Africa, Here We Come

My Thursday column announces that Mitch Smith from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln has won my fourth annual Win-a-Trip Contest. I’ve posted his winning essay below.

Mitch Smith, the winner of my 2010 Win-A-Trip contest. Chris Dorwart Mitch Smith, the winner of my 2010 Win-A-Trip contest.

I also just want to reiterate my hope that more students — hey, more of everybody — will travel abroad and spend sometime in the developing world. It truly can be a transformational experience. I know I was greatly shaped by my trips as a backpacking student in the early 1980’s (while theoretically studying law at Oxford). And just yesterday, I met a young man named Kevin McCaffrey who left his consulting company to start a business producing children’s books written by kids in Cambodia, Congo and Nicaragua and market them to American children. It’s a neat idea (his company is First Person Publishing), and it turns out that it had its roots in a summer he spent teaching English in Ecuador with WorldTeach (and then an overland Nairobi-Capetown journey another summer). Travel shapes us all.

I listed some overseas groups that take interns in my blog post announcing the Win-a-Trip Contest, and there are many more. Just this week I had lunch with the leaders of Pro Mujer, a women’s empowerment organization operating in Argentina, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Guatemala and Mexico, and they mentioned that they take volunteers in the field, for a minimum of three months. Applicants should write to Pro Mujer’s New York office. If you know of other good organizations to intern with, post them below.

So without further ado, here is Mitch’s essay:

I’ll make sure we’re clear on this from the start: I am the typical, “parochial” American college student you scorn in your column.

I was born in Nebraska, grew up in Kansas and made the harrowing trip back to – get this – Nebraska for college. I have almost left the United States twice before: I drove past (not through) Detroit’s “Tunnel to Canada” and ate lunch one time within spitting distance of the Mexican border at a Cracker Barrel in Yuma, Ariz. (because what cross-cultural experience isn’t helped by a cheeseburger and fries?).

In my defense, my favorite TV show is the Amazing Race, I love the parade of nations at the Olympics and I enjoy foreign delicacies like pizza and tacos. And hey, I have a friend from Nepal, a professor from France and lots of ex-co-workers at Chick-fil-A who spoke Spanish. But other than that, I have led the life of a sheltered Midwestern suburbanite.

Why then, you ask, would someone who gets excited when he sees a “Now Entering Iowa” sign make a good traveling companion in Guinea or Ghana? My answer to that question is simple: what I lack in traveling experience I make up for in passion for journalism and making a difference.

My life to this point has been a series of double-quarter-pounders at McDonald’s, history tests and reporting assignments for my campus newspaper about the women’s rifle shooting team (feel free to insert a joke about the fact that my college has a women’s rifle team).

And it’s been a lovely ride. I attended a great high school, I am going to a fine college and – judging by the fate of most in my situation – I will land a moderately satisfying job, go on a cruise to Cancún, take an elderhostel to Dublin and then die.

Thing is, I’m not OK with that. I’m a quarter of the way through my life and still haven’t applied for a passport. As much as I hate it, I have truly done NOTHING on a global scale to make the world better (and no, I don’t put community service at elementary schools and my Eagle Scout project in that category).

But I’d like to think of my life to this point as a preparation for bigger and better things. I have been in love with journalism since picking up the sports page of the Kansas City Star when I was in first grade. I wrote for the teen section of The Star a few years ago and was also editor-in-chief of my high school paper.

But the reason I love journalism isn’t seeing my byline at the top of a story or winning awards. No, I love journalism because nothing else gives you permission to ask questions about the most intimate topics and then entrusts you to tell a person’s life story. It’s this love of telling people’s stories and inspiring action that has me interested in accompanying you on this trip.

If you choose me for this trip, I can promise you a few things. The first is that I will have no idea what to do when we go through customs or exchange our currency. The second is that I’ll be a tad nervous the first time we interview an armed warlord who kills innocent civilians. And the third is that I will fully invest myself in this project. If – for some reason – you find the application of an unseasoned Midwesterner at a less-than-prestigious school to be intriguing, I can promise you that you won’t be sorry. This is the epitome of a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to make a difference and witness the world’s problems firsthand. I can assure you that it is an opportunity that I would not squander.

Anyway, if you’re still reading my essay here at word 647, I appreciate you giving me a fair shake. I think my journalism background and “average American” perspective could make a difference on this trip. So if you agree and would like to take a chance on an uncultured middle-class white guy from a public school in the Corn Belt, give me a call.

Finally, as I mentioned, one possibility for the trip is Gabon-Congo/Brazzaville-Congo/Kinshasa-Angola. Any recommendations? Are those interesting places? If we go there, what are good issues to cover en route?