Family Planning Saves lives!

Back from Ghana!

I landed back in Atlanta in the wee hours of the morning on Monday. Can't believe I'm back already!! I've been struggling how to frame my trip to those who have asked. Words are honestly difficult - so I'll let my pictures describe some of what I saw. Overall - it was a great trip. I can honestly say that Ghana stole a small piece of my heart. Being in Africa after 10 years was good for my soul! I felt more at home there than in India back in 2009!

So, work ended on Friday at noon. I had elected to stay back over the weekend to do some exploring. Turns out there were a few others at the conference who had the same thought. On Friday - I hung out with this Kenyan guy (Mike) from Nairobi and French-American girl (Melissa). Both currently worked in Nairobi. Melissa is a diplomat's kid who has lived all over the world. Mike has worked primarily in Kenya but traveled for work all over Africa. I was in good company. We explored more of Accra on Friday. Ate. Shopped. Took pictures. Got busted by the Ghanaian Army! Fun..fun. :)

On Sat, we organized/hired a car/driver to go to the Western Region (next province over from Accra). So - it turned that a Kenyan, a Ghanaian, two Sudanese and a Ugandan - set out on a 120km road trip this past Sat to see what Ghana had to offer! And it didn't disappoint!

First stop was Kakum National Forest. Did some hiking. Walked on a 350m long, 40m high wood-and-rope walkway suspended by seven trees. You can imagine Devina's state - scared of heights and all! Then we drove over to Elmina and Cape Coast Castles (an hour drive apart). I'll let the pictures do the talking - but it was a pretty grim place. It's one thing to read about slavery - but to actually see the places/dungeons where hundreds of human beings were cramped in small spaces with very little food, light and ventilation was sobering. Incidentally - Michelle Obama's ancestors were traced back to Cape Coast Castle. The trip was great. Good conversations and learning about life/living in each of the above-mentioned countries. Listening to African music as we drove along little towns. Seeing people along the sides of the road as they conducted daily life/business. Did I mention that it was a good trip?? (insert content smile)

I'm so grateful for the opportunity to live this life. Affirmed in my heart that I'd love to move back to Africa in the near future. Currently seeking direction on my next steps. Figuring out what it means to sit still while I let my Lord open/shut doors.

Africa notes: Part tres

Ghana Logs – Day Seven.

The past days have been exhausting! Start early in the morning and then day-long conference workshops. Monday’s workshop was being facilitated by my organization – so we had to be extra sharp in the morning. Of course, there’s always last-minute things like needing extra copies of handouts and the friendly photocopy person taking her own sweet time in pushing a few buttons. I wanted to go up to her and say, ‘Oye..Mami..please let me do this’ (insert african accent) :)

Oh, I should tell y’all about the ‘Opening Ceremony’! So – in Africa – things don’t start, unless there’s a 5 hour opening ceremony (usually scheduled for 1-2 hours, but then runs overtime for reasons described below). There’s usually a stage with a podium. (Pics on picasa). Seated at this stage are the ‘distinguished’ guests. It usually starts with a prayer or the national anthem. Then we go into introductions. This opening ceremony started in the morning and ended at 1pm! The first hour was introductions! I mean – the first person introduced the next who introduced the next and so on – till we go to the most senior person – the ‘Chairperson of the meeting’.

THEN came the speeches. OMG! The longest things ever! I mean – this one guy was allotted 15 minutes – he talked for an hour! (What did I tell you about Africans and verbosity?) I kept having an internal giggle-loop about things and wish I could telepathically have a conversation with someone about the speeches. Hehe!) Anyways – my butt was so numb at the end of this all! The highlight of all this was a traditional African dance at the end! It was amazing, guys! So full of energy and life! We were all moving/tapping our feet etc at the end of it all. (Kait – now I know why you love west African drumming so much! I was thinking of you the whole time – I’ll send you a video clip I took for you)

Oh, I should mention food. Dude – the food here is amazing! Dishes (like most cuisines around the world) are comprised of a starch and protein. They have this spicy curry looking thing – and they serve it with rice. Then they have this watery soupy (again spicy) one that they serve with corn-meal mash – called fufu. Then there’s banku and kenkey – which are variants of fufu. Oh, and fried plantains! YUM-MY! I’m going to gain so much weight! Ha! The food here tastes so fresh and tasty. Like yday I had pineapple – the best pineapple I’ve had! I love sampling food from everywhere – and this trip is definitely hitting my foodie spots. :)

