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Check out this amazing video of Brian Doerksen’s Creation Calls set to BBC Planet Earth video!
Creation_Calls.mov (video/quicktime Object)
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Well we’re off to an auspicious start. My bags are packed, my 3 oz or less fluids are carefully packaged in a 1 qt clear plastic bag, goodbyes have been said…and my flight is cancelled. New York is having weather! So I’m rescheduled for tomorrow and am told to expect delays. C’est la vie.
In the mean time check out this cyncial tongue in cheek commentary on writing about Africa by Binyavanga Wainaina.
Always use the word ‘Africa or ‘Darkness’ or ‘Safari’ in your title. Subtitles may include the words ‘Zanzibar’, ‘Masai’, ‘Zulu’, ‘Zambezi’, ‘Congo’, ‘Nile’, ‘Big’, ‘Sky, ‘Shadow’, ‘Drum’, ‘Sun’ or ‘Bygone’. Also useful are words such as ‘Guerrillas’, ‘Timeless’, ‘Primordial’ and ‘Tribal’. Note that ‘People’ means Africans who are not black, while ‘The People’ means black Africans. Read more.
My sister JoAnne first introduced me to Krista Tippet when I was in DR Congo in November. Krista has a radio program called Speaking of Faith and did a series on “The Ethics of Aid” which included a link to the article above. Here are some of her comments following her interview with the author:
The power to help, Binyavanga Wainaina insists, can be as dangerous as “hard power.” The zeal of Westerners in Africa can have the unintended consequence of riding roughshod over Africans’ own real and potential best efforts. And his confidence in his own best efforts and those of his compatriots in Kenya and beyond — his challenge for us to see Africa’s promise alongside its problems and to participate attentively in that — is precisely what makes this conversation emboldening. Read entire article.
I share these sentiments. I am travelling to Ghana for my internship to learn counselling from an African perspective. Healing Streams is committed to partnering with church and community organizations in Africa on an invitation basis in the same way we would anywhere else in the world. We live in a global community…we’re enriched when we can learn from each other.
Re-entry from our time in Congo is slow and painful (unfair comment perhaps with only 3 whole days into it – perhaps just impatient). If you didn’t know, the journey is recorded on another blog at www.hopeandhealingcongo.wordpress.com. It is difficult to find the time to process what is happening while in Congo and to take the time to go to an internet cafe, wait in line, and finally have an opportunity to make a post only to discover you’re working with a french version of an english keyboard (e.g. the keyboard is like a standard english one but somewhere hidden in the depths of microsoft dungeon is a code to switch which key is assigned to which letter). So needless to say, I left the blog entries to others and they did a wonderful job – another benefit of team! However a team blog is perhaps not the place for my personal musings so I intend to process my experience and my upcoming Ghana trip here. Ghana trip you say? Yes, I leave Jan 10 for a 6 week clinical internship in Ghana. It will take place in two hospitals – one in Accra and one further north. I’m looking forward to it a lot – although I would mind a few more weeks or months at home before taking off again. Who said international work was glamorous? While it is an incredible honour to participate in the healing process internationally, it is not glamorous – it is dedication, it is hard work, it is long hours with no or low pay, it is exhausting – and it is more rewarding than anything I’ve ever done. Go figure.
The scrabble dictionary tells me that a nene is a Hawaiian goose. Who knew? Here my husband and I sit, in our living room in Cananda – a world away from Hawaii in climate at least. We’re restless…the advance team just left for DRC via Uganda and we leave in one week. So we’re playing scrabble – I just earned 28 points for spelling “oh”. Not bad but I’d still rather be on the airplane with Michael and Brenda!
We’ve purchased our tickets and we’re counting down the days until our trip to Congo. I can’t wait to feel the blast of heat – that warm embrace of Central Africa. We fly Toronto to Dubai to Entebbe this time – nice to have a layover in Dubai this time – a city none of us have been to. As I think of the twin prop we’ll likely fly from Entebbe, Uganda into eastern Congo, the memories roll in. Memories of flying over miles of broccoli covered landscape (Really! this is what to jungle looks like from the plane). I can see the endless Congo river winding its way like a snake across the land. I remember the distinctive white roofed tents of UN refugee and displaced persons camps. This is why we come. . .because we’ve promised our brothers and sisters in Congo that Canada has not forgotten their plight. We have not forgotten that hundreds of thousands of those they called brother and sister and mother and father are now senselessly murdered. Civilian deaths account for 90% of deaths in low impact wars such as the war in Congo. We have not forgotten that their wives and sisters and daughters and grandmothers were victims of a “War on Women” characterized by the systematic raping of villages. We have not forgotten that their infrastructure is destroyed, their economy non-existant and their legal system is without power. And so we plan, and pray, and fundraise. . .all to finally stand in solidarity with our brothers and sisters and say “You are not alone, we have not forgotten”.
