Loving Africa

One of my colleagues wrote saying that it sounds like we are having some comfort issues, but otherwise we are enjoying ourselves. I should probably clarify that any comfort issues I write about are in the way of reminisces you might have about your childhood home--maybe the kitchen door squeaked, or, like in It's a Wonderful Life, the knob at the bottom of the bannister always came off, but that's part of what you love about going home. It's the familiarity that endears it to you. We are very happy to be back in the red dirt (though there's definitely more of it in semi-rural Mukono than in Nairobi).

One thing I love about Africa is that the higher levels of need here call forth higher levels of human creativity. I never cease to be amazed at the dedication of innovative East Africans to meet the needs around them. For example:

--Here at UCU three obstetricians--two Ugandan and one Canadian--saw in their own medical practices that the maternal mortality rate in Uganda was 150 times higher than in Western nations. So they envisioned starting a multidisciplinary masters in public health leadership program that would train graduates to go out and influence society toward lowering maternal mortality, and they are dedicating mother-and-child-friendly hospitals that do simple things like put up a curtain in the delivery room for privacy, and have a dedicated free mobile phone system for trained birth attendants. Have a look at http://www.savethemothers.org for more information.

--In Kenya a member of our church who had many years of experience with National Outdoor Leadership Program recognized that traditional rites of passage were not only dying out but did not provide appropriate socialization for youth to become strong Christian adults. So he started an intensive ropes and outdoor course for kids before their first year of high school. See http://www.tanari.org.

--A friend who was interning at our local church in Nairobi realized that little was being done for HIV-positive women in nearby Ongata Rongai so she started an income-generating ministry with a small clinic that has grown into a beautiful facility that now addresses health, education, economic empowerment, and issues related to youth. This is "Beacon of Hope" (http://www.beaconafrica.org/en/).

These are just a few examples from a very long list. It is a privilege to be in mother Africa just to watch and learn.