More influences regarding my work in Malawi

I have already written about how my Dad's work has served to inspire me to travel to Malawi. I have also written that my upcoming trip is a natural outgrowth of my writing about Malawi. I have not written about other influences.

I wrote a few weeks ago about my work on the Standing Commission on Anglican and International Peace with Justice Concerns for the Episcopal Church where I started to think about the very broad issue of our global water supply and an increasing awareness of global poverty.

In my graduate work, I did some, put not a lot, of work on international planning and development. But, I had no formal course in international planning and development. Most of my research and experience focused on domestic issues. As a result, I stuck to what I knew in my writing and research. My service on the Commission, coming at a transitional point in my life, gave me the courage to start to think about taking some risks with my writing. When I saw a call for articles in Progressive Planning for a thematic issue on the politics of water, I knew that I would be able to find something to write about. It took a couple of weeks of making various contacts through the Episcopal church, but eventually I was connected to Dr. Thomas Gebhard and the work that his parish was doing in Mindandti, a small village in a remote corner of southern Malawi. And the rest, shall we say, is history.

So, in some sense, I owe all those that I serve with on the Commission for giving me the courage to step outside of the safety and sanctuary of what was known and familiar, and to step into that which was, at least partially, unknown to me. As I began to research my article, I found out that I was not hampered by knowing very little "international development theory", that I have other things that I brought to my research and writing on Malawi.

I do not think that I would have answered the call for articles if I was not serving on the Commission. And without the article, I never would have made the contacts that eventually lead to my upcoming trip to Malawi. So, to all those that I have served with on the Commission, thank-you.