African Leadership Academy campus

Misadventures

A Year in South Africa

Stumbling into an African prep school

2008–2009
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After graduating from high school in 2008, I spent a year in Johannesburg, South Africa attending a start-up prep school for Africans. The school was (and continues to be) called the African Leadership Academy, and my year there was one that, despite what I claim in my final post, changed who I am and how I see the world.

It also provided a wealth of classic misadventure stories, some of which were sent to my friends and family in a series of 11 emails. What follows are these emails—unabridged, unedited, and unchanged but for the addition of pictures.