Kristof in SL

Nicholas Kristof is one of my heroes. Right now he's 4wheeling over West Africa with a sophomore in college who earned the opportunity to travel with Kristof and blog for the NY Times. While reading the student's blog (his name is Paul Bowers btw) about Sierra Leone, I couldn't help but feel like we shared alarmingly similar observations and feelings. If you have a few moments, I encourage you to read his thoughts http://kristof.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/13/win-a-trip-hope-in-africa/#comments.

In SL I was reading, "Hope dies last" by Studs Terkel. The book was largely disappointing (I'm just not captivated by the story of organized unions in the U.S., but Studs Terkel has a bomb name and some street cred due to a Pulitzer...not won for this book) but it sat on my dresser all summer with that beautiful title.

The inescapable poverty of beggars, preventable sickness endemic only to certain SLeonean populations, buried vitriol quietly waiting to be unearthed by the next civil dispute; all of these, good excuses to allow hope to evaporate. Dancing with Phoebe, little independent girls at the orphanage teaching me how to scale fish with a machete, Kebbie and Philip (two 7 year olds) making me a soccer ball with a tightly wound ball of tape just so I could play with "my boys", tucking orphans in at night who would drift off saying "I love you Aunty K, see you tomorrow"; all of these, better excuses to hold onto hope. Hope does die last. There are too many little things hope can inhabit for me to believe hope has any chance of dying.

I am grateful that I had the chance to experience hope in that hemisphere.

kiki san