“Can you drive to America?” is a common question I’m asked. In my house, I have a world map hanging on the wall. The other day I was explaining to some visitors that a person must take an airplane from Africa to North America. I pointed to the separate continents on the map. They still looked confused. I realized I needed to explain that the blue-colored area on the map is water and the brown parts are the land. This is not to say that I am smarter than others here. I was discussing with a Zulu friend the idea of Westernization. I asked why is it that they are becoming more like us, yet we are not becoming more like them? Why is our way of living better? He said it’s being born with access to information. I explained that from what I have seen here with the honoring family, simple ways of living, knowledge of the land, respect of all people and sharing that we have a lot we could learn from them. I am proud of my heritage and have a love for the American culture that I was raised in because it is my home. I am saddened to see the loss of African culture, traditions and pride in heritage here. My friend spoke of a movement to counteract this called “African Renaissance”. I hope to see this effort grow. I don’t know much about it yet, and would like to learn more. So usually I’d Google it, but I don’t have easy access to information here (like Shusha said). Is this good or bad? I could just go meet a few new people and ask them about what they know (the old-fashioned way). Can computers prohibit us from building relationships? Today I read an article from the Global Health magazine titled “Special Report on the State of HIV/AIDS in South Africa”, Home to 20% of all people living with HIV/AIDS”, South Africa is considered the epicenter of the pandemic. It contained subjects like gender inequality, transactional sex and behavioral interventions, groups of people being tagged with descriptions such as orphaned teenagers, vulnerable children, prisoners and commercial sex workers. All this seemed overwhelming to me and I noticed myself skim over the latter portion of the article. I am a Westerner doing work in a non-organizational culture. I don’t know how being aware of these statistics, surveys, data and facts can help. I question the effectiveness of organization-based work. What I do know is my teenage neighbor who believed that drinking one liter of water after sex with her boyfriend would prevent her from getting HIV (after discussing female condoms, she’s agreed to try one), or comforting my close friend while she waits for her boyfriend’s test results from the clinic. I know which homes children should be walked to after school because they have no parents waiting for them; both of them died from AIDS. I’ve attended funerals and sat next to the crying family members in support. This is my “data” on HIV. I feel myself getting cynical at Westernized-informational gathering and distribution, probably because now for me HIV has become personal.