Friday, October 23, 2015

How is Africa?

Ethiopia= a country.
Africa= a continent.

Africa is to North America
as
Ethiopia is to________.

If you can complete this word problem then you my friend batam gobez ( very clever).
But I'm guessing your confused why I started a blog post with a grammar question.

It goes without fail that when people ask how I'm doing they start with
"How is Africa?"

I live in Ethiopia which yes is on the continent of Africa. 
But asking me "How is Africa?" is like me asking you "How is North America?".

Most people outside of Africa don't realize how diverse the continent really is. I am not claiming to be an expert in anything Africa since I have only been to three countries here, but I have seen enough to realize that answering "Hows Africa" isn't possible. Shoot I couldn't tell you what is happening in the North of Ethiopia half the time let alone Botswana. 
Americans tend to have a perception that Africa is all the same and all facing the same problems but that just isn't the case. One country might be facing civil war while right next door is the fastest developing country in the continent. But like I said I don't claim to be an expert but I just want to encourage people to expand their way of thinking outside of America. Maybe take some time to Google news that will show you problems that are happening outside of your bubble.

In case you didn't know just how big Africa is I'll just leave this here.... 

 

1 comment:

  1. Hi Andrea! My name is Michelle, and I was one of the PC Blog It Home contest winners a couple years ago. I’d like to invite you to a six-week Blog Challenge I'm hosting to help PCVs “level up” their Third Goal blogs in the New Year. This is “phase one" for an online project I’m working on with the aim of helping bloggers to promote cross-cultural understanding. I'd be honored if you would visit my new site: http://BloggingAbroad.org, watch the video (or read the transcript if loading videos is a challenge), and sign up to join the adventure in blogging. Take care and happy blogging! Michelle

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