. Starting with base camp. 2.5 hours later, we descended to 4,600 meters, the lowest altitude we’ve been in in over 5 days, at Dingbuche. Our AMS instantly completely over. And we feel strong with our breathing.

We remember reaching this altitude the first time suffering our first serious symptoms of AMS. Now we cheer at the fact we have reached this altitude again and getting rid of AMS.

An overwhelming sadness flooded us as we realize this is the beginning of the end. The climax of Lobuche peak is over and before s the long sad journey back down. But to new and exciting adventures back home in South Africa!

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Everest Trek – Day 14

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Sunrise on the way up Lobuche

Day 14 – 2nd attempt for the summit

“Wake up Didi!” Won shouted. Didi meant sister in Sherpa. He shouted at Christa.

“We’re up! We’re up!” Ian responded back.

Well, second attempt for the summit. Hours earlier we had as gourmet of a feast as our AMS would allow. It’s funny, we’d thought we’d acclimitze faster. It’s been one week already living at 4,900 meters ASL and we’re still not fully acclimitized.
We head back up the same route as yesterday, but stronger. Less stops and shorter ones too. We scramble up boulders and pass sketchy roped sections and scramble some more.
By day break, our pace has slowed significantly. That would be 4.5 hours into the hike up. We also passed the snow line and currently trudging on ice. Ian started using his ice axe as Christa gets helped up by the guide. What a gentleman he is.
“You have the biggest smile on your face” Christa said to Ian as she looked back. “And it’s been such a huge smile since we’ve started this hike”
Looking ahead to the summit

Finally the guides stop on a sunny plateau where the sun was beating down the ice. We slapped on our boots and crampons, put on our harnesses and attached ourselves to the line that was set up. The longest rest so far on the trek up. About 30 minutes. We’re at the 6 hour mark of just pure uphill hiking and scrambling. The climbing starts now.

We’re attached to the main safety line by a jumar. Ice pick goes in, using the French Technique, Ian smacks up the side of the mountain. *SMACK SMACK SMACK Rest – slide jumar up* Breath for what feels like 10 minutes, sucking in oxygen through a straw. We are considered at the extreme end of lack of oxygen. At this altitude, we have 9.7% oxygen compared to 21% at sea level. That’s less than half of the oxygen required to function normally.
At this point Christa has suffered as much as she could. 50 meters from the summit she decides to retreat. It’s the smartest thing to do, to know your limits. Had she pushed her limit to keep going, dangerous situations may come sideswipe us blind sided. She turns to head down with her guide leaving Ian and Won to hit the summit.
Victory summit salute!

Ian sees Won run up to the top and decides he could do that too, for the last 5 meters of the climb. Worst idea ever. Oxygen never made it to the brain and his vision goes black. Comes to a split second later breathing his heart out of his throat and crawls up the rest of the 4 meters.

Snap a few pictures, document the top, and retreat. Loaded up the ATC and started the rappell back down. End up at the plateau change into hiking boots and descended using the French Technique.
3 hours later, everyone arrives at camp. 3pm, we get to eat and pass out
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Everest Trek – Day 5

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Namche Bazaar. Rest for 2 days

Day 5 – Trek

We wake up, pack, eat breakfast and set out for Namche Bazaar at 8 am. It was 3 hours away. This is also the first big altitude hike. Climbing from 2,700 meters to 3,400 (approx.) We didn’t know it could take 4 hours to climb 700 vertical meters.

We follow the river bends from the glacial melt up the trail. After the one bend, we were able to catch iur first glimpses of Everest. It was so far away, but it was still so big. From here on out, it was straight up hill.

We also started to experience the thinner air with heavier breathing and more rests. It took a lot more effort to hike up hill. The porters shot straight up carrying our 40kg bags. They arrived 2 hours before us while carrying our gear while we carried nothing. We’ve never felt so unfit in our lives.

Tea houses also completely disappeared from our previous day. Water, snacks and civilization is starting to become more and more dispersed as villages get further away from more easily accessible roads. Were spending 2 nights in namche bazaar to acclimatize to the altitude.

Everest Trek – Day 8

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Dingbuche “quick” hike

Day 8 – Dingbuche and more acclimatization.

A 4 hour hike that otherwise would’ve taken 2 hours. It seems like every time frame that’s given to us we should add 1.5 to it. These porters and guides not only carry a load of stuff, but they’re also per-acclimatized to this altitude. We made it to 4,300 meters today.

Were starting to see familiar faces on the trip as other trekkers are taking the same route. Were starting to hear stories of people getting altitude sickness. Ian got his share before pangboche, just yesterday. Christa is holding out strong. were not blasting up huge altitudes every day. Were to stay here in dingbuche for 2 days to acclimatized more.

We also finally dived into a hot showered. 450 rupees. That’s about 5 dollars. It’ll get more expensive as we go up. But this would be (so we think) our last real stop before heading up, so were like to shower. Well probably be doing the wipe down afterwards with next to freezing water.

We are now also in yak territory. And snow territory. And constant high winds territory. Good thing were staying in a tent tonight to Get ready for base camp at lobuche. It’ll be colder and windier than here.

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