Life in the Great Lakes Region of Africa, of which eastern DR Congo is a part, is frequently brought to a standstill due to violence, riots, and war. The most recent country in the news from this region is Kenya. They continue to deal with the sequelea to the riots following the recent election. Life in Kenya, especially the Nairobi slums can be violent on the best of days…but since the riot my friends at the Nairobi Women’s Hospital tell me that they are overwhelmed with the aftermath.
When I think of the barriers my friends face in order to continue to heal, grow and flourish in eastern DRC, I am humbled. Such little things frustrate me, cause me to doubt or want to give up. My friend Kaluma is the president of the Congolese organization called CSCODI that first invited us to deliver training in Beni to pastors and community leaders. CSCODI is a grass roots community development non-profit located in Beni. This organization doesn’t just run free seminars for pastors, they are also working hard to build a mother-child clinic to provide ongoing medical and chaplaincy care to the needy in the community.
Our current plan is to go in November. Mr. Kaluma Katembo, the president of CSCODI, is living in Quebec City in Canada and is trying to coordinate the trip for a seminar with a shipment of medical equipment donated by a Canadian source. While it is hard to delay the training we are eager to deliver, our top priority is the wellbeing of the Congolese community we have been called to serve. So we wait, and learn patience from our Congolese friends who have much to teach us.
Okay, so who feels guilty now!? Actually we decided to put Taffy down (humanitarian murder) and my husband says it was very peaceful (I was too chicken to go – no offense to chickens intended). So Taffy’s gone and we’re adjusting. In the words of Ross, “So what’s the point of going for walks and runs now?”…hmmm.
On a more redemptive note, I finished the book The Shack. You have got to read this book and tell me what you think! It’s an amazing encounter of a broken bitter man with his loving caring God. I was entranced, I laughed, I cried…I often couldn’t wipe the smile of total delight off my face. This is one of those recommendations from clients that leads to my conclusion that I gain more from being a counsellor than they gain from seeing one! So…go directly to Chapters (through the link on the Healing Streams website of course so we get 5% back) and BUY THIS BOOK! It’s not very often that I encounter a book that so profoundly speaks to my heart about Jesus…it may just be me (and everyone who recommended the book to me) but I challenge you to read it for yourself and see if you return unchanged!
A recent email to my husband…
Hi…I murdered the dog…well, not yet. I came from an errand to diarrhea in the living room, dining room, up the stairs, in our bedroom…and get this – on our duvet!!! An hour later I’ve got the dog bathed, the floors cleaned, my hands and all the above disinfected. Happy day! Your ever loving soon to become a criminal wife.
Ahh the joys of dog ownership!
p.s. To all dog lover’s – in actual fact the dog is being lovingly nursed back to health…and you can’t tell me you haven’t had murderous intent at times!
His reply -I think I’ll stay at the office.
My reply -Probably a good idea!
Welcome to my personal blog. While you may have accessed it through the Healing Streams link…you will find musings, thoughts, discussions on a wide variety of topics of interest to me personally. I invite you to read, engage, interact with what you find here…I hope it will be encouraging, thought provoking, and real. We live in a world defined by the prefix “post” as in post-modern, post-Christian, post-evangelical, post-colonial, post-gender…I’ve been inspired this last year by verses from the biblical book of Isaiah – my friend Brenda calls it one of her “life verses” – I like that. The verses can be found in Isaiah 43.
Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.
Forget the former things is not a phrase I particularly like as a therapist – I find that clients often avoid addressing the former things that have shaped their unhealthy choices of today. However, while we often need to examine the past to understand the present, we do not need to “dwell” there. So, my pledge is not to define myself as a “post” person, but rather a new thing “becoming”. I hope this blog will be a reflection of NEW THINGS SPRINGING UP! Climb on for the ride…its likely to be both bumpy and exhilarating, mundane and breathtaking…and best of all its free! Welcome!
