Tuesday, June 06, 2006

my first blog

I started this blog because i read someone else's who is in Ghana and thought wow, what a wonderful idea. Pretty much my journey starts here at Elon. If you did know...I am at Elon for the summer doing research on the war of Liberation in Zimbabwe (circa 1966-1980). I thought it would be interesting but has proven to be a lot of tedious reading (about 20 books in 5 weeks). Nevertheless, the program provides me with ample funding which will supply me with a plane ticket to Ghana in August. If you don't know, I will hopefully be going to Ghana in the fall and Senegal in the spring. the hopefully is because my initial plans got messed up and now i am waiting to hear back from both programs. In Ghana i am doing an internship with the Center for Democratic Development and a research project on market women in Accra, Ghana and their possession of contested places. Ghana and Senegal are both in West Africa, but Senegal was a former French colony while Ghanta was a former British colony, so their national languages differ. So why Africa you ask? well, here in the US many think of Africa as a lost cause...AIDS, war, tribalism, undeveloped....me, i dont see Africa like this. i think Africa is a great continent with thousands of interesting, impressive cultures, histories and people. People that, due to the misfortunes of time, history and unfortunately, people, lack some of the necesities we Americans take for granted, like access to clean water. I dont propose any government go into another country and tell them what to do in order to "improve" their livelihoods (ahem), since I wouldn't want someone to do that to me. However, my goal is to work with organizations that foster education programs that encourage active participation by those receiving aid in the implementation of ideas, programs etc. who better to help their continent than them themselves? I hope that while I am in Africa I find what i am going to do...maybe I want to help people with finding adequate drinking water or housing, or maybe I want to work with prostitutes finding contraceptives...who knows? so those are my views on Africa. About me: I am a rising junior at Elon University with a major in International Studies with an African concentration and minors in Geography, Political Science, and French. And that is all. ask me questions...i dont mind.