International

What a beautiful Country, U.S.

My people, the Tuareg people of Niger, West Africa have a proverb that says: ''Travel is a University.'' I will describe the service during my stay in the country of ''Uncle Tom,'' the land of freedom commonly known as the United States of America (USA) from February 14 to April 12, 2010. As an African, I was impressed by three American values, which are: the organization of the system, hospitality, and respect for human rights as behavior.

The Organization:
    From New York to Washington, the last city of my visit, via Philadelphia, Miami, Georgia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Indiana, Chicago, Wisconsin, Boston, New Jersey and Pennsylvania to name the ones I traveled through.  I was influenced by the cleanliness of roads, neighborhoods and public places. No polluting and littering the roads, cities and the bush. People perform their duty with pride. ''I told a friend, apparently it is more difficult to maintain a car than to buy it here.'' In the private services, and the public sector, and especially in the NGO’s like Educate Tomorrow I knew well, the workers are very friendly and work in total harmony, with no sense of inferiority. The director is serving her administration and not the opposite. The people and the director represent the administration well.
    The primary schools, secondary schools and universities were marked by the quality and flexibility of the American educational system. ''I have said in theory to the leaders and teachers at home in Africa, that the weakness of our education system is due to the fact that we give more credit to the construction of classrooms and to the purchase of textbooks than to training and building the capacity of teachers.  Now I am even more convinced, and have the ultimate belief that when the teacher is well trained and dedicated, (s)he can do wonders even under a tree.”

The Hospitality:
    Americans have a legendary hospitality. Several people have guests at home for dinner or for a tourist trip, either to watch a game, a championship, a concert or to sleep. This hospitality extends to the White House, where I could converse and take photos.
    Both children and parents are very friendly, and like to know what other African children like to do in life like sports, business, adventure and what they eat, etc. We do not choose our parents, our country, or our continent, you were lucky and must be aware of your good fortune, I told them.
    In all the families with which I stayed, I left with the feeling of being in my own family. The phrase which is ‘‘we are honored to welcome you among us''

The Respect for Human Rights, Law and Behavior:
    My seatmate on the plane before landing on American soil was saying, unlike in Africa the right of the man (father) comes after that of the child, woman and dog. This information has been confirmed to me by one of my friends with whom I spent several days.  I do what my wife tells me to do, he said.  The children enjoy full rights in the U.S., and when parents are not able to take care of their children, the State assumes its responsibilities. Outside of the right to quality education, the child has the right to quality food, sport and leisure unlike in Africa where those rights are a luxury. One of my friends told me that his dog maintenance costs him about $300 per month, on average 10 dollars a day; average people in Africa live on less than $1 per day. These rights are known, popularized and practiced.

The U.S. is rich by nature and knows how to save.  People anticipate and make projections for the future.  ''A friend also told me we had enough in the U.S. Gold Reserve in Fort Knox to refurbish all U.S. roads, but we do not touch it.”  The U.S. is the world's leading power from a material point of view of material, because their mentality takes on a global vision of the world. It is characterized by numerous humanitarian benefits to the poor in both the U.S. and around the globe.
The Americans are not what we see in films.   I thank all the staff of Educate Tomorrow, the school of Tess Corners, the schools in Washington and my friends in Boston.

Some of my American favorites:
City: South Beach, Miami Beach
Dish: Kentucky Fried Chicken
Travel: From Miami to Milwaukee by Car
Sport: A Baseball game in Washington DC with the Washington Nationals, and the Miami Heat game versus the Memphis Grizzlies
Film: Avatar 3-D
Museum: Magic Kingdom, Walt Disney World
Population: Everyone I met