Glen at Fantsuam - a Canadian view of Nigeria

I met Glen in September 2008 when I was at Fantsuam. He was there with VSO and is a Canadian.

He was writing a great blog about his placement with Fantsuam Foundation, so I asked him to do a session on blogs and blogging for my Self Directed Learners group. As well as teaching the basics of blogging, that session brought up all kinds of interesting issues in my mind about who communicates what and why. Glen was a Canadian blogging to Canadians back home about his experiences at Fantsaum - in distant unfamiliar rural Nigeria. To my Self Directed Learners there is nothing unfamiliar about rural Nigeria - for many it is the only reality they have ever know. They were interested to see Glen's photos simply to find out what he was doing when he was away from the main campus. They were also very interested to find out about blogs and the possibility of writing comments on them, and having one of your own.

This blog entry (batauri-bye-bye.) is what Glen wrote on leaving Fantsuam. It give an excellent balanced account of rural realities, cutting through the images of starvation, desperation and corruption that many of us see most of the time through the media. Earlier entries include photos and are a good resource for anyone wanting to know about real life in rural Nigeria.