am I on top of the world?
There is something gratifying about having touched the soil on the continent of Africa for an African American student. Few get to experience the emotion of having landed and being grounded on a landscape covered with histories told and those still waiting to be uncovered. This past summer I boarded a plane to Tanzania for a study abroad program that focused on the historic preservation of one of the earliest iron foraging sites in the world located in the city of Bukoba. The goal of the project was to enhance community empowerment through cultural heritage management. With trowels, compasses, and notebook paper, my peers and I were archaeologists, historians, and ethnographers for six weeks. We literally uncovered the history of a people, layer by stratigraphic layer, so that the village of Katuruka could construct a museum to include in their already established tour that brings about economic empowerment and historic preservation.
It has taken me forever to try to put into words my experience in Tanzania. Even now, a month later, I can only muster up a paragraph. I thought instead of writing a essay, I'd write a list of the words that describe my experience.
- Love
- Beauty
- Home
-peace
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