Meeting Mid-Flight: Jelani Girls.

On my flight from London to Cairo I sat to this wonderful woman from Georgia USA.

The five or so hours' flight flew by (pun?) because we talked, talked and talked and got to know each other.

She set up a non-profit around the Summer of 2013, known as Jelani Girls (Jelani means greatness in Swahili). With the non-profit, she uses a mentorship based program to enrich girls in different areas of their lives.

She shared her experiences with setting up the non-profit, the girls she has met, the opportunities she has offered and what is in store for Jelani Girls in 2014.

She was actually on her way from the US to Ghana, where she did a Jelani Girls Christmas mission.

I'm glad I met her and that I am remaining in touch with her. It's always nice to meet inspiring people doing extraordinary things.

Update: Where Am I?

Happy New Year (can I still say that? Side note: me and my cousin laugh a little when people still say Happy New Year. Yes. We think it's reserved for the first week of January).

I am now 22.

I am still in Africa, but I've been in Nairobi since the 27th of December.

Due to the conflict in South Sudan which began on the 15th of December, I had to sadly leave and head to Nairobi, where I will stay for a few more weeks. I will not be returning to Juba until later this year. 

So I didn't have much Internet in my two weeks and some days in Juba. If I did have it, I had just enough to tweet and Facebook. 

I would write blogposts on my phone and when I could find WIFI, I would post them. It's a way of blogging I didn't really like because I ended up writing some of my posts like diary entries. I also couldn't post my blog entries in the order I wanted to. Finally, I didn't write about or during the conflict; I was incredibly demotivated. 

But now I'm in my fourth week in Nairobi, I'm completely motivated again to write on a regular basis. Plus I can't really wait until February when I head home to start writing again. 

A lot of people felt sorry for me because I wasn't even in Juba for a week and things kicked off. Now I feel bad that I had to leave Juba earlier than intended and that I couldn't do the things I set out to do. However, I had an incredibly unique experience, was offered many wonderful opportunities and I met many new people. 

I'll be writing on my trip in Africa in a series of posts as they are all about different topics etc. Stay tuned!