Spending Time with the Marginalized
Today will be very special and I think rather difficult. We are going to spend time with a small community of Rwandan folk known as the Batwa. They have always been hunters and gatherers who lived in the forests of this equatorial country. The country of Rwanda faces enormous population challenges and so the Batwa have seen their home, the forests, dramatically reduced. Hopefully we will have some time to visit a pottery project and maybe we will have a time for picking up some gifts to bring home.
The afternoon will find us learning about how the marginalized receive medical treatment from traditional healers who run their “clinics”. Our tour leader has written, “You can judge for yourself how their skills and experience might fit in modern systems of healthcare.”
By the time this day is ended I imagine I will be longing for the creature comforts of home and looking forward to spending a weekend in my backyard. Oh yes—it is Friday! Enjoy your weekend!
Ben Keckler
08.22.08
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Daily Devotions - Thursday, August 21
Bringing Health in Difficult Situations
Greetings from Gisenyi, Rwanda today. Today’s agenda is going to have some mountain top experiences and some deep, dark valley experiences as well. The plan for today starts us out in the valley — we are going to spend time with woman who works with the street children of Rwanda, administrating a technical school with lower functioning children. We will be baptized into an understanding of the poorest of the poor and the difficulties encountered trying to help children who watched their loved ones be dismembered and murdered.
The afternoon will take us to a National Park for our first true experience with the natural beauty of Rwanda. Hopefully we will get glimpses of a chain of volcanoes that are on the Rwanda-Uganda-Congo border and maybe we will sight a mountain gorilla, an experience some of our group will more fully enjoy following the educational component of our mission.
I wish you well today!
Ben Keckler
08.21.08
Greetings from Gisenyi, Rwanda today. Today’s agenda is going to have some mountain top experiences and some deep, dark valley experiences as well. The plan for today starts us out in the valley — we are going to spend time with woman who works with the street children of Rwanda, administrating a technical school with lower functioning children. We will be baptized into an understanding of the poorest of the poor and the difficulties encountered trying to help children who watched their loved ones be dismembered and murdered.
The afternoon will take us to a National Park for our first true experience with the natural beauty of Rwanda. Hopefully we will get glimpses of a chain of volcanoes that are on the Rwanda-Uganda-Congo border and maybe we will sight a mountain gorilla, an experience some of our group will more fully enjoy following the educational component of our mission.
I wish you well today!
Ben Keckler
08.21.08
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Daily Devotions - Wednesday, August 20
A Little Bit of Country Today
Hello friends! Today we are going to begin seeing the countryside of Rwanda, attempting to understand the post-genocide challenges and extreme poverty of persons living outside of the urban areas. We are visiting a rural health center where we will, I believe, be overwhelmed with the needs for public health interventions.
Our destination is a place known as the Millennium Village, a partnership developed by the United Nations Development Program, Columbia University’s Earth Institute, 10 different African governments, private donors and the Millennium Promise. The area we are visiting is learning to create an ecologically healthy agricultural setting for people to earn a living and reshape their lives. The model is being used globally as a successful intervention.
While we are away from the city of Kigali, we will also visit a rural health center and learn the challenges related to public health in the small communities that dot the countryside. Should be a challenging day! May you sense Holy Presence around you today!
Ben Keckler
08.20.08
Hello friends! Today we are going to begin seeing the countryside of Rwanda, attempting to understand the post-genocide challenges and extreme poverty of persons living outside of the urban areas. We are visiting a rural health center where we will, I believe, be overwhelmed with the needs for public health interventions.
Our destination is a place known as the Millennium Village, a partnership developed by the United Nations Development Program, Columbia University’s Earth Institute, 10 different African governments, private donors and the Millennium Promise. The area we are visiting is learning to create an ecologically healthy agricultural setting for people to earn a living and reshape their lives. The model is being used globally as a successful intervention.
While we are away from the city of Kigali, we will also visit a rural health center and learn the challenges related to public health in the small communities that dot the countryside. Should be a challenging day! May you sense Holy Presence around you today!
Ben Keckler
08.20.08
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Daily Devotions - Tuesday, August 19
Time to Get Serious
It’s the fifth day of this ambassadorship. Today we are going to really feel the impact of genocide (as if we haven’t already)! We are going to visit a four acre Memorial Center where about a quarter of a million people are buried in mass graves.
Our tour director has coupled this visit with an emphasis on reconciliation. We will spend time with the National Unity and Reconciliation Commission exploring how to strike a balance between “justice and healing, vengeance and forgiveness.”
This afternoon we will focus on Mental Health issues as we visit Handicap International, a major arm of the mental health/psychological support system that is being put in place to strengthen orphaned children.
I am really looking forward to our dinner time tonight as we will have an extended time to reflect on the painful realities encountered on our visits. I hope you have another meaningful day in all you do.
Ben Keckler
08.19.08
It’s the fifth day of this ambassadorship. Today we are going to really feel the impact of genocide (as if we haven’t already)! We are going to visit a four acre Memorial Center where about a quarter of a million people are buried in mass graves.
Our tour director has coupled this visit with an emphasis on reconciliation. We will spend time with the National Unity and Reconciliation Commission exploring how to strike a balance between “justice and healing, vengeance and forgiveness.”
This afternoon we will focus on Mental Health issues as we visit Handicap International, a major arm of the mental health/psychological support system that is being put in place to strengthen orphaned children.
I am really looking forward to our dinner time tonight as we will have an extended time to reflect on the painful realities encountered on our visits. I hope you have another meaningful day in all you do.
Ben Keckler
08.19.08
Monday, August 18, 2008
Daily Devotions - Monday, August 18
Health Care After Genocide
One of the issues we face in America relates to health care. There are a number of ways to approach this issue. Personally, I believe we need to be creating a world where sharing by all means scarcity for none. Let me tell you what I’ll be experiencing in Rwanda today.
We will visit the Kigali Health Institute today, an educational institution established in 1996 because health care was basically non-existent following the genocide. Many times in the health care field we can feel overwhelmed as we extend ourselves to a handful of patients under our care. Try to wrap your mind around this figure: “After the genocide the doctor-patient ratio was 1:55,705 and the nurse-patient ratio was 1:6,365.” Related fields of care like radiology, physical therapy, lab technicians and so many more “were completely non-existent.”
We will also visit a home for orphaned children administered by a 77 year old woman from the United States who, along with volunteers, provides a boarding school, a small health facility and a place of refuge for children.
I pray that you will have a good week. While many things today will be quite depressing, I am certain my trip is helping me to be a better world citizen. Peace, friends.
Ben Keckler
08.18.08
One of the issues we face in America relates to health care. There are a number of ways to approach this issue. Personally, I believe we need to be creating a world where sharing by all means scarcity for none. Let me tell you what I’ll be experiencing in Rwanda today.
We will visit the Kigali Health Institute today, an educational institution established in 1996 because health care was basically non-existent following the genocide. Many times in the health care field we can feel overwhelmed as we extend ourselves to a handful of patients under our care. Try to wrap your mind around this figure: “After the genocide the doctor-patient ratio was 1:55,705 and the nurse-patient ratio was 1:6,365.” Related fields of care like radiology, physical therapy, lab technicians and so many more “were completely non-existent.”
We will also visit a home for orphaned children administered by a 77 year old woman from the United States who, along with volunteers, provides a boarding school, a small health facility and a place of refuge for children.
I pray that you will have a good week. While many things today will be quite depressing, I am certain my trip is helping me to be a better world citizen. Peace, friends.
Ben Keckler
08.18.08
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
