To Bryan, Jordan, Geoff, JJ, Bren, P, and the others

Wednesday 24 Jan, 2007 23:20 – Nairobi, Kenya

To the friends who are praying for me back home:

I am so far behind logging my thoughts and experiences – but the last few days, tonight in particular, have been incredible moments during which my missionary host family in Nairobi has poured into me. This evening Linnie, a pilot by trade, spent two hours viscerally answering questions about life’s challenges here. He also explained the intricacies of flying in the bush – airborne commitment points, down drafts, the physics that make short runways problematic, and hazards that do not exist in the US like finding grazing animals on runways, or missing wind socks, which up and left to become roofing for someone’s hut.

I appreciate more than ever the commitment these individuals have made, and sincerely wish to follow in their footsteps. As his job is more difficult without the luxuries available back home, so I long to become a great surgeon who knows how to operate effectively even without a full set of tools. And for what? For social justice? For preferential options for the poor? For adding pages to someone’s story when their book was expected to close? Well, yeah, that is all part of it. But more than that, in the name of Jesus Christ, for introducing people to a source of healing that neither doctors can provide nor science can describe.

I should say that it was wonderful to again meet with friends from the bush who have since found sponsors and are now studying in Nairobi. Matt, with the money you sent I paid for two young women to attend the conference as well. The fees for Africans were significantly less than those for Westerners, hence footing that bill seemed like chump change, but they were incredibly grateful. At the end of the first day, they thanked me but said they would likely not be able to return until the end. To get from home to Nairobi, they rode 24 hours in the back of truck, so I was a bit puzzled why they’d come so far to only attend two days. Probing beneath their embarrassment, I discovered they didn’t have financial means for transportation (a buck fifty per person per day), so I gave them cash for that as well... and for food. I felt strongly that if I was to invite them to the conference then I should also provide means of living so they could use the opportunity. All in all, I think I only spent seventy USDs on the two for ten days’ time, which seemed insignificant compared to the thought that women were being empowered – especially for the nurse who lives and works in an area where female genital mutilation is the norm.

A great bit of my time was also spent trying to get two from the bush admitted to medical school in Cuba (Havana’s Latin American School of Medicine is supposedly a tuition-less medical school with an emphasis on training people from underserved areas to go back to their underserved areas and provide health care). For some political reason, students are not allowed to apply on their own, but rather must rely on direct government-to-government communication, so I got to know the Kenyan-Cuban embassy well. Unfortunately I don’t think we made much progress, but I remain optimistic. All of this – the conference and the embassy - is really a microcosm of what I hope to do in life, use my privilege to stick a foot in the door and give others opportunities in the larger geopolitical realm. At any rate – Matt, thanks for your faith and trusting me with to put that money to good use – and for the rest, as always, prayers appreciated.