A Trip to Washington, D.C

 On August 5th, 2018 I had to cringe from the unfamiliar alarm at 6 a.m. on a Sunday morning! Why? Was I thinking. Do I really need to go? Ugh! But Hey, tickets were reserved so you know, got to go! Around 7:30 a.m. I was on my way to Washington. It was half way there that I suddenly got excited for this trip, the world bank anticipation was very real though.

Now, if you’re wondering what is going on, let me give you a little background. As a volunteer at African Hope Committee, I was selected to participate in their very first youth program in a long time. This trip being part of the program, I was pleasantly surprised to be part of an educational trip to the United States Capital: Washington, D.C. The trip consisted on reinforcing our financial and social knowledge in general and in non-for-profit in particular. Remember the hard Sunday morning I mentioned earlier? All gone! I got all my energy back after lunchtime at the Union Station and obviously the excitement to visit the White House. The White House was a great social experiment! I got to see a melting pot of numerous nationalities, people from India, Europe, Africa and others. We as a group even made a new friend from London—Adam who was nice enough to take a group picture with us. We then proceeded to visit the U.S. Capitol and Lincoln Memorial. Tons and tons of pictures that I keep dearly as part of my memories!

Although the precedent was a great social experiment, I will have to say our visit to the world bank was the most memorable and instructive part of this trip. M. David King, our guide inside of the building, was very knowledgeable and engaged with all our questions throughout the whole tour. I learned about what is the world bank really about, how they function and their projects since 1946; their successes and challenges. I was specifically captured by the MIGA (Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency) which a covering insurance equity investments, personal loans and contracts made to help investors and countries in need of a contractual guarantee for a successful project. I was impressed that the World Bank has used this agency in areas such as currency, wars, agriculture in places such as Africa. The building also had a cool touch screen table of all continents with information about places they have worked to. I was able to use this device and found out about the project on mobile money exchange in Cameroon they have been working on. It was nice to find some testimonies of women who financially elevated their families through this project.

Overall, the trip was great. Turns out no sleep-in on a Sunday morning was a good decision after all! I learned a lot and enhanced my networking abilities. I plan to further read the free documents we received at the world bank in order to apply the knowledge in my personal life. Thank you, African Hope, 🙂