-Ewan McGregor, A Long Way Down
With the beginning of the New Year comes thoughts of my new year, and of my forthcoming trip to Kenya. Right now these thoughts have really started to hit me that "Oh My God... In four days I'm going to Kenya to live for three months." These past few weeks have been an amalgamation of many thoughts that have caused me to have difficulty sleeping many a nite. First came excitement for Christmas and the Holidays, the excitement of celebrating the many parties and fun of visiting with family and friends. Now brings the excitement of going to Kenya and traveling East Africa for many months. I'm excited because this what and where I think that I want to be with my life, and now I get to finally find out and experience the adventures first hand. But also with the excitement comes a nervousness of the unknown and upcoming experiences of being in a foreign land what will come that will be unlike anything else I have experienced. The other thought that comes to mind is a sadness that I will be away from everyone I know: my family, my friends, my girlfriend; but these thoughts of sadness are outweighed heavily by the support that I have received from everyone and their willing and knowledge that this will be an adventure and experience of a lifetime that they are all so happy that I get to experience and I greatly appreciate all the support I receive from everyone.
"Africa is a magical place- a place of big skies, big hearts, beautiful people, royal people... it didn't just blow my mind, it opened my mind. And it changed my world view."
With the beginning of the New Year comes thoughts of my new year, and of my forthcoming trip to Kenya. Right now these thoughts have really started to hit me that "Oh My God... In four days I'm going to Kenya to live for three months." These past few weeks have been an amalgamation of many thoughts that have caused me to have difficulty sleeping many a nite. First came excitement for Christmas and the Holidays, the excitement of celebrating the many parties and fun of visiting with family and friends. Now brings the excitement of going to Kenya and traveling East Africa for many months. I'm excited because this what and where I think that I want to be with my life, and now I get to finally find out and experience the adventures first hand. But also with the excitement comes a nervousness of the unknown and upcoming experiences of being in a foreign land what will come that will be unlike anything else I have experienced. The other thought that comes to mind is a sadness that I will be away from everyone I know: my family, my friends, my girlfriend; but these thoughts of sadness are outweighed heavily by the support that I have received from everyone and their willing and knowledge that this will be an adventure and experience of a lifetime that they are all so happy that I get to experience and I greatly appreciate all the support I receive from everyone.
"Africa is a magical place- a place of big skies, big hearts, beautiful people, royal people... it didn't just blow my mind, it opened my mind. And it changed my world view."
-Bono
You may ask why would I want to go to Africa? Do they have running water, modern facilities, basically civilisation as we know it here in America? To answer the second question first I assure you Kenya, and Africa is largely more modernised than you would assume, however I will be able to address that more when I am there actually. I do know that I have a very nice apartment in the area of Westlands Nairobi and it looks like it is better than my dorm rooms were at American University in Washington DC.
The answer to the first question is a bit longer story:
I became interested in a sense in International Development and why countries are the way they are way back when I was I believe in 5th grade. We had a former peace corp volunteer come in and talk to our class and share slides that he had done in building water lines and other development projects in Haiti to help rural people have access to running water. I remember thinking that Haiti looked like a beautiful country, and was dismayed to find out that it was one of the poorest in the world. I wondered why... to me it looked like Hawai'i and I did not understand why if a country looked like paradise why could it not be a paradise and developed like Hawai'i.
I remember I first became interested in Africa largely because of the work the Bono does there (yes that's right a rock star has influenced me, you can laugh at that but I don't care better someone like him than some other celebrity). U2 is by far my favourite band and I will debate with someone for as long as it takes to convince people to agree with me of why U2 is the best band in the world, but that's for another post. I became interested in Africa after seeing an MTV Diary of the trip that Bono took with then US Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neil and actor of Rush Hour Fame Chris Tucker. When they traveled around raising awareness for the continent I saw what looked to be nothing but absolute potential for the people and the areas, and I wanted to help that potential be realised. You see, Africa is in a large sense the last frontier to be developed, and I believe its time will come in my lifetime and much sooner than that in the next couple decades, and I want to contribute to that. This is why it is necessary for me to live and work in Africa and American University Study Abroad Kenya gives me this opportunity that I am so excited about. I will update this blog about once or twice a week (if possible) giving a highlight of the week, and my goal for this blog is also to provide more information and insight into what I optimistically believe that Africa is really like.
The answer to the first question is a bit longer story:
I became interested in a sense in International Development and why countries are the way they are way back when I was I believe in 5th grade. We had a former peace corp volunteer come in and talk to our class and share slides that he had done in building water lines and other development projects in Haiti to help rural people have access to running water. I remember thinking that Haiti looked like a beautiful country, and was dismayed to find out that it was one of the poorest in the world. I wondered why... to me it looked like Hawai'i and I did not understand why if a country looked like paradise why could it not be a paradise and developed like Hawai'i.
I remember I first became interested in Africa largely because of the work the Bono does there (yes that's right a rock star has influenced me, you can laugh at that but I don't care better someone like him than some other celebrity). U2 is by far my favourite band and I will debate with someone for as long as it takes to convince people to agree with me of why U2 is the best band in the world, but that's for another post. I became interested in Africa after seeing an MTV Diary of the trip that Bono took with then US Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neil and actor of Rush Hour Fame Chris Tucker. When they traveled around raising awareness for the continent I saw what looked to be nothing but absolute potential for the people and the areas, and I wanted to help that potential be realised. You see, Africa is in a large sense the last frontier to be developed, and I believe its time will come in my lifetime and much sooner than that in the next couple decades, and I want to contribute to that. This is why it is necessary for me to live and work in Africa and American University Study Abroad Kenya gives me this opportunity that I am so excited about. I will update this blog about once or twice a week (if possible) giving a highlight of the week, and my goal for this blog is also to provide more information and insight into what I optimistically believe that Africa is really like.
