EARTH University student Karen Albuja, has started writing her blog. It is written in Spanish http://agriculturasostenible-karen.blogspot.com/ but if you do not read Spanish you can translate it at google http://www.google.com/language_tools Just cut and paste Karen’s web address in the language tool and it will translate the web page for you. It is not perfect but you will be able to read and understand it. This is a story worthy of your time. Please click on the link and read about her life threatening adventure. Karen is a very sweet, compassionate, bright young lady who has a lot to say regarding the future and life in our troubled world.

Her classmate Sharon is a another special young woman who is from Uganda and is in her second year at EARTH University in Costa Rica. When we met and she told me where she was from, I must have been mentally processing Uganda for she then asked, do you remember Ide Amin? Whoa! Ide Amin was a nightmare. That is Sharon’s country. Her first post is the one I promised you about the day the students were trapped on the other side of the Rio Oro due to the flash flood of water coming down from the mountain. I hope that Sharon will dig deep into her past and tell us the story of her life in the near future. Documenting her journey to this time and place is important. They do not believe in educating girls in her country, Sharon has achieved much in her short lifespan and she has much to teach all of us about life and the struggle to be educated. One statement from Sharon that is still ringing in our head is that, “Failure is not an option for me.” Think about that for moment, …… failure, is not an option for Sharon!

Sharon speaks many languages, 6 or more, but when she started at Earth University in Costa Rica, she did not speak Spanish. My first impression was the same as Sharon’s, that all of the classes were taught in English. Wrong, they are all in Spanish. You must be bilingual and speak English but all classes are taught in Spanish. Talk about a handicap on Day 1, but failure is not an option for Karen. I love smart, liberated, still struggling woman. It is the struggle that makes us stronger, smarter, and capable of overcoming every obstacle.

Sharon has a scholarship to EARTH, because of the generosity of 2 different people who found it in their hearts to pay her way. She is the first person in her family to go to a University, and she is a woman, from Uganda; that is big. I expect we have much to learn from Uganda’s finest young woman, including, “Failure, is not an option for me.”