Proud and terrified

[DFW]

My younger daughter is in her first year of law school.
She applied for a program that takes only a very few,
as in somewhere between two and five, students to
work in volunteer programs in Africa over the summer.
First year students are rarely chosen. It seems that the
students from her law school are particularly appreciated
by the program as well as the locals, more so than the
Harvard and Yale types, I don't know why--maybe they do
a better job of selecting the right young people for the program.
She is at Pace Law School, where Bobby Kennedy, Jr. teaches.

At any rate, my daughter just emailed me to be ready to pick
up the expense (just in case I had forgotten I'm a parent) for a
trip for her to either Sierra Leone or Tanzania this summer.
Neither is exactly a bastion of calm or cleanliness. In fact,
She'll need to get inoculated against more diseases than I
could even guess exist. Plus, neither country is known as a
bastion of safety. Of course, I won't stand in her way--she's
22 years old, for Pete's sake. But even though getting
selected for this program is an incredible honor, and it
demonstrates that wiser heads than mine have determined
that she possesses exceptional intelligence and maturity, the
thought of her going off to places like that scares the living
expletives deleted out of me.

[applegrove]

1. I think Tanzania is more stable. They have had good government for

20 years at least. I would suggest she go there. Me - I love Africa but am always too afraid actually travel there. Actually I'm afraid of travel for certain reasons.

[robinlynne]

2. If you passed on your wisdom to her, she'll be fine. When I was her age,

I amrried a Brazilina and went to live there, during a dictatorship, no less. My family was as worried as you are, but the lessons our mothers teach us are with us forever! I am so thrilled to have spent those years. They made me who I am.
And when you have a chance, have a heart to heart conversation and give her any guidance you think she'll need. Words from our mothers, spoken with importance, tend to dwell in our hearts and minds at all times, without a doubt.

[DFW]

3. Well, her mother will have words with her, that's for sure!

I am married to a German, and my daughter is a German first and foremost,
although she treasures her American identity with equal fervor. Our daughters
speak in German (they grew up here in Germany) to my wife, and in English to me.

I'll give her what guidance I can, but I have never been to continental Africa,
and as such will have to rely on experienced people from the program to ease her
in. Otherwise, she is well traveled, and as a half-European, is well aware that
there is no one culture that is "superior" to another. She has heard plenty of
war stories--literally--from her German grandmother, who lived through the Nazi
era, and lost three brothers in the war. It's always weird to hear stories from one
who lived through the war, recollecting fearing advances by "the enemy," and having
to remind myself that at the time, that meant us.

I know Tanzania is, in general, better off than Sierra Leone, but these kids do not
get sent to do urban planning in Dar Es Salaam. They are sent out to rural areas where
getting the Ebola virus or hepatitis is a bigger danger than land mines or diamond
bandits.

Many crossings of fingers before this summer is over if she goes, I'll promise you that much!

[robinlynne]

4. oops. I assumed you were her mother. It was your tenderness, just shows how

preconceived notions hit us all....

[DFW]

6. My wife would certainly have something to say about that!

(All good, I hope!! LOL)

[aikoaiko]

5. Tell her to pick up an AK47 in Sierra Leone -- they're less than $100 there.

just kidding. ;-)

not really ;)

[DFW]

7. I would but

I'm sure they're like color printers--
The equipment itself costs nothing, but
then they nail you pricewise on the ammo......