katie #2

May 14^th

So… two weeks in, and this is already shaping up to be an interesting summer. I was privileged enough to take part in a time-honored tradition (as far as non-profit management goes) today: making endless amounts of calls. I contacted over twenty churches in an attempt to fill up some more space on the summer tour… we’ll see where that goes. I’m excited. I haven’t experienced the thrill of a successful booking yet, but I imagine it’s exciting. Hopefully I’ll get to partake, huh?

Throughout all the rest of this work, I have the Contemporary African Politics Class running parallel in my mind. I am learning more and more about the complexities of that beautiful continent. At first it just made me more discouraged… how could I possibly believe I could make a difference at all? But now, I am realizing that I am only seeing one side of the story. Dr. Lloyd, my professor, keeps telling me to wait for the other side of Africa, and I imagine that would be the side with the heart, the part that hold the enduring spirit of the place. I suspect that I will find, beneath desert and corruption and novelty – a fire and passion I could never have fully recognized from a hilltop in Malibu.

--katie (katie@lifebread.org)