'My Summer Vacation'

I did not always to go to Africa; the first time Africa ever crossed my mind as a potential destination was last summer. I had been introduced to an international development NGO, Engineers Without Borders (EWB) by my would be roommate. He actually spent the entire summer of '06 in the Upper West of Ghana, stationed exceptionally close to where I will be in Burkina Faso. Anyhow, my program at the University of New Brunswick (UNB), Renaissance College, actually requires that its students take an international internship in their second summer, or their sixth semester, so I actually had been contemplating where my summer would take place. For the longest time, I pondered the possibility of going to Bhutan, that little country nesseled between India and China, whose GDP measurement is actually the Genuine Happiness Indicator. . .

But as I became more and more involved with EWB, who focuses it's efforts on Africa for sustainability reasons, I became more drawn to the continent where The Lion King came from. The clincher came when I was at a conference in September of 2006 in Ottawa, where I seen Daniel Zopoula speak in a workshop; his story, a fascinating one to say the least, caught me off guard. I was quite emotional after the power of his presentation, so I failed to introduce myself. He stuck with me for the following few weeks however, and so I contacted his organization, Bridges of Hope, for more information, soon realizing that there was, indeed, and opportunity for me to do my summer internship with them.

To make a long and boring story short, I found a partner to go with me, cut through the red tap and now in possession of a plane ticket that will see me to Burkina Faso for 10 weeks!

So, along with my good friend Kristina Nilsson, I am counting down the days until I find myself in "The Land of Upright People", Burkina Faso. With time I will share some history on Burkina Faso in an upcoming post, as most people I come across raise their eyebrows and say, 'you're going where??' In the meantime, I hope you find yourself well!!

. . . And for the record, I am 49 days away from an opportunity of a lifetime!