ktravula – a travelogue!

An Article

I got this link today, and I found it interesting not only because it details the experience of an American Fulbrighter in Nigeria, but because it shows the many prospects of the Fulbright programme beyond just the classroom walls. Evidently – as I’ve seen from the popularity of posts here, and the blog poll – what interests readers of this blog is not always the academic side of the scholar’s experiences, but the subtle, the fun, the personal and the daring.

Find the article here, hat tip to Chris Ogunlowo for the link.

An Article was published on November 25th, 2009, with the tags , , , under the Academic, News, Opinion category. There are currently 2 comments on this article so far.

Last Year

Written on November 4th 2008, when I didn’t even know that I was coming to Barack Obama’s home state:


Dear friends,

I cannot resist this urge. And since we are in the mood for rejoicing,
I urge you to kindly do so with me as well. A few hours before Barack Obama
got his own ticket to the White House, I got news of mine to his great
country. Well, not a flight ticket just yet, but a confirmed selection
as a Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching Assistant. It is a one-year
teaching grant to a post-secondary American institution to teach my
language in the 2009/10 session.

As much a great news as well as a great challenge, I am now beginning
a new extensive re-immersion into the culture and ways of my people. I
would not be going there only to eat hamburgers, right?

Greetings on Obama’s victory. It’s a new day.

Thinking back, I cannot almost believe that it’s already one year. What this means, of course, is that a set of new Fullbrighters have already been chosen now as well. By this time next year, I will be back home, or wherever else the wind of life blows me, and this university would have got its replacement scholar just trying to find his/her feet. Two years ago, they had Busola from Ibadan, last year, there was Tola from Lagos, and now Kola from Ibadan. If the trend of names are anything to go by, I won’t be surprised if the next person to come over here is a “Sola”, “Demola” or “Bola”. For one thing, they are easier names for Americans to pronounce.

Last Year was published on November 4th, 2009, with the tags , , , , , under the Academic, Observations, Soliloquy category. There are currently 2 comments on this article so far.

To Carbondale And Back

IMG_0828IMG_0827IMG_0826IMG_0823IMG_0822IMG_0831IMG_0832IMG_0835IMG_0852IMG_0909IMG_0898IMG_0882IMG_0857IMG_0867These are a few from the pictures I took today on the way to Carbondale and back. I had gone with Reham and a few other student friends for the regional Fulbright get-together/ barbeque and a visit to the African-American Museum on the campus of the Southern Illinois University in the town.

The Carbondale campus of SIU is one of the other campuses of the institution, along with the ones at  Alton, East St. Louis and Edwardsville (which are the towns that provide the name/acronym for the University’s periodic newspaper, the Alestle).

Beside a very good tour of the photo exhibition of the African American history of the town, especially their contribution to the coal mining that was the highlight of the town’s development, we also had fun gathering for a very hearty meal. For me, another highlight was being able to drive my Professor’s S-Class Benz on the open highway while coming back to Edwardsville, two hours away.

Let me not forget to mention a notable scramble within the gathered Fulbright scholars (of different genders, countries and scholar categories) to take a picture with the real-life looking cardboard cutting of the President Obama which had happened to find itself in the middle of the exhibition room beside an American flag. Trust me, I didn’t pass up that opportunity myself. I guess the only thing that could beat that is a meeting of the man himself in the flesh sometime soon.

It was a nice day, surely.

To Carbondale And Back was published on October 24th, 2009, with the tags , , , , , , , under the adventures, Art, Fun, Observations, Travelling category. There are currently 3 comments on this article so far.

Reham the Egyptian

reham

There is an interesting article about my fellow FLTA Reham Othman in The Alestle, SIUE’s campus newspaper, today. It is very well written. Reham is from Egypt and she teaches Arabic, one of the oldest and most populated of world’s languages.

But reading the first comment on the article, I am convinced that exporting and exchanging language and culture might not always be the easiest way to correct deeply-held prejudices and mindsets, even though it is the best and most powerful means accessible to all.  Find the article here.

Reham the Egyptian was published on October 16th, 2009, with the tags , , , , , , , , , , under the Academic category. There are currently 1 comment on this article so far.