Saturday, January 22, 2011

My Semester at Sea


The blogging has begun. First, a thanks to all who supported me to make this trip possible. The first few weeks have been busy with orientations, lectures and getting my sea legs. Leaving the Caribbean island country of Dominica offers time to reflect on the week behind. For those of you I forgot to say goodbye to, allow me to explain that I have joined the University of Virginia’s Semester at Sea program’s faculty as an interport lecturer with my friend Andrew Briggs. Andrew and I are here to share our global development experience. Andrew is an alumni of the program and has since gone on to found, Freedom in Creation (FIC), a nonprofit working with war afflicted children in northern Uganda through art as therapy, water development and education. I’ve supported Andrew for a number of years, now as a board member, while continuing my own work with coffee farming communities and conservation in Latin America and the Caribbean. Semester at Sea is truly a one of a kind study abroad opportunity. Our contribution as lecturers will be to provide students with some real world applications for their theoretical studies as they circumnavigate the globe on this four-month journey. Our travels over the next month will take us from The Bahamas to Cape town, South Africa via Dominica, Brazil and Ghana. After our arrival in Cape Town on February 23rd Andrew and I will fly to Uganda where we will spend two months supporting FIC's programs in Gulu.

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