Loving Africa 1(Sameway Leisure 458)
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Queenie Chow TranslatorCher Cheng<br />
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Queenie<br />
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Hawkers in the street<br />
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Making new friends<br />
Beautiful beach in Togo<br />
30<br />
ISSUE <strong>458</strong><br />
11.12.2015
Queenie Chow TranslatorCher Cheng<br />
My name is Queenie. I am 26 years<br />
old and I love traveling.<br />
microinsurance.<br />
Dream a<br />
little dream :<br />
To-Go or<br />
Not-To-Go <br />
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I have lived in Hong Kong, Australia,<br />
France and Mexico. In the past few<br />
years, I have travelled to Malaysia,<br />
Central Australia, Singapore, Taiwan,<br />
Los Angeles, Myanmar, Tibet, Cuba,<br />
Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Panama,<br />
Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica<br />
Less than 5 years since graduation,<br />
more than 15 professional exams, I can<br />
almost call myself an associate actuary.<br />
Yet I am very different from a typical<br />
actuary.<br />
I am a risk-lover. I love adventure. I<br />
love travelling.<br />
I believe travel makes one modest.<br />
The more one travels, the more you will<br />
see what a tiny place you occupy in the<br />
world. I continuously dream a little dream<br />
to see more of this big great world out<br />
there.<br />
I decided my next adventure<br />
would be <strong>Africa</strong> – wildlife safari, Sahara<br />
deserts, sand dunes, tropical rain<br />
forests, big cat stalk, pygmy hippos,<br />
fabulous festivals, irresistible music, the<br />
mysterious world of masks and secret<br />
societies. The mosaic of <strong>Africa</strong>n people<br />
whose histories are epic and whose daily<br />
struggles are similarly so.<br />
I also became very interested in<br />
a new subject called micro-insurance.<br />
Micro-insurance first emerged in the<br />
late 1990s in the context of international<br />
development and microfinance.<br />
Against a backdrop of the microcredit<br />
movement, micro-insurance was singled<br />
out as much needed financial service to<br />
allow the poor to gain access to credit,<br />
to support the viability of credit providers<br />
and to protect the productive assets of<br />
the loan taker. In the years since, as it<br />
has become a regular part of the drive<br />
for financial inclusion. <strong>Africa</strong> being the<br />
poorest continent on earth made it one<br />
of the best places for learning about<br />
I may not<br />
have known where<br />
Togo was but Togo<br />
choose me and I knew I was<br />
To-Go. Almost immediately<br />
after sending through my<br />
resume introducing myself<br />
and my intention of<br />
volunteering in <strong>Africa</strong> for<br />
a few months, I received<br />
a response from a<br />
senior actuary based in<br />
West <strong>Africa</strong>. I have since<br />
learnt that this actuary<br />
was an executive director of<br />
Actuaries Without Borders.<br />
She welcomed my skillset and have<br />
since introduced me to a new business<br />
wonderland of micro-insurance in West<br />
<strong>Africa</strong>.<br />
To travel is to discover that<br />
everyone is wrong about other countries.<br />
Indeed, as I was packing to leave on my<br />
adventure to West <strong>Africa</strong>, those around<br />
me became concerned about my safety<br />
(editors note: parents excepted) and<br />
my next three months in one of the<br />
poorest regions in the world. Alike to<br />
skydiving, although one may know that<br />
such activity is highly regulated and the<br />
risk of accident is even lower than taking<br />
a hot-air balloon but your heart will still<br />
beat that much faster as you get on the<br />
plane. Yet once you dive out, you will be<br />
in love with flying freely in the sky.<br />
This is the same as taking out a new<br />
step out of ones comfort zone.<br />
To travel is to take a journey into<br />
yourself. Stepping out of the plane<br />
may not be easiest, yet I know I will<br />
never regret my first journey into West<br />
<strong>Africa</strong>. Allow me to also take you on<br />
my adventure to the home of <strong>Africa</strong>n<br />
landscapes of our imaginations and<br />
inhabited by an astonishing diversity of<br />
traditional peoples – Togo in West <strong>Africa</strong>.<br />
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31<br />
ISSUE <strong>458</strong><br />
11.12.2015