Friday, July 15, 2005
Hello all,
As most of you already know, I am in Africa to drive a modified 1979 Datsun Skyline from West to South Africa, stopping along the way to talk with people about how the message of AIDS awareness is understood in local communities. We hear a lot in the news about the types of aid that the Bush administration, nongovernmental organizations, and even church groups are providing. But what does this aid look like on the receiving end? Please check out our website for more information on our modest project: http://overland.naomba.com/
For the last two weeks, I have prepared for the trip here in the Gambia by eating more peanut stew, fried chicken, rice and fufu than I could handle. Surprisingly, it was the oysters that I collected in the afternoons with the help of a band of small boys on the beach that were the tastiest and least upsetting. My traveling companions (Sean and Nate) and I have also spent a lot of time together. Six to eight months in a car with two guys is going to be challenging—but I feel completely safe with these two. Mostly, our sense of humor will carry us through the worst parts of the trip.
We are currently speaking with local companies about sponsorship for our trip. This is hugely important for us, because we have raised only about half of our expected budget. You can imagine that driving 8,000 miles of road that is sometimes unpaved, through places in which military convoys are required, through the blistering heat of the Sahara, and through dense jungles in the rainy season... is going to run a little expensive. We are hoping that to raise the remainder of our budget through donations from corporate sponsors—and hopefully, from people like you. If you have any ideas that could help us (organizing dinner parties, events, and such to raise funds), please email me. There is also a link on the website to make a donation through paypal.
Thanks to Connie, I will be posting articles and blogs from the road onto the website as frequently as possible. We have a laptop and a car charger, but connecting to the Internet may occur as infrequently as a couple of weeks. I encourage you to check the website often and I promise to do my best to represent the people we encounter, including women impacted by AIDS (which will be my focus).
Women like Juliet, a refugee from Liberia who landed in the Gambia four years ago to escape a terrible civil war which has killed hundreds of thousands of her countrymen and family, unsettled the entire sub-region, and has sent refugees across Africa and the globe. Juliet says that even though the situation in her country has calmed down enough for her to return, the family that remains there would not receive her well if she went back. "Why would I go back? What for?" she asks. "My family would ask me how I was able to survive in a strange country for so long." Like many returning refugees, Juliet's family would assume that she is alive only because she entered the sex trade for survival. For now, these conversations are bringing up only further questions. It is these types of complexities that I hope to come to understand further along the way.
What do we hope to accomplish with this trip? Mostly, we are sensitizing ourselves to the problem of AIDS in Africa, so that the work we will do in the future (mostly in the field of journalism and international development) will be guided by a realistic picture of the reality on the ground. I will be challenged to learn more about myself than I can now imagine. I hope that you follow our journey.
Love, Tuuli
As most of you already know, I am in Africa to drive a modified 1979 Datsun Skyline from West to South Africa, stopping along the way to talk with people about how the message of AIDS awareness is understood in local communities. We hear a lot in the news about the types of aid that the Bush administration, nongovernmental organizations, and even church groups are providing. But what does this aid look like on the receiving end? Please check out our website for more information on our modest project: http://overland.naomba.com/
For the last two weeks, I have prepared for the trip here in the Gambia by eating more peanut stew, fried chicken, rice and fufu than I could handle. Surprisingly, it was the oysters that I collected in the afternoons with the help of a band of small boys on the beach that were the tastiest and least upsetting. My traveling companions (Sean and Nate) and I have also spent a lot of time together. Six to eight months in a car with two guys is going to be challenging—but I feel completely safe with these two. Mostly, our sense of humor will carry us through the worst parts of the trip.
We are currently speaking with local companies about sponsorship for our trip. This is hugely important for us, because we have raised only about half of our expected budget. You can imagine that driving 8,000 miles of road that is sometimes unpaved, through places in which military convoys are required, through the blistering heat of the Sahara, and through dense jungles in the rainy season... is going to run a little expensive. We are hoping that to raise the remainder of our budget through donations from corporate sponsors—and hopefully, from people like you. If you have any ideas that could help us (organizing dinner parties, events, and such to raise funds), please email me. There is also a link on the website to make a donation through paypal.
Thanks to Connie, I will be posting articles and blogs from the road onto the website as frequently as possible. We have a laptop and a car charger, but connecting to the Internet may occur as infrequently as a couple of weeks. I encourage you to check the website often and I promise to do my best to represent the people we encounter, including women impacted by AIDS (which will be my focus).
Women like Juliet, a refugee from Liberia who landed in the Gambia four years ago to escape a terrible civil war which has killed hundreds of thousands of her countrymen and family, unsettled the entire sub-region, and has sent refugees across Africa and the globe. Juliet says that even though the situation in her country has calmed down enough for her to return, the family that remains there would not receive her well if she went back. "Why would I go back? What for?" she asks. "My family would ask me how I was able to survive in a strange country for so long." Like many returning refugees, Juliet's family would assume that she is alive only because she entered the sex trade for survival. For now, these conversations are bringing up only further questions. It is these types of complexities that I hope to come to understand further along the way.
What do we hope to accomplish with this trip? Mostly, we are sensitizing ourselves to the problem of AIDS in Africa, so that the work we will do in the future (mostly in the field of journalism and international development) will be guided by a realistic picture of the reality on the ground. I will be challenged to learn more about myself than I can now imagine. I hope that you follow our journey.
Love, Tuuli
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