I have had the pleasure of being a summer associate at the International Finance Corporation Head Quarters (IFC-HQ) over the past month. I worked as part of a young, dynamic team part of the private sector window of the Global Agriculture & Food Security Program (GAFSP).

During my stay, I attended the IFC summer internship program welcoming and orientation workshop. And it is here that I began to receive a greater understanding of the IFC and it’s role as part of the World Bank Group. The IFC’s values are fittingly found in and lived through the word excited, whereby, EXCITED is an acronym for:

EX – Excellence C – Commitment I – Integrity TE – TEamwork and D – Diversity

Although the time I spent learning with and from the GAFSP team was short, I loved it. A great big thank you to Laura, Alex, Juan and Yoshi for their invaluable time and teachings. I feel enriched having known you. And yes, also very excited about this journey forward.

While there are a number of systems that I have come to appreciate about the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area, the accessibility to public transportation by people with physical disabilities is one that I hope to see being developed in many other countries, including my own. Below are some photographs and brief commentary on how people with disabilities are being empowered to independently navigate the city.

Photo 1: Tactile paving is a form of detectable warning surface commonly found near pedestrian crossings, staircases and train station platforms to guide blind and visually impaired pedestrians. This system was first introduced in Japan. Today, countries that also make use of this system include Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Photo 2: New Metro buses have low floor ramps that allow for ease of access into and out of Metro buses. In the event of a hydraulic system failure, provision has been made to allow the lowering of the floor bus to be performed manually. In addition, inside the bus is a specially designated area for wheelchair securement with safety belts.

Photo 3: Public and office building restrooms cater for ease of access to people with disabilities.

On 10 July 2012, the SAWIP Class of 2012 had the opportunity of meeting with Congressman John Robert Lewis to engage in his first-hand account on the US Civil Rights Movement. Following his arrival into his office, our natural inclination was to rise and greet him. However, he insisted that we remain seated. Still, we rose to welcome him and to show pay him tribute. He walked around the room and greeted us all, individually, with a handshake. What was most significant about his personal greeting with each of us was that he made eye contact while welcoming us in person with a handshake.

During our interaction with Congressman Lewis, and in hearing him share his life experiences, I caught myself silently shedding tears. In knowing myself, I am not easily moved to tears, and so this feeling annoyingly surprised me. However, I allowed myself to embrace the moment and emotions. I continued to listen, humbled and in tears.

It is uneasy for me to identify exactly why I was moved to tears during this particular gathering. I accept that. I recognize that too often we (as human beings) wear masks pretending to and not to feel. Within society, showing tears is sometimes seen as a social flaw. Now, whether this is a sign of weakness, or not, I am not concerned because of the likely complexities involved in our personal stories. Congressman Lewis shared an account when he was moved to tears and I found it refreshing on how that symbolized the notion of conquering through the words “we shall overcome.”

It was on June 16, 1858, when Abraham Lincoln delivered his well-known House Divided speech while accepting the Republican nomination for the US Senate in Springfield, Illinois. In his speech, Lincoln said, “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” As we commemorate June 16, 1976, may we as the youth of 2012 work together to build and grow a prosperous South Africa. As the emerging leaders of our country, may we collectively work in unity to raise an inspired generation of outstanding leadership that brings positive change to our current challenges. In remembrance of the Soweto Uprisings of 1976, the SAWIP Class of 2012 will hear from and share with Mr Ebrahim Rasool, South Africa’s ambassador to the United States. I trust that this, and many of our other experiences in South Africa, Washington DC and beyond, will further encourage our class and our peers to continue standing together to ensure that our country be no longer be divided.

I have found myself being lost. Several times, I have been lost, and have come to find myself. As ambiguous as this is, it has been and is my story. On one hand, I have been lost due to losing direction on my way to a particular destination. While on the other hand, I have also been lost because I simply did not comprehend some or other concept, event, or situation. What holds true about being lost, is that through every encounter, I have found myself. Serendipitously, in one way or another, I have come to discover lessons that have steered me in a specific direction.

I recall being in unplanned, unfamiliar territory, and therefore lost, with company and on my own. During the times that I have been lost with a friend or two, I have always found comfort in knowing that I am not alone. Having someone with me to share in my fears and sense of adventure made the journey of finding the destination less daunting.

