Well, when Teddy tagged me for this Meme I have to say I was alarmed. I just was not sure that I could verbalize why I blog about Africa. I am not African. I am a White/Latina with only the most tenuous connection to Africa. If you look at me, it makes no sense. For a while it actually made no sense to me. What am I doing spending so much time working on African issues? Why suddenly from a place of active disinterest bordering on disdain have I suddenly become engage; enamored even, of Africa? Like all things it starts with people.

Although not my only friend from Africa, Teddy sparked my interest in Africa through his stories of Uganda. His ideas for paradigm shift that will lead to significant change in Africa. It resonated with me. I know first had the disdain that local populations can have for well meaning aid projects. Growing up in Central America, I remember visiting Peace Corps projects that failed because the locals had no understanding of the benefits of the new well that the gringos had worked so hard to dig. I remember visiting housing projects that even at the age of eight seemed like disasters of poor planning and lack of understanding. Even I thought… “what in the world would make a campesino leave a farm for this? Only a homeless, family-less, friendless, person would ever live here”. Well intentioned failures like these run rampant in the developing world. Sadly, no where are there more misguided, well intentioned disastrous projects than in Sub-saharan Africa.

As I began to talk to people… not surface social chatter, but actual, meaningful conversations with people I met along the way. People like Fred Mutebi, and countless others. Intelligent, passionate, determined, innovative people who want to make a difference in their homelands. People who spend their own meager funds; people who use their talents, time, skills and money to envision, create and implement programs that will address real, urgent needs. This energy, this dedication, this passion while not unique is stronger and just MORE with every single African that I have met. Many people I run across in the the American Hispanic community seem myopic, and in many ways they have lost the hope. They don’t look for home-grown solutions or demand significant change… Africans in contrast are often optimistic, passionate and problem solving in a way that inspires me and makes me want to play my part. I hope that I can take a bit of that passion and creative energy back to Central America, where the sparks of change are burning but need a bit of a jump start.

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