Why am I going?

Now that I'm leaving in about 5 months for Burkina Faso, I have plenty of things I have to do before going. There's paperwork to fill out, vaccinations to get, a passport to renew, and plenty of other things. Yesterday morning I finished another step in the process by having a French interview with one of the staff members at Students Without Borders, the organization coordinating my placement. This consisted of a few questions asking why I wanted to go on this placement, skills I would bring with me, how I would be able to adapt to the cultural changes, and what my plans were after returning to Canada. The purpose was so that the organization could get an idea of my French skill level and make sure I was ready to be immersed for eight months into a country where the working language is French and no one, besides my fellow students, speaks English.

Overall, I think the interview went well despite my being somewhat nervous. It's been a couple of years since my last French class, but luckily I have a sister who is always willing to practice French with me. The hardest part for me was actually thinking about my rationale for going on this placement. My immediate response was that it is required for my International Development program, but that's really not the reason I'm going. In fact, for me the required placement was the key attraction of the ID program at the University of Waterloo.

I went on to explain that I wanted to experience a completely different culture where I would experience being the outsider. I want to learn from the local people about their way of life and try to apply the ideas I've learned throughout my education in this specific context. Burkina Faso was my country of choice because of the importance of agriculture to the Burkinabé people and I hope to work with food security and agrictulture in the future. I also wanted to work in a Francophone country to try and improve my personal French skills.

It's hard to explain exactly why I want to go on this internship. There are many different factors that have influenced this decision, but in reality I'm not exactly sure about my motivations. Why do we make the decisions we do? Are our motivations based on helping others or are they more self-centred than we wish to admit?