Global Poverty Monitor

Before I left to come here, I thought a great deal about reverse culture shock. I knew that one of the most important things I had to do while I was away was to come up with a plan that I could implement when I get back – so that I could feel like I was doing something to solve the problems I had seen. I know this happened to Elisha from last year’s study tour (the Perth winner) – when she got back she felt very confused and frustrated, and wanted to quit her uni degree, not that she had a better idea of what she wanted to do with her time, but just because she knew her degree would not help the situation she had seen. So I think that a most realistic perspective of what I’m seeing is such an important and necessary part of me formulating a plan for when I get back. Like for instance the example I gave a few days ago about the different ways that everyone reacted to the needs of the HIV/AIDS day hospital. Ideas of sending tins of paint to the hospital are not the sort of thing that I could use to justify the fact that I’m here seeing these things and other people aren’t. Also, I have a feeling that some people are more concerned with living an authentic African life while they are here, thinking that that is the key to understanding the problems of these people. I personally, especially after being here for a while, think that it is more important to find our what these people really need, not what we think they should need, and to work out what we can do about it.

From what I’ve figured out so far, promoting child sponsorship is the most important thing I can do when I get back. That probably because that how I originally started out with World Vision – by sponsoring Kantet four years ago, but mostly because I really believe in child sponsorship and the difference it makes to a child. The AIDS problem really concerns me, mainly because its not a problem we can fix. Like I was saying in my entry about the Maputo day hospital, really the only things we can do are small, insignificant things like providing toys for the hospital, basically making life a little bit more comfortable for the children and parents involve choosing a major project, like promoting and advocating understanding here in Australia, advocating and encouraging AIDS testing and the use of condoms in Africa, encouraging more medical staff to work in Africa, or working to make ARVs accessible in Africa.