Tracy He
BCOMM 4th student in Marketing
Sauder School of Business, UBC
It has been a pretty intense three weeks for all of us. Particularly
for me, it has been a very good learning experience. You never really understand yourself until
you step outside of your comfort zone.
One of the things that I am getting to know more about myself is that I
realize I am a bit quiet among this Canadian multicultural group. The challenge
is that I started to learn English when I was in middle school and didn't have
that much opportunity to practice it until I came to Canada for university.
That probably explains why sometimes I keep asking people around me to repeat
things they just said if they speak too quickly as my brain is still working on
processing those words. Luckily, my Canadian group has been very patient to
listen to me and repeat stuff if I haven’t got it. Even thought I still quite
nervous about asking people to repeat for me but I figure out sometimes I have
to do so if I really want to get more involved.
I was also surprised to find out that how much energy and passion
people have in Kibera. Before I came to Africa, I only read about some of the
problems that Africans are facing and how we can help them. However, it is not
until I arrive in this beautiful land that I realize that only the people who
live in this land can really support their own communities. That's what
asset-based community development ( ABCD) really about. Each one of the
residents in Kibera has particular skill to contribute to their community and
to tackle some of the tough issues in their community. We are here to learn
more about the communities and to do what we could as educators to leverage
their capacity through business education and social entrepreneurship.
By interacting with the students in Kenya, I realize that they are just
the same people like us. We are both like pretty dresses and we both love to
make jokes and have fun in class. Even though they face many challenges living
in Kibera, they are very happy and optimistic people. The really powerful
moment was when I was listening to their personal mission statements. They all
have great plan for their career and personal lives. It was very touching to
hear that how they want to contribute to solve some of the problems in their
communities. It was also a very good reflection time for ourselves too. I start
to think about my community, my home country China ( oh yes, I have been
hearing many interesting things about China in Kenya and China also has many
social and environmental challenges ) and how I can do to bring positive change
to our society.
Overall, I would say that it has been very positive experience for me
in Kenya. It is great to meet all the students in Kibera and Kenyan students
and friends. I feel really lucky that I am one of the participants for Sauder
Africa team this year. Especially thanks to my group in Kibera and Frances for
all the hard work, I feel that this program really speaks to the Sauder's
mission of opening door and opening worlds. In the past weeks, we made new
friends and learnt about new culture and discovered a bit more about ourselves.
I encourage Sauder students who have a global vision and passionate about
solving social issues using business methods to apply to this program.
At last, I have to say that indeed, Kibera is such a boom town!
Travelling from Canada to see this massive urbanization in Africa continent ( I
am thinking about urbanization in China as well ) is quite a experience. There
is a very interesting article about Kibera from Economist that worths reading.
As it describes " Kibera may be the most entrepreneurial place on the
planet". After seeing Kibera in my own eyes, interacting with students and
hearing their life stories, I agree with mostly what's written on the artile
"Kibera is an African version of a Chinese boomtown, an advertisement for
soild human ambition. Like Guangzhou and Xiamen, it acts as a magnet for talent
from rural areas, attracting the most determined among young farmers. To equate
slum with idleness and misery is to misunderstand them. It is particularly
interesting to me as many of my family members migrant from rural area in China
to urban cities and I have been to and lived in Guangzhou and Xiamen.
Indeed, "all bright shining cities start as mud. Slums are far
from hopeless places; many are not where economic losers end up, but rather
reservoirs of tomorrow's winners." Good luck with all my friends in
Kibera! I wish you all the success! :)
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