Gulu, Uganda

We have arrived in Gulu to the modest home of our gracious host Peter Odoch and his wife Naomi. My head is filled with dust, my nose, tainted by the smoke of burning fields and my eyes wide open to the daily life of rural Africa. Today I met the kids, the instructors and saw our Freedom in Creation building for the first time. It is a moment I have anticipated for over four years since first meeting Andrew and learning about the child soldiers of northern Uganda. The children greeted us in song and the instructors assigned unto me an Acholi name, "Ochen, the one who came after." The kids are beautiful, attentive, full of life, warm smiles and motivation. Around 20 or so children gathered around to watch me gnaw a piece of sugarcane. We presented to them the collaborative banners from the US, Ghana and South Africa along with an explanation of our journey around the world by ship in the name of "Freedom in Creation". The kids were engaged and excited to know that those in the international community are thinking of them. As we gathered with leaders afterwards to discuss the program and month ahead I am reminded of the challenges of development. Mismanagement and the history of "aid" reliance runs deep, but this is solidarity not charity. Our staff is strong, competent and ready to move forward with greater clarity and purpose than before. With diligence the next month will involve the hiring of full time staff, the clearing of land, drilling boreholes and collaborative art projects. The time is short; we must make each day count.

Searching for Equality in Cape Town

With my feet firmly on land my new found equilibrium brings clarity in reflection. The past few months have been a whirlwind of new countries, people and experiences. These experiences have challenged me in new ways, bringing broad global processes into local perspective. From the demand for sugarcane biofuels, land tenure and farmers of the Amazon region Brazil, cocoa farming and the slave trade of Ghana, and the post Apartheid townships of South Africa there is never a substitute for personal experience. Ultimately it's what defines our world view, our perspective and for some of us.. our call to action.

Cape Town, South Africa is undoubtedly one of the most stunning cities I will ever visit. Sheltered by Table Mountain, the sage brush juniper landscape of the American southwest meets a rocky coastline, scattered with houses, posh waterfront restaurants and the newly constructed World Cup soccer stadium. The air was dry and hot with each passing day as beautiful as the last. Wow, so this is South Africa. On day two we ventured into the vineyards of the Western Cape. The most famous being Stellenbosch with its well established vineyards a relic of the agricultural expansion of the Afrikaan past and a symbolic icon of South Africa's prosperous economic future with a brand for the world's finest wines.



On day three I visited Robben Island the once British tool for silencing political patriots such as Nelson Mandela, Kgalema Motlanthe and now president Jacob Zuma. The visit proved insightful in understanding the hardships of the apartheid era and the struggle for freedom in South Africa. As our guide mentioned, the roots of oppression run deep and require a generation by generation approach to complete integration and equality. Will the BEC, the Affirmative Action of South Africa bring integration or discourage national unity? Traveling from the shi shi shops of the white Cape Town waterfront to the slums of a black Cape Town township the next day I quickly understood the struggle ahead for true equality. Less than two weeks ago I was at the dungeons of Western Africa's principal source for the transcontinental slave trade and now in a country that less than 20 years ago stood divided by color. Do the the same inequalities now divide us by class, opportunities for health care, education and economic opportunity? Will the people rise up as they are now in Egypt and Libya to demand basic freedoms? History will soon write itself.



Our final day was the ultimate reward as students from the Freedom in Creation Chapter at Semester at Sea, Andrew and I undertook an art project with kids from the Capricorn Primary School, a model school in a Cape Town township. As Andrew and I disembark the ship in Cape Town and head to Uganda I must say that I am forever grateful for Semester at Sea program. The interactions with students, faculty, and life long learners were a source of great encouragement to myself and our work in Uganda. I hope they too find the journey a source of optimism, paradigm shifting thought and inspiration for action.

Today we relax and write emails from Uganda's capital Kampala. Tomorrow we move onward to Gulu. Another chapter begins.

