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That is how it was that I ended up at an IVS work camp at the Blackfriars Settlement in Southwark, south London, that Christmas/New Year. It was typical volunteer work of the time: painting and decorating the church hall, which was subsequently opened by Princess Anne.
What next with IVS, after the painting and decorating?
Moving to my first job as a graduate town planner in Chester in 1972 I contacted the Chester branch of IVS (the most active branch in the country at that time) and took part in a series of local projects, such as taking mentally handicapped and socially excluded kids out for daytrips.
I also helped support the IVS work in Belfast. In the summer of 1973 we took some Protestant and Catholic kids from Belfast for a holiday on the North Wales coast and I helped fundraise for that. I actually held the record for the most raised in one night’s tin-rattling in Chester pubs!
It must have been an eye-opener working with Belfast children in the 70s…
The situation on Belfast was very bad. There was the IVS field officer over there who had just returned to his house after his wedding, apparently had a knock on the door. Someone asked ‘are you Shaun?’ and then shot him dead, in the stomach. I was asked to go to the wake to represent IVS: it was a stark illustration of where peace-building can take you.
You had your first IVS overseas placement in 1974 as a volunteer on a UN project, the Botswana Government’s town and regional planning department set up by the UNDP. What were your first impressions of Botswana?
It was my first time in Africa and nothing can prepare you for it. One of the enduring themes is that you are constantly juggling your expectations between what is different and what is so similar. There are lots of similarities in the legal, educational and economic systems and even in the language as English is spoken widely. I found that the most incredible thing was that although you could be in a village just a stone’s throw away from the apartheid South African border it couldn’t have been more different. There was no racial prejudice on the Botswana side, people dealt with you as an individual rather than by the colour of your skin.
What were the Botswana people like?
We spent our first two weeks in country orientation, living with a host family in a village outside Gaborone and learning the Setswana language. A clear memory from that time was standing outside with the old woman from the house on a clear night looking at the moon. She asked me, ‘I hear things about men being up there, is it true?”, and when I explained about the moon landings she looked at me as if she didn’t believe a word I was saying.
What was the UN project like?
I was working in the government building on the UN project and soon realised that there were strictly-determined roles. All the good roles were taken by the UN experts, the UN volunteers worked under them and the Batswana were all in subservient roles such as drivers and cleaners, typists and messengers; no-one was training the two Batswana trainee draughtsmen! I remember that I started asking pertinent questions about why all Batswana were in subservient roles and got myself into some hot water with the department director [and the local UNDP representative!]: he was always looking backwards and not forwards.
So a time of doubt about Northern development practices?
I felt that those two years as a UN volunteer had their ups and downs. Volunteers were not seen as professionals by many of the other expats and sometimes you felt you were up against a brick wall. I also at times thought ‘I am still in a government department; still working with Europeans so what is the difference in being here?’ But the upside was that I travelled around much of Botswana for the UN project and met lots of different people and saw many different government and NGO projects.
What lasting difference did you make to the people of Botswana?
I discovered one of the impacts of my placement only after I had left Botswana. While I was there I drew up plans for the relocation of a settlement on the edge of Kasane, to replace the squatter settlement on the hill above the village which was totally unsanitary. The people who lived there were looking for an alternative so I mapped out a settlement area for them. Nothing had progressed on this when I left, but when I came back to Botswana years later I saw that the settlement had been built. It taught me that sometimes you have to play things long and forget instant gratification.
It was the same with my second IVS placement, to set up a Brigade, an independent, community-based local development organisation providing training, employment and services to the local community, in Naledi, the squatter area on the edge of the capital Gaborone. It took a long time, two and a half years; to cultivate community links, find a site for the Brigade and to get funding from a Dutch foundation called Novib.
There were problems with the Brigade. The manager of our main project, making concrete blocks to support the rebuilding of the area, ran the place into the ground which resulted in the trustees leaving. By the time I went back to the UK it seemed as if after five years’ effort the Brigade had almost ended and would be unable to carry on much longer. Again as with my previous UN placement, when I returned to visit five years later in 1986 I found the Brigade in full flow. It is a bit like a bushfire, after the apparent death after the fire, you see fresh shoots growing as the roots didn’t die.
And what lasting difference did Botswana make to you?
Working in Africa was a life changing experience; it made me a different kind of person and gave a third dimension to my view of society. It not only gave me a view of a new society, but also gave me a fresh insight into my own.
When I returned to the UK I realised I couldn’t just pick up where I left off: everyone else had moved on. I noticed everything that had changed while I had been away and realised that what had changed most was me! Volunteering abroad produces incredible camaraderie with the people you live with and I am still in touch with people from Botswana.
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