I'm going to paste an e-mail I just received. Emelia speaks for her generation in Ghana, but it could be any developing country which does not create jobs for the youth. With the short life expectancy in these countries, many young people are on their own in the cities without the traditional support systems of the village.
"Africa is a very hard continet to live because of it developmet, unmployment rate in africa is very high and about 55 percent of the youth is unemployen in the system,... read more

Jambo,

I knew it was going to be a long, strange trip when I was directed to Gate Gay Sex at the Amsterdam Airport. Turns out, of course, that G6 is pronounced ‘Gay Sex’ in Dutch! But it always gets interesting when cultures collide. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been flashed in Africa. It happens several times a day. I don’t mean people running around streaking, rather flashing is an interesting mobile phone game. The object is to avoid using your own cell phone credit time w... read more

I can't believe in day and age more people die each day from Malaria than perished in the tsunami. That's today and each and every day. This is the equivalent of crashing 10 fully loaded 747's in to Mt. Kilimanjaro every day!
And it's no fun to suffer from malaria. Malaria causes a flu-like illness; symptoms include fever, shaking chills, headache, muscle aches, and tiredness. Nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea may also occur. Malaria symptoms will occur at least seven to nine days after bein... read more

As Kurtz said about his African experience. A lot has changed since his time. In some ways, life in urban Africa is not much different than in the west.
I can't speak for much of Africa having only worked briefly in Ghana and Kenya, but they have much in common and also are very different.
Ghana seems more mellow and peaceful. In fact, Ghanians are proud of their rejection of war and embrace constitutional law. Kenya, too, has served as a peacemaker in East Africa. Most recently ho... read more