I'm sitting in the quiet of my Bradenton, FL home, aware that just 7 days from now I will begin my 20-hour return to Ghana, where I will reconnect with friends I met via Peter and Grace French in Jan 2010 as well as the two young artists I help in Buduburam Refugee Camp. After my two trips in 2010, I know much more what to expect, so I am excited and not apprehensive. It will be like a reunion in Ghana and Uganda. I will take one day off in the first two weeks to raft the Nile again. It was so amazing the first time I did this in Nov 2010 with co-researchers Jan and Marc; I hardly believe I will have the good fortune to challenge these huge white rapids yet again.
The first week will involve interviews with the boys in Buduburam and meeting their families and taking them to lunch, then two weeks in Kampala and Lira, Uganda working on what my co-worker, John Woodall, and I hope will become a multi-year project to create improved networking and relations between community members and former child soldiers in the northern town of Lira.
I get to spend my birthday on safari at Sabi Sands, a private game reserve bordering Kruger in South Africa. I've done four safaris - parks further south in South Africa and in Murchison Falls in Uganda, but not one known for sightings of big cats, so I'm hopeful. From there, on to an education conference in Maputo, Mozambique, to present a paper with a co-researcher from Makerere University (we will also work together in Uganda).
I blogged the other two trips (jlmcbrien.blogspot.com, and jlmuganda.blogspot.com. I like to write when everything is fresh in my mind. I had a few friends ask me if I would blog again so they could follow along. This will be the place!
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