After 24 hours of travel, I have finally arrived in Africa.  This time two years ago I didn’t even own a passport.  I had never been out of the country.  I honestly didn’t even know that much about Africa.  Here I am, for the third time, delivering leadership lessons to more than 100 students from universities across United States.

Landing in Cape Town makes me think back to the first time I arrived in Africa, nearly two years ago.  How could I forget?

There were five of us, with what seemed like hundreds of bags (mine was undoubtedly the largest and heaviest as I felt the need to bring food for the next 100 days).  We embarked on a journey that took us on 4 planes  from Atlanta, Georgia to Frankfurt, Germany to Rome, Italy to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and finally to Nairobi, Kenya .  Yes, you read that correctly—3 stops and 44 hours—just to get to our starting place.

The crew in Kenya

One of the first things we did in Kenya was attend, volunteer, and speak at the National Youth Leadership Convention.     In Kenya, 80% of the population is under the age of 30, and the conference brought more than 1,000 of the top young leaders together, representing each province, to discuss the pressing issues of the day.

It’s interesting to note that our journey began speaking to young people at the 2008 Kenyan National Youth Leadership Convention.  Now two years and three trips to Africa later, I am preparing to speak to young leaders again, only this time they are American students participating in a Global L.E.A.D. Program in South Africa.

LEAD Cape Town 2009

Working with young people is important.  It’s the reason that I have chosen to do what I do.  I truly believe that the world will be shaped by these young people, the decisions they make and the actions they take.

What have you done to shape the next generation?

“The young do not know enough to be prudent, and therefore they attempt the impossible– and achieve it, generation after generation. “ –Pearl S. Buck