blood river

Just started another book last night... (why do I always read more when I’m putting off doing my actual work?!). But I got sucked in! It’s called Blood River – about a journalist who decided to follow the Congo River in the same way that explorer Stanley did decades before. It’s fascinating reading. Definitely brushing up my African history which should be better than it is...

He captures the sense of adventure, the risk, the hassles and the people he meets along the way while trying to understand the complexity of the region’s painful history and current conflicts. Anyway, I haven’t finished it yet. It’s kind of depressing in many ways, for obvious reasons. It’s places like DRC that I think the world forgets about, like we’ve heard it all before. 1200 people die every day?! The author does a good job of trying to explain the link between colonialism and the present day conflicts/economics which I’m finding helpful and his descriptions definitely draw you in.

I wonder, though, if people from DRC read the book would they agree with his thoughts on it? As someone who grew up in Africa (albeit a much calmer part) I still get annoyed when people make sweeping generalisations about how things are and why unless they’ve actually lived there for a while... Even though I know the situation in DRC is pretty grim, does this kind of book just perpetuate the myth of Africa as the heart of darkness?

risk

So, this was the biggest adrenaline rush of my year from last summer in South Africa - the highest in the world. It was so much fun... Definitely a few risks involved - For one, it was in Africa! Second, I really couldn't understand the guys who were putting the straps on etc so it was a major step in just trusting random people with your life... and I did it with 10 physio students, who let's face it probably would not be recommending such things to their patients... but hey, it's something i've always wanted to do... and it was amazing. It was interesting how they moved me so my toes were over the end and then let me stand there for a while and said 'we're just going to confirm if you're 100% safe" and I'm thinking... hmm... shouldn't you have done that before you move me to the edge?! I've been thinking about risk. Not bungee jump/stupid kind or this kind:

but risk for God...

"On the far side of every risk... the love of God triumphs. This is the faith that frees us to risk for the cause of God. It is not heroism, or lust for adventure, or courageous self-reliance, or efforts to earn God's favour. It is childlike faith in the triumph of God's love - that on the other side of all our risks for the sake of righteousness, God will still be holding us..." John Piper

"...the cross is not the terrible end to an otherwise God-fearing and happy life, but it meets us at the beginning of our communion with Christ. When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die." -Dietrich Bonhoeffer

poverty and TB

These photos make me think about a patient from my few weeks in south africa... he was a quiet, subdued kind of guy... although maybe it was just he was fed up with hospital. He had TB which had affected his spine, so couldn’t move/feel his trunk or legs at all and found it impossible to change positions or sit up on his own. He was in a side room, isolated from everyone else in the ward for obvious reasons, staring at the ceiling all day. He always asked to be covered with about 4 blue hospital blankets because of the cold. I ventured in daily, complete with my mask, gloves and apron to do some passive stretching and repositioning – wearing the mask made me feel like I couldn’t communicate properly with him, couldn’t have a proper chat face to face, couldn’t smile at him...

The one thing I remember him saying was he couldn’t wait to leave the hospital and get back to the smaller community TB facility (where he had been before) - the main reason was he had people he could talk to there... there he didn’t have to be in an isolation room...

To me, the prevalence of TB is one clear example of the impact of poverty - when it is essentially treatable/curable. I know multi drug resistant TB is a different story, but the reasons behind its emergence also can be linked to poverty and the lack of adequate / consistent health care. And this is only one disease. I just wonder what the impact of the current global economic crisis will now have on things like the MDGs and the fight against poverty...

there and back again...

Lack of easily accessible internet for a while has left this blog a bit neglected...but I'm back! Ok, so it’s cliché time so I should be saying things like: "It’s so hard to sum up what the last 2 months have been like...." blah blah blah. But, it is a wee bit true. 8 weeks of a glorious mix between the world of physio in a South African government hospital to the world of the Cape Town tourist. I definitely think it was the best way to capture the essence of the city (besides living there long term) - to not just be a tourist, but to rub shoulders with Capetonians from all communities via the hospital - whether that was the staff or my patients... I loved it! One thing - it was not was a “short term missions trip” and somehow a trip free from labels/definitions meant there was no agenda... I was unashamedly a tourist at times – flinging myself off the world’s highest bungee (amazing!), soaking in the sunshine where the Indian and Atlantic Oceans met, scrambling up the majestic Table Mountain etc, but I also could just live out life and faith with my friends and in the hospital. Not much different to here I guess, just a different context and culture.

So, South Africa? I could go back. Maybe. It did seem a bit like a pseudo-Africa to the one that I know and love, but I kept reminding myself that if I went to Morocco or Egypt it would feel just as foreign. I guess it was not what I knew, but that was maybe a good thing. I could talk about the stark divide between rich/poor, the political turmoil still rumbling resulting from a troubled history, the rainbow nation, the hiv/aids crisis on everyone’s doorstep, the hopes for 2010, the mixture of both divided and multiethnic vibrant churches, the stunning scenery... etc but to be honest, the question that I hate the most in relation to Nigeria has always been “what is it like?” so I’m not even going to try after only 2 months. Just go if you get a chance would be my only advice.

