What I Learned During My Time Volunteering In Africa Building Modern JavaScript-Based Websites
Having just returned home from a full summer volunteering in Africa, I can say that it was indeed the truly life-changing experience I had hoped it would be. There are many things we take for granted in our day-to-day lives, such as our access to cutting edge Silicon Valley technology, and I’m very thankful I was able to use these resources to better the lives of those less fortunate.
I’d never been outside the United States before, so I was very excited for the chance to travel. Upon arriving at what would be my home for the next few months, the residents greeted us and were so incredibly kind and welcoming. And I’d be remiss to not mention the breathtaking sky. A gradient of colors from #FFC600, to #CE2000, to #546C90.
However, I couldn’t help but notice some of the subpar conditions. For instance, their websites were not responsive, and did not automatically adjust their design to reflect the fact that I was browsing using a mobile device.
The infrastructure was also woefully inadequate. Sure, they had proper sanitation and transportation systems, but the vast majority of people had bloated webpack configurations, their Node packages had numerous unpatched critical security flaws, and several developers still insisted on supporting…
