On the street

International Education Week

Mozambique. If I could go anywhere in the world, right now, that’s where I would go.

The eastern coast of Africa might not be the first dream destination to pop into most people’s minds, but for me, Mozambique evokes images of the warm, clear waters of the Indian Ocean and miles of palm-lined beaches. I spent a week in the fishing village of Vilanculos, about half-way up Mozambique’s long coast, while studying abroad in South Africa last year.

My fellow travelers and I befriended some local young men who invited us over for dinner one evening. By candlelight, they prepared fish they had caught that day, which they cooked over a fire in their backyard and served with fresh vegetables and rice. While we ate, they told us about the rap album they were planning to release in Maputo, Mozambique’s capital city. It was one of the most delicious dinners I’d ever had.

My semester in South Africa wasn’t free of interaction with poverty, but it was a far cry from the doom-and-gloom image of Africa that is often all we in the United States see.

That’s why it thrills me that more students than ever before are studying abroad. At the University of Iowa last year, 1,157 UI students studied abroad, a 4.9 percent increase from last year and a 10.2 percent increase from 2005-06 for undergraduates.

Travel, to anywhere in the world, is a chance to see other cultures with a deeper understanding than a sound-bite on the news can ever offer.   |    Login or Join to Post Comments