Meet the Team - Mel McNiff

Initial Thoughts:
It would have been interesting going anywhere but I really wanted to go to Africa this summer. One of my friends suggested it. I wanted to join Medicin Sans Frontiers since I was a young kid so this gave me the chance to experience another culture and gain more experience in that direction.


Impressions of Lusaka, Zambia:
I don’t think it’s what I expected at all. I thought things would be a lot less developed. I thought Lusaka would only be a small city with a couple of streets. It was so big when I got here…scary!

The people are what I expected though. I knew they’d be interested in us, asking us who we are and where we’re from. I thought there might be more tourism here so I didn’t think we’d stick out quite so much, but I thought they’d be welcoming and they have been.

I love the random chats on the little blue buses. The buses are the same in Guyana, but they’re louder there so you can’t get conversations going like you can here. The Zambians will start up the conversations no bother. I love all the markets in Lusaka…especially City Markets.. I spend hours walking through them. It’s absolute chaos, but in an organised way, sort of!

Impressions of the Value of the Project:
I think for people who really want to get to know culture and live the life of the Zambian, this wouldn’t be the project for them. If you really want to see the impact you’re making, this is more about not judging what you’re doing but just trying to do what you can and hoping it makes a difference further down the line. Therefore if you’re a goal orientated person then this might be an unfulfilling project.

However, having said that, I’ve absolutely loved it. I was able to go into my placement which was a blank canvas and start up all sorts of things, clubs etc. to help the people there and that was very fulfilling. Being able to make the projects and develop them was, in turn, a huge way of me being able to develop myself. I’ve challenged myself in ways I’ve never challenged before. I’ve learned not to be the outspoken, opinionated one all the time. For example, I was in a street childrens’ rehab centre and I watched a kid being disciplined strongly and physically by the staff there. In the past I’d have been a bit hot-headed and outraged at that, rushing up and stopping it, but now I’ve learned to be more measured in how I approach things. We had to allow the beating to take place. We then got together and adopted a discipline policy which I think made the staff there respect us more and listen to our proposals. In the long run, it worked out better I think.


Impressions of the Team
I think the team has gelled really well this year. There are tonnes of different personalities but that makes conversations more interesting. I think it might be easier to co-ordinate if there were 8 or 10 people but there weren’t any issues with 12. The SIA team have been incredible, the passion and dedication they have towards the kids is so inspiring. I really like the fact that we are working together to spread a common message. I think it is really easy to think of them as disorganised but just looking at what they have achieved shows that it must work somehow.