Training in Toronto

Wow, this is my first entry. I never thought that I would be the type of person to have a blog. But I guess things change. I must say that my stay in Toronto has been interesting. I'm living in a three bedroom house with 26 other volunteers, with only two bathrooms, so plenty of chaos in the mornings.

Toronto is an interesting place with much to do. The house I'm staying in is sandwitched between Chinatown, Little Italy and Little Portugal, so I'm right in the cultural hub with Kensington Market near by. It's a totally different feel from the relaxed Vancouver atmosphere, where things here feel really rushed with lots of traffic.

Training has been really intense with 13 hour days plus homework, which is totally not doable. We've been covering a range of topics from the philosophical question of what is development to culture shock and going over many case studies.

One thing that I found a little constraining was the way certain frameworks are taught. It seems like engineers see everything in a linear line, which I have an issue with because development does not occur in a linear fashion. There are inter-twining variables, conditions and influences that can affect the process of development and I have a hard time conceptualizing it in a straight line. Development does not occur when there are factors A,B,and C in order, but when they interact at different levels and angles. I'm having a hard time conceptualizing development in a straight linear fashion. But who knows, it just might be the case in Ghana. I guess I'll find out soon enough.