Other than that – nothing much to report – the rest of conference has been good. We’ve had several power outages both during the day and the speakers make the best of the situation. At night, it’s a different story. Taking a shower in the dark with a candle brings back memories. :)

Interviews are going well. I am using every available ‘free’ minute to grab people outside of meeting rooms to hold this qualitative survey on family planning. It’s exhausting. But rewarding when I think of the impact that this information will have in helping to bring family planning commodities to African countries. I’m looking forward to the weekend – the conference ends on Thurs, and I’ll have Sat/Sun to do some sightseeing. No idea what I’m going to do – and where I’m going to go. BUT I can’t come all this way and not see/do something, so watch for my next update on the weekend adventures! :)

Thanks so much to those who’ve been writing – I love hearing back from you! I have pretty reliable email access and have communicated with a lot of you - even been able to video-skype with some!

Much love and hugs from this end of the world! :)

Africa notes: Part deux

M'ma ache! (Good morning!)

Day Four in Ghana. May I just declare it's been lovely so far. I still can't believe I'm here. It hits me every so often when I pause to reflect. I'm simply amazed of where I am and how I got here. I mean – who am I? Who would have thought that me - a simple girl from little Mombasa - would get the opportunity to study what I did, where I did and do what I do. Craziness, if you must ask me.

So..Saturday was my 'day off'. I got connected to a friend of a friend who lives here. She very graciously came to get me around mid-morning so we could go 'roam around town'. While I was waiting for Victoria (she was an hour late..hehe..African-time! Y'all better not complain when I'm like 10 minutes late for things!), I started chatting with this woman over breakfast. A native of Cameroon, but living in Harare, Zimbabwe - she'd come to Accra to facilitate a workshop. Such an interesting vivacious lady! A lawyer by training - she was a World Bank consultant working on the issue of strengthening systems in developing country governments, and how to build good governance from the ground up. Anyways - she was leaving for Harare on late-night flight, and had the day to 'roam around' - so I invited her to join me and Victoria.

Victoria, a shy graceful woman in her mid-20s, is working on her 'National Service' (an internship mandatory for those who go through public education in Ghana to 'pay the government back'). Throughout the day, I got the most interesting conversations with these lovely African women. Both so different in socio-economics, age, background, education - and yet - here we were - a Kenyan-Indian-soon-to-be-American, Ghanaian, and Cameroonian - spending the day sharing about our respective backgrounds and what motivates us to be where we are. And all this, in the midst of a jostling crowd while in a busy open-air market on a hot day. I was loving it!

There's more stories - like how we ate at this local restaurant with live chickens literally being slaughtered right outside! And how exciting it was to be on a trotro packed with more people than fingers on all my hands/feet. But let me not bore you with more minutiae. Again - it helps to "process" by writing. You unwittingly are someone that I'd love to tell these stories to right now, so here - you got this email! :)

This next week will be full of meetings - lots of listening/writing. Wish me luck - I'm conducting interviews with 20+ country health leaders who are at this conference that I'm attending. I did two yday evening. Talking with Africans is always joy - simple questions can take 1hr’s worth of long convoluted answers. (Wow. I know how YOU feel when you talk to me! ha!) Processing/analyzing these interviews will be fun when I get back.

Meda ase (thank you!)

In Africa!

I made it to Ghana okay! Just checked into the hotel and discovered that they have free (VERY SLOW) wireless in the room! Woo hoo! So - I'll be able to check emails for a couple days. (moving to another location (conference center) on Sunday - and the internet situation there remains to be seen).

It's sooo weird being back! It is HOT! I had forgotten what African heat was all about. I'm already sweating buckets! hehe! AND everyone is black (duh!). My Swahili keeps bubbling forth! I've already started speaking Kiswahili with people and the moment I say 1-2 words and get a blank stare - I realize I'm not in Kenya! :(

The flight was good - I got a bulk-head seat with no one next to me, so I was able to sprawl out (sort of). Got a lot of work done on the plane and slept. Uneventful. But I was so glad that my flight landed during the day in Accra - seeing the red earth on the roads, green rolling hills, and houses with red roofs built African style was sooo good for my soul! My heart was doing little flips. :)

Driving from the airport with Ghanaian music blasting off from the radio and watching graceful women balancing their wares on their heads to be sold along the road-side makes me feel like I'm home. I almost want to move back to Africa for another job! :)

Ooo..can I just declare that I had a Ghanaian (or maybe Nigerian) family behind me in line at Atlanta airport that came to drop their family off to the airport - African-style. It felt like the whole village was there. I kept thinking in my head - "here we go..start getting used to this". Hee..hee.

