INTRODUCTION

Before I left to spend a semester abroad in Egypt last August, my mother kept telling me I should keep a journal of my experiences. While I was living and loving my semester, she kept telling me to write. When I came back, she told me I should have written. It wasn’t until my dearest friend made me a book of all the emails and texts we had sent while 10,222 km apart from one another did I realize what it meant to have those memories of what I had been feeling and experiencing at the time written down.

 

When I received an email telling me I had been accepted into the DukeEngage program based in South Africa, I promised myself I would finally listen to my mother. I’m only about 10 months late. So here it is! My first ever blog. I’ve never kept a journal or any regularly written account of my experiences. I am hoping that more than two people will read it at least once. To those of you who will, thank you in advance.

 

For anyone who has ever had a lengthy conversation with me or received an informal email from me, you can expect this blog to be written in a similar manner. Roundabout, randomly, thoroughly (hopefully). I am writing this selfishly, however. It’s going to be allll about me. Just kidding. What I mean about me writing this selfishly is that I didn’t set up this blog with the intent of being formal, historically analytical, or politically correct. That said, it won’t be grammatically correct either. (Again, if you know how I write or speak informally, no surprise). I plan for it to be a record of my personal experiences here, and how they play out into the grander scheme of things in this fascinating country. I promise I won’t get mushy-gushy about intense feelings or anything. But I will lay things out for both you and me. I’ll draw comparisons to my semester in Egypt. I think I grew up a lot in the past year, and hopefully writing this will help me keep track of an experience that will push me even further. If you’re curious about anything in particular, let me know and I’ll do my best to find out. I’ve never been a big blog reader, so I’m not sure how to go about this. They had an info session about it during our DukEngage orientation, but I didn’t pay any attention. Why should there be a proper way of doing this?

 

Again, thank you for reading this. If you continue to do so, I promise to post regularly, and hopefully in an entertaining and insightful manner. Feel free to call me out where you think I’m falling short or where you think I’m missing something. Don’t bother correcting spelling or grammar. I’m foreign. Sort of.

 

Yours in South Africa,

Lynn

 

P.S. “Yours in South Africa” will henceforth be abbreviated YISA. Kinda like Visa. Not clever but that’s the best I could come up with for now.