Author: Brady

9 of the Worst Quotes About Africa

We all know that injustices have been committed on the continent of Africa—namely the Transatlantic Slave Trade—but the media generally likes to portray Westerners as washing the African blood off their hands after that point. The uncomfortable truth is that the colonial era came next, which arguably did greater damage to the cultures of this beautiful continent than the slave …

How to Refine Your Vision

A professor at Regis University recently told me, “I love your vision. As you’ll soon learn in development work, about 5% of the overall effort is the vision and 95% is the delivery and refinement of that vision. No exaggeration here!” I had a feeling that he was right, but could do nothing to refine the vision than to brace …

Adventures in Malaria

Obviously, there are some health concerns whenever one is traveling to the tropics, to say nothing of the specific connotations with sub-Saharan Africa. I think people actually have so many fears about traveling to Africa—or loved ones traveling there—because they don’t understand the health concerns. It’s just a place with a lot of diseases we can’t count or wrap our temperate-clime heads …

“You Will Find a Community That Wants It”

I once wrote a poem to encapsulate my study abroad experience that began with the words, “What did we expect to find in Ghana?” That rings as true now, finding myself plodding along these same pedestrian-hostile streets I knew so well two years ago. What did I expect this time? What can I expect from Ghana, even having lived here before? Heat, …

More Than a Library

We are starting a library in Ghana. That’s what we thought when we launched this crazy crowd-funding campaign and began researching how best to prove our sanity to our families. Establishing anything in another country is audacious—far from the transient backpacking forays I’m used to—but apparently it wasn’t big enough. Kaitlyn and I sat down with an old family friend of …

So It Begins

Every once in a rare while, when searching for one’s purpose for the next era, we can actually get a very clear glimpse of what we are supposed to do. Sometimes it makes perfect sense, ie. “Yes, I have been voicing my opinion on the internet for years now; it makes sense that I would go into politics this year” …

Some Unspoken Responses on Going to Africa

There is a very interesting social dynamic that takes place when people find out that you intend on going to Africa. Apparently, Americans find it socially appropriate to either A) tell you their incredibly uneducated opinion on the entire continent or B) to offer unsolicited, unhelpful advice on your adventure there. In an instant, anyone who has seen a news …

Origins and Interrogations of Being “Broke”

There is a strange, stony silence that ensues when your partner looks at you and says, “Well, I’m officially broke.” The realization that both of your bank accounts add up to less than a hundred dollars leaves a bitter, malnourished taste in your mouth. It causes you to think about the direction your life has meandered, the purposes you’ve undertaken, …

On the Efficacy of Stubbornness

Have you ever heard that flirtatious, sophomoric girl giggle and say, “I guess I’m just stubborn!” as an explanation for her unswerving refusal to watch any movie that isn’t 13 Going on 30? Or how about that line-treading boyfriend who, upon hearing that his girlfriend’s mother is stubborn, jokes, “Oh, is that where you get it?” (Guilty.) Every once in a …

When You Have a Seed

I am of the belief that everyone has a secret longing—perhaps not-so-secret among the more bombastic of us—to experience more life. To the deluded, this is a longing for luxury, a pomp-induced comfort catered by a trust fund and scantily-clad individuals befitting one’s own sexual palate. The more lucid understand that this fuller life simply exists somewhere in the uncharted …