Friday, October 29, 2010

Africa

Good Morning All,

As you read this post I am on my way to Nairobi, Kenya and I will be in country for nearly a week. You will notice come Monday a new blog visual header designed by my friend and noted artist Sue DiCicco. Thank you Sue.

I will be with some executive personnel and several members of the Board of Directors of the Catholic Medical Mission Board. CMMB. They are visiting their partners in the medical outposts in Kenya that service the needy and poor with treatment, medicine and medical equipment in the slums of Nairobi and in Kisumu on the shores of Lake Victoria.

I will participate in creating a half-hour program showing their outreach programs. The final product will be on their website in a few months. I'll let you know when through this blog.

I've never been to the continent of Africa before. I've read its history to prepare for this trip and it's not pretty for 18th and 19th century European white control of the riches and treasure of a continent is vast and dictatorial. Vast is an understatement; if you rolled the continent into a ball in would be the size of the moon.

Until the middle of the 20th century the control over a predominantly black tribal society by white overlords was cruel, tolerated and prejudiced. It was then that black leaders in several countries emerged to demand independence and self-rule. Africa was then on its way to the turmoil that independence brings to newly constituted governments. In many of the countries it continues to this day: Congo, Somalia, Uganda, and Rwanda, to name just a few.

I don’t know what to expect from my short visit. I will share my thoughts and feeling on this blog over the next week. I trust I will be able to post daily missives, but then you never know what might get in the way. I'll try. Stay tuned.

rgs

3 comments:

Lorelei said...

Thank you for your informative note today. God bless you and the work of the missionaries in this venture. I look forward to seeing this when it is posted. May all of you be safe and hope you get to see some of the wonderful things that make up the beautiful continent of Africa.

Sue DiCicco said...

Quite a day to be traveling thru Dubai. I hope airport security is tolerable and your flights are uneventful. I'm looking forward to reading along. I'll set up the new header and color palette this weekend (that means you are indebted doubletime, my friend. muhahaha) Sue

kat said...

a world in which every human life is valued and quality healthcare is available to all...that is the vision of cmmb...visions are usually unseen... just hoped for and imagined... but every once in a while, fleeting, we are graced with the moment of seeing a life changed or saved because of shared efforts...in the moment, it is always about the faces and the places...may you be graced with that kind of moment...

 
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