Mosi Village - Africa Bound

"15 year old Le'Shem who usually sleeps until noon, finds himself up before dawn. He leaves the hotel and walks down a rocky orange path to the sea. To his left stands a collection of thatched roof huts; to his right, the gray concrete skeleton of a high-rise hotel. He watches the rapid rise of the African sun and listens for the sounds of the gentle turn from darkness to day: cooing doves in the coconut trees replaced by the staccato of workers' shovels."

- Syracuse Post Standard describes the experience of an Africa Bound! participant.

Vanessa Johnson founded Africa Bound! in 2004 in response to the tremendous need for American teens to know more about the world than what they see on television, to learn first-hand about the incredible, wonderful and sometimes frightening differences and challenges facing other cultures and peoples. Africa Bound! takes small groups of American teens out of their comfortable known world of MP3 players, McDonald's and instant messaging to places where electricity and running water are uncommon. Where people that look, talk and act different are the norm and it is these teens who are the strange ones.

In August, 2005, after months of preparation, fundraising and classes on West African history and culture, a group of Syracuse teens led by Ms. Johnson to traveled to Ghana for two weeks of sight-seeing and cultural exchange programs. The group visited public markets, an 18th century castle used as a staging area for the slave trade, an orphanage and a village school.

For the teens, the experience was unforgettable. The friends they made, the new ways they look at others and at themselves have changed their lives.

For more information about future Africa Bound! programs write, phone or e-mail Ms. Johnson.

Africa