My recent trip to the US Consulate for my VISA application proved no different to me being lost. I had prepared as best as I could. However, I got lost along the way. I made several wrong turns. I drove around in circles. And pulled up on more than one occasion to call a friend or ask a fuel attendant to help me find direction, to safely reach my destination. During this time of frantic panic because I was lost, late and thirsty, I had to stop myself to remind myself that I would get to where I needed to go. I had to stay calm. Yes, I was running late. And I knew that there was nothing I could do then to change that. However, what was most important was my safe arrival. At this stage, time became irrelevant. I came to that realisation when I knew that panic would get me nowhere. I had to claim back my composure. The urgency of my situation, the thoughts I had racing in my mind and the vehicles around me, all had me so fixated on being lost, that I had to force myself into a mind shift. I knew that inasmuch as I could and did receive help from friends and friendly strangers, I had to navigate myself to where I needed to go. I had to be self-reliant. No one was going to rescue me. I had, in a sense, and in the words of American essayist, poet and philosopher Henry David Thoreau:

“[I] went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I had come to die, discover that I had not lived.”

I recall declaring to my friend Lungelwa that I actually enjoy being lost. I enjoy the journey and lessons that come with self-discovery. I have been told, and I am learning, that one of the best things about being in your twenties is finding oneself. I believe that spending time alone is key to knowing your true self. Solitude allows us to initially stop, then re-search and re-direct.

As we continue with our daily discoveries, may we remember to ever so often STOP. May we be courageous to reassess our directions and ponder on the following:

to STOP is to Sit Think Observe Plan

The community service project that I am currently involved in is an after school program that caters for children between the ages of 6 and 15. Upon arrival of the children at the aftercare centre, we provide them with an afternoon snack. On most days, a sandwich and juice is offered. Recently, the program’s chief co-ordinator asked me to arrive earlier than usual because a company was sponsoring pizza for the children that afternoon and needed me to receive the delivery.

When the children arrived and learnt of the pizza surprise, they were thoroughly pleased. Initially, they were under the impression that they would each receive their own box of medium-sized pizzas. Soon after I dispelled their misconception, I gave them their food and they ate it. And ate it rather quickly. Before I knew it, they were asking for more and more food. Instinct told me that it could not necessarily all be hunger. However, I gave a slice or two more to some of the children. Soon thereafter, I saw the slices of pizza stealthily being placed in their empty lunch boxes. Now I wondered whether this was because they wanted to take some pizza home to share, or whether they were really that hungry that afternoon. Observing this made me feel melancholic.

It made me think back to a book called Half a Yellow Sun (Harper Collins Publishers) by award-winning Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. The excerpt below is about the protagonist Ugwu, a young boy who is employed as a houseboy for a university professor.

“Ugwu entered the kitchen cautiously, placing one foot slowly after the other. When he saw the white thing, almost as tall as he was, he knew it was the fridge. His aunty had told him about it. A cold barn, she had said, that kept food from going bad. He opened it and gasped as the cool air rushed into his face. Oranges, bread, beer, soft drinks: many things in packets and cans were arranged on different levels and, and on the topmost, a roasted shimmering chicken, whole but for a leg. Ugwu reached out and touched the chicken. The fridge breathed heavily in his ears. He touched the chicken again and licked his finger before he yanked the other leg off, eating it until he had only cracked, sucked pieces of bones left in his hand. Next, he broke off some bread, a chunk that he would have been excited to share with his siblings if a relative had visited and brought it as a gift. He ate quickly, before Master could come in and change his mind.”

Ugwu is a child. Similarly to the children I care for, I understand that receiving a delicious treat is savoured.

However, I was given unpleasant stares and comments when I started refusing to give the children more pizza because I thought that they had had enough to eat. When I asked them questions to try reason with them about my refusal for giving them more food, I received the cold shoulder. As a way of telling me that they were irritated with me, and perhaps in the hope that I would give into their demands, some of the children answered “pizza” to every question that I asked.

At this point, one of the older children had told me that the food is theirs. I had no right to keep it from them. And rightfully so, I agreed. However, only partially. As the only adult with them at the time, it was my decision that having had x number of slices of pizza was sufficient. Just because there was a surplus of food for that afternoon, did not mean that it all needed to be eaten that day. It could be stored in the fridge or freezer for another day. There would be more food, more pizza another day.

This experience has me thinking about the state of mind of people who demand that they have the prerogative for certain possessions. Some writers refer to this as the “entitlement mentality.” This mentality is common in our society whereby people need/want things because they believe it to be theirs. Of course, this is not to say that people are undeserving of certain possessions. Employed people may deserve higher remuneration, while unemployed people may look to their state government for financial assistance. I am in no way speaking against the basic rights and access to rights that people deserve. I am though referring to the state of mind whereby people claim that you owe them for reasons justifiable to them. For example, without knowing your personal struggles, or story, people may demand to have your possessions because to them, there is more where that came from. I think that the current status quo of this entitlement mentality is a detriment to our society. The alarmingly high crime statistics in our country is one sign of this detriment. It is my hope that as a people, we will change this mentality through our actions. I believe that we need to work together by taking both personal and collective responsibility, care and pride to adjust the current disposition of the entitlement mentality to a positive one.