Ghana by bus

• Fresh off ship, large containers and trucks filled with cocoa, the smell of vinegar and fermentation, Takoradi taxi, Sunday market, charcoal and plantains, paint and burning rubber, hot sun hustling, STC bus to Kumasi, 5 hour ride, sit and stare at the countryside, THIS is Africa

• Kumasi, Presbyterian guest house, cooler nights, eggs and toast, new day, largest open air market in W. Africa, plastic bowls, cow hooves, kente cloth, assorted clothing, hordes of people, overpopulated? pungent odors, decaying trash bags, voices, claustrophobia, equatorial heat and sweat, 70% of the world will be urban by 2050, will it all be like this?

• Visited a cocoa farm today, rich resources of cocoa and fruit trees, economic poverty and illiteracy, lots of questions, certifications and value to small farmer livelihoods, six deep taxi ride, police checkpoints mishaps, returning in a pile of dust, parched mouth and lips, eyes wide open

• Africa is beautiful chaos, smiling faces, dark skin, people, books and culture, Kente cloth, bright colors, long tradition, pride of the Asanti kingdom, kings and weavers, twee not English

• Accra, the capital of Ghana, traffic, fumes, women carrying goods for sale, tattered buildings, no skyscrapers, long taxi rides, more cedis, road projects, bustling all hours, the next Cape Town? polite children in school uniforms, parents picking up their kids from school, ordinary people, paint, dirty hands, smiling faces, intercultural exchange, love, understanding, travel, Freedom in Creation.

• Touring the castle and dungeons of Cape Coast, 16th century history, millions of slaves, British, Portuguese, Spanish, human capital, cheap commodities, profit, pitch black dungeons, 15 x 45ft / 200 + men, feces, flies, no food or water, death for many, slavery for the rest, a minority rules the weak, system perpetuates injustices, economic oppression… modern day times, cocoa, mining, brick making, farmer households and child labor, governments, multinationals and the poor, has slavery ended?

• Fufu with Ron and Gretchen, shade = shelter from the equatorial sun, reflection on the days behind, new friends, one last taxi ride and conversation, filth and exhaustion, back in Takoradi, the ship, farewell Ghana

From Brazil to Ghana

Crossing the Atlantic brings forth an odd sense of grandeur. Certainly a moment in life where the world (in this case the Atlantic ocean) becomes bigger than I am, humbling me enough to pause, close out the chaos and appreciate the moment of crossing such a large body of water by ship. It’s been three weeks onboard. Andrew and I have been busy giving lectures about our work with Freedom in Creation in Uganda, coffee and conservation in Dominican Republic, ecological economics, child soldiers and conflict and nonprofit management to a ship board community of 600. Over 50 students have stepped forward to get involved; either to host a FIC chapter at their school, start a collaborative art project or to bring the "Story of Freedom" exhibit to their home community. The excitement is palpable. The opportunity to share, to learn and to travel to new countries continues to enrich my worldview as it regards people, politics and development.

We spent ten days in Amazonia, Brazil; six along the river and four in the bustling port town of Manaus. The air was thick with humidity, the sun equatorial and the people I encountered; open to share their way of life. Along the way we had the opportunity to interact with diplomats at the US Embassy and visiting lecturers from the University of Amazonia. Our conversations were rich as we discussed Brazil’s status as a rising international superpower, the on coming demand for biofuels, avoided deforestation, flavella uprisings in Rio, trade policies and the Brazilian socio-political systems. Brazil will host the World Cup in 2014 and Olympics in 2016, which will provide the country with its ultimate test to become, rather than forever to be called, "the country of the future."

We are now just three days from Ghana. Today we learned that over 60% of the world’s cocoa comes from Ghana and the Ivory Coast. Child slavery is an issue and one the industry has reluctantly chose to deal with sufficiently. See the BBC film "Chocolate: The Bitter Truth." As we cross the Atlantic we must reflect that there are more people today in slavery than there were at the time of the transatlantic slave trade. We have to do more! Much as in coffee; traceability, monitoring and evaluation is difficult. Fair Trade certification plays an important role in addressing some of these issues. As consumers we must demand this kind of due diligience from companies with our purchases. This Valentines day, tell Cadbury, Nestle and Mars they can do more. Purchase only certified products!! More from Ghana soon.