I left Toronto in 1969 to go to Africa as a school psychologist. I was a city girl with little interest in nature. I found myself teaching science at rural schools in Zambia and Botswana and left Africa in 1975 with a newfound curiosity about plants, largely due to learning about organic gardening and applying what I learned from a collection of Organic Gardening magazines left by a Peace Corps teacher at Shashe. Our resulting garden produced an incredible abundance of tomatoes, corn, peas, eggplants, papayas, and 6 ft marigolds. That led me to studying botany and biogeography upon my return to Canada and a career researching and teaching plant ecology. I seriously doubt that my change in career would have occurred had I never left Canada. Also, from living in and traveling around Africa, I developed an appreciation of how fortunate we are in Canada to be able to pursue our interests through our largely accessible education system. As a result, for the past 30+ years, I have been a Plan Canada sponsor, donated to bursaries, established scholarships, and supported our public libraries and also political candidates and parties who share my belief in the importance of access to education.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Add a ReflectionWhat was the lasting impact of the CUSO Botswana experience on the rest of your life? How did it change you? How did it affect your values, beliefs, actions? Your thoughts on the meaning of the experience are important to all of us and to Cuso International (200 words max). Email your reflection to: Archives
June 2019
Categories |