I’m “home” again... but I’m going “home” on Saturday for a month... (In Belfast, heading to Nigeria). Funny that. Sometimes I love having 2 homes. Sometimes I feel like neither is really home. Not sure if travel is always the best for finding a sense of belonging that I often long for, but alas... I still love it...

untravelled world

I am a part of all that I have met;
Yet all experience is an arch wherethrough
Gleams that untravelled world, whose margin fades
For ever and for ever when I move.
How dull it is to pause, to make an end,
To rust unburnished, not to shine in use!
As though to breathe were life....

(a wee bit of Tennyson's Ulysses)

wahey! I'm heading to south africa today :)

cry, the beloved country

It’s so sad to read about what’s going on in South Africa at the minute. On this day 14 years ago, Mandela said this in the opening of parliament in 1994:

"Our single most important challenge is therefore to help establish a social order in which the freedom of the individual will truly mean the freedom of the individual. We must construct that people-centred society of freedom in such a manner that it guarantees the political liberties and the human rights of all our citizens." (speech at the opening of the South African parliament, Cape Town 25 May 1994)
His dreams of a peaceful rainbow nation seem a far cry from the reality of the last week. Growing up in Africa, violence that often accompanies deep-rooted tribalism is all too familiar - unfortunately. It makes me think about this quote from Paton's great book, written about a different time. But it may still resonate this week in the fears of foreigners living in SA:

“Cry, the beloved country, for the unborn child that is the inheritor of our fear. Let him not love the earth too deeply. Let him not laugh too gladly when the water runs through his fingers, nor stand too silent when the setting sun makes red the veld with fire. Let him not be too moved when the birds of his land are singing, nor give too much of his heart to a mountain or a valley. For fear will rob him of all if he gives too much.” — Cry, The Beloved Country, Chapter 12.

After establishing relative peace and unity in government between the two sides of the community, the attacks start to become against the migrant population... does this sound familiar.. ie: here?

T.I.A. or is it?

I finally got around to seeing Blood Diamond over the weekend. I think I wanted to see it because of where it was set and so many people have recommended it. Parts of it made me cry… don’t know if some of the issues were too close to home. Human life seeming so cheap. The struggle for power, money regardless of the cost to the country…
One quote stuck with me when Danny says,
"Sometimes I wonder if God will ever forgive us for what we've done to each other..."
Which is an honest wrestling with the consequence of war and death, how our relationship with our neighbours is linked to our relationship with God. But then he goes on to say,
"Then I look around and I realise... God left this place a long time ago."
I think this is the attitude of a lot of people these days. When things like the tsunami, Iraq, Sudan, AIDS are discussed people come to the conclusion that somehow because of suffering in the world, that God must not be in control… But that’s a narrow view of the purposes of God… the sovereignty of God… the character of God. Not saying we should still fight for justice to be down and for his kingdom to come on earth…but in the midst of that, we can hold on the fact that he is still in control.

There were a few things I didn’t really like about the film. The ending made a hero out of someone who really was just as corrupt as everyone else. It also portrayed the country and most of the people corrupt, violent etc. The ending seemed to be wrapped up too neatly or something… one article put it this way, “Like so many others, Blood Diamond also closes a few scenes in which justice is seen to be done - not in Sierra Leone, but in a nice European or American courtroom. Things in Sierra Leone probably aren't a whole lot better, but at least audiences can go home reassured that another global problem in a far-flung country has been fixed thanks to the movies. Maybe now they can go on holiday there.”

I wish that they had actually filmed it in Sierra Leone. I also left feeling like the answer to the problem is that the West should stop buying diamonds (as a few of my friends have already stated they will never get a diamond engagement ring etc). But surely in a country like Sierra Leone who is still reliant on a lot of foreign aid, the diamond industry could be part of helping them increase trade (while keeping in line with human rights issues / fairly traded / not conflict diamonds etc). I know it wasn’t a documentary or a true story or anything, so it’s always going to have a slant.

Anyway, still a good film trying to address some important issues. Maybe awareness can make an impact. Sometimes I struggle with the idea that awful events/wars/violence have been made into entertainment / money-making industry etc.

Speaking of Africa, I think I’ve decided to go back for the summer… to Kogi State this time as well as home (Jos)… Kogi state is around the state capital Lokoja on the map- where the 2 rivers Niger & Benue meet… in case you want a geography lesson! can’t wait already… need to start looking at flights. looking forward to some TIN factor as we say. this is nigeria…