Things are going well teaching new students and funding new loans as
well as collecting on past ones. Inspired by the movie Blood Diamond,
a common phrase amongst travelers is “This is Africa” and then is
abbreviated to be “TIA.” The phase helps describe all of the beauty
as well as the struggles of the culture. Below are
moments when this phrase is the only way to describe our feelings of
the experience we have been able to partake of while interning with
the SEED program.
• Women carrying babies on their back using a few yards of fabric – TIA
• Power being out for days at a time – TIA
• Unending buckets of rain – TIA
• The beauty of the jungle landscape – TIA
• Almost stepping on a 7 foot black spitting cobra – TIA
• Hitting your head driving from bouncing on the terrible roads – TIA
• The unending call of “obruni” being yelled as we walk down the street – TIA
• Drinking water out of plastic bags – TIA
• Fruit more delicious and fresh then was ever imaginable - TIA
• The children always wanted to wave or hold our hands – TIA
• Incessant roosters crowing at 3 am – TIA
• Drenched in the sweat in the heat of the day – TIA
• Most meetings starting hours after its scheduled time – TIA
• Seeing wild baboons while hiking the mountains running along the
Togo Ghana border – TIA
• Being charged the “obruni” price – TIA
• Paying boys less than $1 to push our taxi through a flooded road – TIA
• The smell of cocoa drying, sometimes smell like chocolate and other
times it smells terrible and rotten – TIA
• No water heater – TIA
Despite all the frustrating moments when our cultures collide, there
are hundreds positive instances to make up for any inconveniences.
The goal of our time spent here is to change and improve the living
circumstances of the people, but all in all we can see the changes in
ourselves with every passing day.
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