Humility

I didn't think I'd post much after getting home, but I thought I needed to share this audio file. Last Sunday, Dr. Gary Parker, the chief medical officer on the Africa Mercy, was interviewed by the BBC's All Things Considered, talking about life on the ship, health-care in the least developed world, and the role of his faith in his work.

Click here or here (it will be available until July 30).

If you've got 27 minutes and 57 seconds, it's worth a listen.

Home

I suppose it's time.

I've been avoiding writing this one last post out of denial—if I write it, it means it's true. It means the year is over, Africa is over, and the "real" world is real again.

But, these last two weeks have forced itself upon my psyche, with a stubbornness surpassing that of Macarthur's promise to the Philippines. The real world has returned. And it bears a striking resemblance to what it was when I left.

It is strange to think that, just twelve days ago, I was sitting on a ramshackle dock in an impoverished country in West Africa, debating whether the rainy season had actually started or whether it was just being coy. People warned that returning to the west would make you feel like what had happened to you in Africa was just a dream.

And it's true. It's amazing how easy it is to slip back into western culture, to slip back into home. But it's home, redefined, and it's western culture seen through a pair of changed lenses.

Here's hoping those lenses remain changed.

How did they find us?

The Hindustan Times?

Really?