The experience of spending years with the world as my home and only the winds as a definition of time left me with a deep-rooted thirst to one day continue that journey. This time not as an observer, but a participant. It was meeting a traveling surgeon Bruno, in Rangiroa, driving past towns of tin roofs in South Africa, and a church service through the most beautifully carved wood doors I will ever see which pried my eyes open at such an early age. Bruno game me my first stethoscope, taught my about Brazilian kite-fighting as we made one out of bamboo... leaving a spark that will never extinguish. On a road trip to a valley resonated by desktop screens from office cubicles, it was the cavalier mention by our host that out my window lay a city of tin that sent a fire through my body. No brochure, Sarah McLachlan commercial or personal testimony would ever come close to expressing the hopelessness and despondency surrounding that literal District 9. The rest of our journey to Stellenbosch is a blur; only images of tin and sadness remain. However, it is the pure beauty of those wooden doors that serve as a reminder of what incredible good we can bring into this world.
In preparing for this summer, I stumbled upon some interesting data about the health care and conditions in Tanzania, vs those here in the United States...
The average age in the US is 36, in Tanzania it is less than half that at 17.
The infant mortality rate in the US is less than 1%, but nearly 7% in Tanzania.
Nearly 100% of the US has access to sustainable, clean, water, Tanzania, only 54%.
And again, 100% of the US has access to improved sanitation, Tanzania, only 24%.
These numbers should not come as a surprise. These numbers should be in the headlines of newspapers. Not to evoke fear or panic, but to instigate a passion, spark a flame in people's hearts that we will not stand idly by as others suffer. Maybe it is how intangible this suffering is to us in America, that we are so unbothered by it.
In just a short couple of weeks I have the privilege to begin carving my own wooden doors to leave behind for this world. I encourage everyone who might stumble upon this blog to think about the cities of tin that they have seen in their life and how you might go about transforming them into something beautiful.
In preparing for this summer, I stumbled upon some interesting data about the health care and conditions in Tanzania, vs those here in the United States...
The average age in the US is 36, in Tanzania it is less than half that at 17.
The infant mortality rate in the US is less than 1%, but nearly 7% in Tanzania.
Nearly 100% of the US has access to sustainable, clean, water, Tanzania, only 54%.
And again, 100% of the US has access to improved sanitation, Tanzania, only 24%.
These numbers should not come as a surprise. These numbers should be in the headlines of newspapers. Not to evoke fear or panic, but to instigate a passion, spark a flame in people's hearts that we will not stand idly by as others suffer. Maybe it is how intangible this suffering is to us in America, that we are so unbothered by it.
In just a short couple of weeks I have the privilege to begin carving my own wooden doors to leave behind for this world. I encourage everyone who might stumble upon this blog to think about the cities of tin that they have seen in their life and how you might go about transforming them into something beautiful.