A statement in this clip from KOMO represents ignorance that frustrates me. I won’t mention who said it (you can watch it if you want to know), but the interview is about charity in Africa.

Out of nowhere, one of the hosts blurts out, “I've been to Africa.¹ They have, like, mud huts and maybe scrap metal to make a roof out of."

Only mud huts and scrap metal in Africa, eh? There aren’t any proper buildings on an entire continent?

This fancy thing called the Internet sure tells me otherwise.

Here's Johannesburg, South Africa:

















Here’s Cape Town, South Africa:

















Here’s Nairobi, Kenya:

















Here’s Cairo, Egypt:

















Here’s Accra, Ghana:


















Here’s Kigali, Rwanda:
















Man, it must suck to live in those 40-story downtown mud huts.

^{1 - That doesn’t even include my annoyance of everyone grouping the 50+ countries and hundreds of ethnic groups – from the Arabs of Egypt to the Afrikaners of South Africa – as one seemingly homogenous group.}

Here are some links from the Ghana container story:

Vanessa Anderson runs this blog updating people on how fundraising is going.

Here is Vanessa’s appearance on KOMO.

Here’s the Gathering Project blog.

Here’s a story (originally printed in the King County Journal but ripped off and reposted on another site) about Chief Nana Kwaku Dapaah II.

Vanessa Anderson was returning from a mission trip to Guatemala when she heard about an opportunity to help in Ghana. Before the plane touched down at Sea-Tac, her mind was set: She was going.

Since then, her hopes have expanded. Now Anderson wants to fill a 40-foot refrigerated shipping container with medical and school supplies for the people of Bamboi in the north of the country.

This 15-year-old homeschooler from Tacoma dreams big.

The two-week trip last summer to Guatemala with Real Life Church of Maple Valley left an indelible impression on Anderson’s conscience. She and others spent two weeks running a Vacation Bible School in the Central American country.

“I don’t know how to describe it, but it impacted me so much that I wanted to do something else,” Vanessa said.

=> Read more!

I'm going to be bringing you more details about Dennis Mutuma, the Kenyan student at Tacoma Community College who overcame great personal hardship to get where he is today.

And on the topic of Africa, I'll post an early edition of my contribution to next week's Show&Tell page about a girl who is trying to raise money to send a shipping container full of medical supplies and other goods to Ghana.