Kelly MacNab and Michael Bueckert

Kelly MacNab and Michael Bueckert did their practicum assignments, along with Joseph Naimodu, through Compassion International in Naimodu’s hometown of Olepolos, Kenya. While there, the three did office work, needs assessments, worked on project proposals and other tasks.

For MacNab, a psychology major, with International Development Studies and Biblical and Theological Studies minors, the experience “gave my studies new meaning. I would like to return to Africa and work there for at least a few years.”

The member of the Central Heights Mennonite Brethren Church in Abbotsford, B.C. also says she now sees life in Canada in a new way, and that it helped her gain “life skills that will help me to be more flexible and adaptable in a foreign context.”

For Bueckert, an International Development Studies major with a minor in political studies, the experience provided an up-close look at the different ways organizations operate in Africa. He also was confronted by some of the challenges and dilemmas of doing development work.

“Sometimes it seems that intervention is necessarily a choice between the lesser of two evils,” says the member of the Mount Royal Mennonite Church in Saskatoon. “How can you discourage unsustainable farming practices that pollute local sources of drinking water when the alternative leads to malnutrition? Is it justified to transfer exploitative, paternalistic and neo-colonial economic and social structures if it reduces the infant mortality rate?”