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