Sawubona (Hello in Zulu)! I landed in Johannesburg for my internship almost 3 weeks ago, after 32 hours of traveling. My supervisor had said she would send the organization driver to pick me up from the airport. After almost two hours of waiting for a man with my name on a sign, unsuccessfully trying to get a hold of my supervisor with spotty airport wifi, and … Continue reading Sawubona from South Africa!
I’m not sure what I was expecting from the cheapest AirBnB listing in Lilongwe. You’d think that a place called ‘The All Creatures Animal Welfare Trust: Veterinary Clinic and Kennel’ would need no further description. Still, I hadn’t started a housing search in the weeks prior to departing for Malawi and I needed a quick roof over my head while looking for a more permanent … Continue reading From the Doghouse to the Warehouse: First Weeks in Lilongwe
Sand-swept streets, evening prayers and giant mangoes. Welcome to Dakar. — After nearly thirty hours of continuous travel and no sleep, I finally arrived at the newly constructed Blaise Diagne International Airport on the outskirts of Dakar, Senegal. Shaking off the looming exhaustion, I quickly set to work, passing through border customs, exchanging my USD for West African CFA, notifying the airport personnel of my … Continue reading “Tropicalization” : Adapting to Life in Dakar
Greetings from Kampala! I am in Uganda this summer, interning with an international NGO. Getting to Uganda from the U.S. is not exactly easy. I left for the airport around 1 PM last Tuesday…and landed in Uganda at 10 AM Thursday. The first leg of travel was a red-eye to Amsterdam, followed by a 14-hour layover there. Luckily my aunt lives there, and she picked … Continue reading LIVE FROM KAMPALA
Hello from South Africa! After 20 hours of travel (10 of which the person beside me on the flight loudly snored through), I arrived in Johannesburg, South Africa! Dragging my 49.5-pound suitcase and my broken carry-on, I finally found the driver that the organization I’m interning with sent to pick me up. He laughed and said that I looked nothing like my picture—and trust me, … Continue reading Sawubona eNingizimu Afrika!
Please laugh at my joke, it’s all I have going right now. Okay well that’s not true because I’m in Mombasa! (Or as my family likes to say, Mufasa. Can you see where my sense of humour comes from?). Before I say anything else, can we collectively marvel at the view from my apartment? Sigh. Okay, now that that’s done, down to business. 3 flights, … Continue reading Ken-ya feel the excitement?
Prior to my arrival in South Africa, I was concerned my fluency in only one of the country’s 11 national languages, English, would limit my ability to communicate with locals. Turns out, I am not even fluent in English – at least not South African English. On my first day in Johannesburg I had to ask for directions. The conversation went as follows: Me: “Hello, … Continue reading Two Weeks – Two Cities – Arrival in South Africa
Jambooooo! (‘Hello’ in Kiswahili). Moving into a new country always has its up’s and downs. On one hand, you get to experience a new culture, meet a new set of people, explore a new city or town, but on the other end, you also make a lot of mistakes while starting over in a new country. I did make some highly expensive mistakes when I … Continue reading The Beginning In Nairobi
The International Educational Development Program 