"Nothing About Us Without Us!"

This was the chant that minority groups (women, LGBTQ+ and disabled people) used to remind the Mandela Administration to be inclusive.

It makes me think that's the attitude I should take when battling issues of too much analyzation and trepidation.

1/17/10

Leading up to leaving, I would cry inexplicably and everything put me on-edge. I didn't want to pack and I certainly didn't want to leave.

FLASH FORWARD! (which is exactly what it felt like) I arrive at the airport in Washinton D.C., having spoke to everyone I needed to on the phone and having run into a Nigerian man who wished me luck - and I begin to meet the people on my trip. Only after, of course, I have a conversation with a South African man who asked me, "Have you considered our lord, Jesus Christ?"

Yum.

The people on our program are awesome. We got organized long before we arrived in Johannesburg and I think it's gonna be a semester to rememberon't want to get over-hyped because I know that that can have a 'crashing down' affect but in this moment I feel positive, happy and healthy. I'm nam-myoho-renge-kyo-ing that to the last.

1/21/10

*sigh* So I'm here. I'm having a great time. I'm loving everyone and yet I've still got this complex over what others think about me. It's not as bad as it used to be, but still.

*breath*

BUT The Apartheid Museum was great, there was a special exhibit on Mandela, I called my parents , I SANG and my voice is BACK!

I really feel like last semester was SUCH and AMAZING pre-req. to this semester. It has SO helped me to keep breatrhing here. I'm feeling so good here, kinda at the expense of last semester's emotional stability, but now I know that had I not done that, this semester would have been SO incredibly, deeply, passionately different.


"Dialogue should create and enhance value both globally and interpersonally." -HRH