I often ask myself if I am pessimistic about the continent , and I have to say , not entirely . It will likely take generations and new approaches I have no idea about yet to make big changes , but it can happen .
Driving or walking the crumbling streets of cities and villages , one encounters masses of everyday people engaged in the business of survival , working and sweating , pushing and pulling loads manually , balancing everything imaginable on their heads . They travel to work in rickety minibuses held together with wire and ingenuity and buy and sell everything from local produce to Chinese knock off plastics to bush monkeys . They seem proud and determined and can smile and laugh as they eke out an existence . When you talk of substance about Africa with them , they are realistic about the situation and know it should be different but haven ’ t lost hope . So I have not lost hope and find myself committed to making some small difference teaching and learning from this new generation of international elite to forge a better way and future . 2
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