I just had a there are kids starving in Africa moment! Here's the story. I go to a summer program, in which participants gain teaching in science related subjects such as anatomy and chemistry, a $2000 stipend, and an internship. On Friday, people who were interning at Lebonheur(a children's hospital) were to go and get their shots so they could work there. This one girl who wasn't going there wanted to walk with them, but the medical student who was supervising said only that Lebonheur students could go there.

So instead of complying, she decided to grumble and cuss. I'm surprised at that sort of behavior. You can't just let people walk around the city without anyone knowing where they are. Does this girl know how expensive it is to be sued, and if the medical school got sued over this program that they probably wouldn't have it again? One selfish person could ruin it for everyone.

Not to mention that if you accept their money, you accept their rules. I know some people who would love to have that money and that internship on their resume for doing little more(up to now, we start internships tomorrow) than looking reasonably alert when someone tells us about some subject and looking like we are taking notes. It would take ten weeks of full time work at $5.15 (the minimum wage) to get two thousand dollars if we lived in a magical tax free world. Ten weeks of hard labor, and they are giving it to us for eight weeks of work.

Not to mention, in some parts of the world, two thousand is more than you could get in ten years if you worked all year. I'm not a real activist about that sort of thing- I like my cushy little American bubble too much for good taste, but at least I'm aware that I am spoiled as heck. I think that surviving college on a thousand bucks (although with the supplement of work study, and a two hundred and fifty scholarship check) is a big achievement. However, I am pretty aware that I am not doing badly.

I love my whining, but come on. I've seen this sort of behavior before too. I went to France once, and on the last day, they decided to have a drunken party(at 16!) and then complain when the teacher took away their bottle of wine. Like an authority figure who has a job to do is really going to let them act wild and crazy. Not to mention, these same people spent the whole time bitching about the food. I don't get how people go to a foreign country and then think they aren't supposed to eat any of the country's food. If you wanted to stay at home, stay at home. I saw some more of that bad behavior today. The director of the program decided to take us to an Ethiopian restaurant, and paid for us all to eat.

However, some people just had to bitch about it not being MiccyDs. This guy is paying for us to have an experience together, and people just bitching and being so ungrateful. The food wasn't that bad. That hot chickenish stuff they can keep, but the legumes(tasted like potato salad) and those greens were pretty yummy. But people really need to learn some values. I know I'm not the best person in the world, but I try not to be so much of a bitch. Come on, show some manners.