Here’s how Michel concluded the mission report he submitted to the City and to Uniterra: Actually, I left behind a lot more than a portable computer, a guitar and a few reference manuals. I left behind a lot of affection for good persons who have the will to improve living conditions for themselves and their families, people of good will. “If only we tried, really tried,” as Jean-Pierre Ferland sings so beautifully, a better world would be ours.

I want to thank Uniterra and the City of Montreal for their confidence in selecting me for this mission of solidarity. I remain at their disposal to assist them in establishing the Solidarity Leave Project, a project that I believe is both necessary and essential for maintaining Canadians’ reputation as good partners instead of colonizers.

If you’re interested in learning more about my solidarity leave, you can read a text on my adventures as well as see Bona’s photos of the land of “djembé” at my blog.

Congé solidaire

Ville de Montréal - Michel Arsenault


No. 3 - February 2, 2006, MTL

Editor’s note: In 2005, The City of Montreal decided to join a pilot project known as Leave for Change, put forward by the international organization Uniterra. This decision demonstrates the City’s desire to participate in the development of international solidarity. It also allows the City’s employees to share their know-how and to have deeply enriching experiences in human terms. The first two missions, each lasting two weeks, took place last November in Dakar, the capital of Senegal. In our last issue, Amélie Régis shared a brief account of her experience. This time, it’s Michel Arsenault’s turn. Michel is a technician specializing in developing office automation applications.

A Mission to Dakar from November 26 to December 10
I was charmed by their willingness to learn
By Jean-Jacques Hubert

Inspired by a missionary brother living in Africa for the last 25 years, Michel Arseneault went there himself in order, he says, “to better understand what would lead someone to become an adoptive African.” Armed with his talents as a computer technician, educator and amateur musician, Michel took up the challenge of helping people to appropriate new learning tools.

His mission: train persons enrolled in literacy classes in the use of certain information technologies. The students had, for the most part, little or no knowledge of computers or business software applications. A total of 18 students, including fourteen women, aged 22 to 60, participated. The higher proportion of women reflected a specific goal of the project: to empower women.

Making do...

The computer equipment at Michel’s disposal for teaching purposes consisted of six PCs, which we would see as two generations behind.  “We managed to make do with this hardware,” explains Michel. “And I was astonished and charmed by the students’ willingness to learn. And by their perseverance.”

Adapting to the circumstances and the resources at his disposal, Michel undertook to teach his students the basic ins and outs of three applications, Word, Excel and Outlook, as well as how to surf the Internet. “Instead of giving lectures, I opted for a project-centred training methodology. This way the students could work together and help each other out during the course, which was really great for developing teamwork.”

Punctuality, a relative concept

As Amélie Régis mentioned in the previous issue of MTL, visiting Westerners in Africa have to erase the word punctuality in their dictionaries. Taking a philosophical attitude, Michel was no exception. He quickly understood that attendance and punctuality do not have the same meaning in Africa as they do in Canada. For one thing, in a city like Dakar, public transportation is very limited.

“It’s not easy for Senegalese to get to work or school rapidly. Just picture Décarie Boulevard and the Metropolitan at 8 a.m.—except that in Dakar it’s like that almost all day. In addition, in the local culture, if you meet a friend or acquaintance on the way, it’s customary to stop for some friendly conversation. It’s a way of maintaining friendship and social ties. As a result, there were always absent or late students in my classes. The only thing to do was to adapt and develop teaching methods that took this into account,” explained Michel, unfazed.

Another thing, most of the students were mothers who had to feed the children, get them ready for school and so on, before leaving themselves. “I would teach the first students to arrive. Then, they would teach the next wave of students as I taught the second wave of late arrivals—at the same time as I supervised what the first group was teaching the second group.” Talk about Resourcefulness 101!

The students were from about fifteen local community groups. The computers were Pentium I (100 MHz) models. Good laser printers were available... but we had no ink and no paper, laments Michel. On the other hand, there was an excellent high-speed Internet connection.

Proud to have gone there
“I had some experience in training and that’s why I accepted this challenge with pleasure. I thought it would be interesting to go help Africans and, as it happens, I really enjoyed the experience,” says Michel.

“After I came back, the folks at the City of Montreal were really astonished by my enthusiasm. In my evaluation, I gave the experience a rating of 100%. I gave the same score to my relations with the Senegalese! And believe me, I really mean it. I met some extraordinary people. Despite the frequent blackouts and the lack of educational materials, I managed to teach the basics functions for Word, Excel and Outlook to my three groups in just two hours a day. These are really encouraging results, I think.”

Michel also had the chance to meet residents of Dakar, to visit their modest homes and soak up the rhythms of local neighbourhood life. “I developed a nice relationship with the students. Some of them continue to correspond with me via e-mail. One of the long-term partner-cooperants from Quebec wants to keep the group together so that they can meet periodically. That way we could continue our training through the Internet.”


Souvenir-presents

Before returning home, Michel gave away the computer he brought with him, a Pentium III 600 MHz. Wow—why? “I left it with a long-term woman cooperant from Quebec. Now, she can transfer digital photos, carry out a variety of transactions, write newspaper articles, etc. Here at home, it’s just a four-year old computer worth less than $400. For the Senegalese, it’s priceless. As for the cooperant, she, in turn, gave her Pentium I computer to a high level local official. The end result was a lot of happy people.”
 
Michel also brought a guitar, thinking that he might leave it as a souvenir for someone, which he did in fact do. “It was a good quality classical guitar, but that’s all. I have other ones at home. I understand it was given to a young man of 20 who had been trying to acquire one for four years but couldn’t afford to. I’m just glad that I was able to help somebody in particular,” states Michel modestly.