Going the distance!

It has been good for us to get back into studing the Somali language with the help of some of our Somali friends in Eastleigh: This week we met with Zahra and Yusuf not only to trade Somali phrases, but to catch up on their experiences in Eastleigh during the past weeks of unrest. God has been protecting them!

We also wanted to share with you this great quote that our team mates the Carlines included in their most recent update letter. Our Africa team leader, Malcolm Card, had shared this with them years ago when they first left Canada to serve the displaced Somali people here in Kenya. Dr. Kanda's thoughts are both inspiring and challenging for us given the current tempest of Kenya and our desire to go the distance!

Modern Africa is no place for the uncommitted. Life here demands cool nerves, perpetual optimism and great faith in human possibilities. Those who are utterly pre-occupied with the search for cracks in the foundation live lives that will spell only unhappiness and insecurity. To demand brass-bond guarantees that one will be preserved from challenge and difficulty as a condition for residence in an African state is to demand the impossible. Africa is a continent in ferment in the heart of an unstable world. Identify yourselves with any of these nations and you are committed for better or worse, in prosperity and adversity. If the nation is wounded, you must bleed with it, just as you are entitled to feel pride in its achievements.

Past president of Zambia-1964-1991, Dr. Kenneth Kaunda