Eleven years ago I was in a land rover winding through the Ethiopian countryside. As we navigated the winding mountain roads, I curiously asked my friend Worku the names of everything I saw. Being in the Ethiopian countryside, I counted a lot of animals, but I soon paused when a herd of hundreds of goats got the best of my Amharic counting abilities. Worku, hearing my silence, supplied the word bazoo meaning ‘many.’ At ten-years-old I loved the sound of the word rolling off my tongue (much much more than my fellow passengers liked hearing it unfortunately), and soon I was christened Bazoonesh. Though initially given to me because of my single word obsession, there is a certain truth to the name, meaning ‘girl of many choices,’ that far surpasses it’s phonological origins.
A diploma from Rice University ensures many things and choices is one of them. In preparing for graduation my classmates and I debated a number of different options for what to do when we parted but ultimately my choices have brought me here, to the Heathrow airport, on my way to Blantyre Malawi.
In reality we all have many choices- some big and some small, some made in advance and others in the moment. In preparing for the following 9 weeks I have made some choices:
- I choose to be someone who encourages my fellow interns and the others who I interact with
- I choose to spend time every day learning about Malawi and practicing Chichewa (the local language) Moni, muli bwanji?
- I choose to be flexible with plans and attempt to find the balance between staying out of the way and taking initiative
- I choose to spend time every day to reflect on how I am growing as a person and how these experiences will shape choices I make in the future
I am excited to be returning to Africa, a place that has changed the way I view the world many times, and so thankful for this opportunity. Check in here to see how these next two months play out for all of us Rice 360 interns and see where our choices lead us!