A few pics of life at ALA

Welcome to the latest edition of my blog! There hasn't been a whole lot of activity the past week or so, in terms of getting out and about around Joburg. However, school starts in just over a week, so we're all working furiously to get everything prepared for our students' arrivals! We're all excited for our 98 students from 29 African nations to come and let the school year get underway.

I thought I'd post some pics and text to give you a slice of life at African Leadership Academy. Hopefully the pictures won't get all screwed up with the accompanying text, because when I type this all up, it matches-- then when I go to post, it gets all screwy. So we'll see how it goes!

Picture 1-- The three male teaching fellows: Samburu from Kenya, teaching African Studies, geography section; Eugene from Ghana also teaching African Studies, geography; David from USA (Tennessee) teaching Biology


Picture 2-- Michael and Scott in their dorm room before everyone moved off campus! Can you imagine returning to a dorm room as an adult and sharing with another person, whom you didn't know prior!, for a full month?? That's how we roll here! Michael is from Ghana and teaching chemistry. Scott is from USA (Texas) and teaching math and physics. Scott's wife, Leni, is from Kenya and their two boys are the two most gorgeous humans I've ever seen!




Picture 3-- The Dean in the background and Sani, my first roommate and I at a fundraising dinner. Sani is from Nigeria and teaching physics and also computer technology. Sani is quite a character and I really enjoyed living with him! We got along fabulously and he has quite the stories from his life. In one of our first conversations as roommates, Sani bet me that the actor (Gary Sinise) that played Lt. Dan from "Forrest Gump" actually had his legs surgically removed and then reattached in order to play an amputee! Easiest 20 Rand I ever made!



Picture 4-- Three female fellows: Dinah, from Ghana, running student businesses and co-teaching the entrepreneurship and leadership classes with Jess and myself; Jordan, from USA (Virginia), teaching writing; Rhobhi, from Tanzania, teaching African studies, economics section.
Picture 5-- Tanya, from South Africa, teaching French. Tanya most recently lived and taught in Saudi Arabia and has fascinating stories of life there that make me really want to go visit! Jordan and Samburu.

Picture 6-- Me and Eugene explaining our concept behind "Rent-a-friend" that we came up with during Entrepreneur day. Very fun and very innovative! And yes, not only do I look chunky, but I am chunky! I've had to contend with that infamous "Freshman 15" but it's a whole different game at 34, then at 18!
Picture 7-- Fred Swaniker (l) and Chris Bradford (r)-- two of the co-founders of ALA. It was Fred's initial vision to form ALA after he concluded that so many African parents send their kids to British or American boarding schools (and spend a lot of money along the way) and then these kids don't come back. So he worked out a business plan at Stanford while getting his MBA, which is where he met Chris. So when the doors open on September 3rd, it will be the culmination of 4 years of work! Fred is from Ghana, and also grew up in Botswana and Zimbabwe. Chris is from the USA, Michigan.