Always an Uphill Battle

Friday July 17, 2009

Right now I am supposed to be exploring the streets of Casablanca during a layover in Morocco before my flight to Yaoundé, Cameroon. Where am I instead? At the JFK airport in New York attempting for a second time to get to Yaoundé. Long story short my airline had a pilot strike and my connecting flight from Casablanca was cancelled at the last minute. 1 mild headache, 1 very helpful Air France ticketing woman, and 1 day later and I am back where I started…waiting!

I arrived super early to the airport to make sure there were no bumps – so far so good. I will be sitting in terminal 5 for the next 2 hours anxious and excited.

Now that I have a moment to breathe and reflect, I am sort of in awe at where life has taken me. Flashback to exactly one year ago and I was laying on the beach in Ocean City, NJ with the post College graduation blues wondering what in the world life had in store for me. Now flash forward to today, July 17, 2009 and I am on my way to Africa and Eastern Europe to see firsthand the amazing projects Foundation SCA is funding and looking to fund. Although I have only been the Program Manager for Foundation SCA for about 5 months – actually 5 months exactly yesterday, my eyes have been opened. Being an Economics major, I have always had an interest in development, but always looked at reports through a more statistical eye. Some of the reports I have read more recently on the countries we fund projects in are truly disturbing. People go through things I can’t even imagine, and I can’t help but to want to help them better their lives any way I can. Not only have I learned about the perils of the world, but have also been amazed by the desire and self-motivation of the young women we help to better their living situations through education even when the odds are against them. This is truly amazing and a testament to human willpower.

I have read biographies of some of the women enrolled in Foundation SCA’s programs and I cannot wait to meet them personally and see how receiving an education has changed their life. I am also so excited to meet my contacts from each project who I have been communicating via email with for the past 5 months. They have all been so wonderful and cooperative. I can’t wait to be able to sit down with them face to face and learn more about how they became involved with these projects.

That’s all for now…