I started traveling to Africa on health-related missions at the beginning of the 1980s. From the beginning, Africa caught my interest and my imagination. It is, after all, the continent where my father was born — when my Lebanese grandfather went to work providing food to miners in Transvaal. That I went on public health missions was a big advantage since it allowed me to go to places and see situations that no tourist normally sees.
From the beginning I realized that there are two Africas: one normally portrayed in the media, a land of poverty, disease and war; and the other, a vital, energetic continent of hardworking men and women, a continent of beautiful children and young men and young women, a continent of humor and a continent of hope.
Today six of the 10 fastest growing economies in the world are in Africa.