A fine mess of contradictions

A mere glimpse...

You know when you go to something and you just want to run home and write down all that you were thinking in your diary? Well that's kind of how I feel about tonight.It was my first real "celebrity" encounter where I was actually really excited to meet the person- not just on a superficial level such as having their signature- but just to hear what the person had to say.

I went to a book signing by journalist Stephanie Nolen.(http://www.stephanienolen.com) She is the chief correspondent for 54 countries on the continent of Africa for The Globe and Mail. Pretty amazing job I must say. Pretty damn jealous. She recently published a book called 28-Stories of AIDS in Africa. It is a book that tells the story of 28 Africans living with HIV/AIDS dedicated to the 28 million people living with the disease in sub-saharan Africa today.

I read about it in the paper and I got really hyped up. I don't want my experience in Ghana to pass me by and be a blip on my map of travels. I am putting in an effort to keep in touch with everyone from there (got an email from my host mother- miss her so much!) and to try to raise funds and awareness for the organization here in Canada. When I heard about the opportunity to meet Nolen I jumped at it. She is doing a job that I would love to do. Traveling and living in Africa, writing about issues that affect so many people, and raising awareness about the issue worldwide. Essentially I want to be her- or at least maybe I do.


She was an amazing speaker and it was a privilege to meet someone I admired. But I found myself a little disenchanted when I was actually able to speak to her one on one. I understand that I am young and she knows much more than I, but I found her tone a little condescending towards myself, as well as audience questions and people's attempts to argue about some issues. I asked her about doing a Journalists for Human Rights (JHR) program and she basically told me that by no means should I try to do one of their programs. "Why would you mix human rights and journalism? It doesn't make any sense. Move to Ghana and freelance," she said. Okaaay, but I thought that maybe journalism and human rights did go together? I felt a little confused, but it fuelled how I felt about what I had read a few moments earlier. There is a section at the back of her book entitled "how you can help".

I eagerly flipped to the back of the book and this is what I read: "First, people want to go to Africa to help in a hands-on way...It's a commendable idea but not always the best solution...Western volunteers can be a drain on the communities they go to help: if they don't speak the language, they cannot assist with education or AIDS awareness, and usually they don't have the particular skills that are needed...All too often, the already overburdened and under-resourced community that the volunteers want to help ends up translating for them, figuring out their housing and food needs, and taking them to the expensive clinic in the city when they get malaria or jiggers or dysentery" (Nolen 387-388). Hmmmm.....I must say that I wholeheartedly disagree.

I do not feel that I was a drain on my community. I was actively involved in the events around me, I did not demand special foods or fancy health care from my host family, and while I did not speak the language fluently I contributed as much as I could. I was a valuable part of AHFOGH's HIV/AIDS presentations, I taught at a school that barely had a teacher half the time, I was able to help and learn at the clinic, and I am pushing to contribute to the organization from Canada. I did get sick, but I did not force my host mother away from her work. I also used the basic skills that I had, as well as all the energy I could muster to contribute wherever I could.

Nolen's basic dismissal of volunteering abroad really bothered me. My experience in Ghana pushed me to learn more about HIV/AIDS, and hell, it was the reason I was there watching her speak. It is different to read the statistics splashed on the pages of newspapers than it is to actually touch an emaciated woman with a young child on her back, inevitablely dying of a preventable wide-spread disease. Volunteering lights a fire inside people who are already interested in something and teaches them what they are passionate about so that they can work to pursue it.

I left my encounter with her feeling kind of stupid. The problem with people who are very intelligent or in powerful positions is that they cannot dumb down their knowledge for others, or in doing so can make people feel inadequate. Nolen seemed very well-informed and I understand that she knows much more about the continent as a whole than I do. But I am trying. In retrospect, I have fond memories of the meeting I had with Carleton Professor Allan Thompson back in January. I went to discuss their journalism master's program, and though he was leaving for Rwanda the next day he found time to meet with me. His office was covered in beautiful African art, and he encouraged me to learn more about the genocide, excitedly discussed my upcoming travels to West Africa and fuelled my interest in the media's role in conflict and the imagery of developing nations. Even a person like Stephen Lewis seems to be someone who encourages others to become involved in a basic way.

In regards to Nolen, I someday hope to work with her, or under her, or even in the same area as her. I'm still excited to read her book, and hopefully it will raise awareness even more, and turn HIV/AIDS from something on a faraway continent into a real and important issue here in Canada.

posted by Kate @ 8:49 PM