How Twitter Changed My Life

Summer of 2007, a twenty five hour plane flight landed me in Pretoria, South Africa, a city about an hour outside of Johannesburg. It was an exposure trip, not a missions trip. My team only did a handful of service projects during our two week stay; aside from that, we were there to experience South African life. This meant that after a day’s work of mixing cement for bricks for someone’s home, or eating dinner with the women at the battered women’s shelter, we went out on the town.

As our team drove from the townships to the city, the rapid change of scenery struck me; one moment we were in what looked like the villages of Mexico, and then next we were in the streets of middle class America. Juxtapose a house with a white picket fence next to a tin and cardboard shack in the middle if a dirt lot. The dichotomy both jarred and confused me.

One evening, we went to a fairly well integrated club. A few of the girls I was with decided they wanted to meet some Afrikaans guys. During our conversations with the guys, we were asked what a bunch of “Yanks” were doing in South Africa. We told them we were there to serve, care for, love and learn about people different than ourselves. We told them the name of the township we were working in and where we were staying. Their looks of disapproval shocked us.

“You’re staying in Pretoria? Why? You’re Americans, that’s not a good part of town, you don’t have to stay there."

They completely missed the point of why we were there. They could not look beyond their preconceived notions of black South Africa.

Back at school in Orange County, I worked towards my journalism degree, knowing I somehow wanted to marry my writing skills with helping others. My senior year, I was selected for a City government PR internship—a good thing, but inconsistent with my heart and my degree. The resume I was building seemed scattered.

With graduation on the horizon, I began looking for opportunities elsewhere. And it came in the most unsuspecting of places.

I follow my favorite author, Donald Miller, on Twitter. I had just decided to re-follow him (I had previously unfollowed him because the guy tweets a LOT) and I saw a tweet about the These Numbers Have Faces internship. I had never heard of the organization, but quickly decided that any friend of Don’s was a friend of mine. A scan of the website and quick read through of the TNHF mission in South Africa showed me I might have a place there. A few clicks, an application, and a phone interview later, I begin solidifying plans to move to Portland after graduation. I had always wanted to move to Portland…I just had no idea it would be so soon!

Now that I am here, it seems the pieces of my puzzle are finally beginning to fit. I can look back on my trip to South Africa, the writing classes I took in college and my PR experience that seemed so random at the time, and see how each beautifully built on the next. I am so blessed to be here in Portland working for TNHF, and I am excited be using my skills to contribute to the change that so desperately needs to take place in South Africa.