Anyways - forgive my rambling..but I feel like "chatting" and telling people what I am seeing, etc! I've already taken a few pictures - will upload them on to picasa when I have better internet. Thanks for listening and feel free to write back! I'll try to send out little updates as I can - you all can be my little journal-buddies on my first back trip to the fatherland. :)

The One Thing

He has loved me with an ever-lasting love. Not as man loves. But an unfailing, unchanging love. Happy Valentine's Day, ya'll!

Africa's Holy Healers

Faith-based organizations (FBOs) harness tremendous power to bring change. In a variety of development areas, such as peace and stability, the environment, world hunger, HIV/AIDS and children’s rights, FBOs have demonstrated that they bridge gaps, often where government cannot. Listen to this radio segment to hear about the good work that FBOs do in Africa in reaching people for health-care!

So thankful!

A year later..still thankful..

Things haven't changed much..I'm still thankful for the same things and then some!

See my post from a year ago when I was living in India:

Things I'm thankful for..

One Home Many Hopes

One Home Many Hopes | Be Unreasonable 2010

The promotional video for One Home Many Hopes' 2010 campaign to build a school with Mudzini Kwetu in Kikambala, Kenya.

"Reasonable People adapt themselves to the world. Unreasonable people attempt to adapt the world to themselves. All progress, therefore, depends on unreasonable people."

Breaking Ground October 18 - November 20, 2010. Be Unreasonable. http://www.onehomemanyhopes.org

Thanksgiving plans?

What are you doing this Thanksgiving? Know someone that may not have family around for the holidays? Google agencies like AMIS in your town and invite someone new to your table!

It's called Choice

To choose life is to love the Lord your God, obey Him and stay close to Him. - Deuteronomy 30:20

He placed one scoop of clay upon another until a form lay lifeless on the ground...All were silent as the Creator reached in Himself and removed something yet unseen. It's called choice. The seed of choice.

Within the man, God had placed a divine seed. A seed of His self. The God of might had created earth's mightiest. The Creator had created, not a creature, but another creator. And the One who had chosen to love had created one who could love in return.

This is a beautiful picture painted by Max Lucado of how we as human beings are created for a purpose greater than ourselves. By Someone greater than ourselves. And in so doing - we are spitting images of our Creator. We have brains and we have brawn. We also have a choice. To live our life as if it were one big blessing - in daily gratitude and returning love to the One who loved perfectly. It's called Choice. Love is a choice.

(Adapted from Max Lucado's Grace for the Moment)

What nonprofits can learn from Coca-Cola

Ushahidi!

Ushahidi means Testimony in Kiswahili. I'll let the video speak for itself.

What is the Ushahidi Platform? from Ushahidi on Vimeo.

Just dance! And pay attention while you're at it!

Pretty awesome way to get people to actually watch the flight safety demonstration! This makes me want to burst out a dance! :)

Family planning does NOT equate abortion!

So..today is World Contraception Day! Who knew?!

Well, I work in the field of public health with a specialty in family planning and reproductive health and I did! The one thing that is at the top of my mind today, on World Contraception Day, is the misconceptions around contraception.

Family planning is simply providing a couple with the tools (contraception) to choose when and how often to bear children.

You may have heard the terms 'family planning' often lumped together with 'abortion'. It is a complicated topic - often plagued with inability to find common ground, and might I add, misguided passion. I realize that in order to have dialog, one must respect and acknowledge the differing views and values that result in different definitions of abortion.

Definitions and language are important. The simple question of what constitutes a pregnancy needs to be defined. Even as an university-educated student, I thought that life was formed at fertilization (when an egg and sperm come together). However, I learnt that, medically, a pregnancy is defined when the fertilized zygote undergoes implantation. In fact, 1/3 of fertilized zygotes will not implant, and will be 'aborted' naturally by the body.

This difference in definition is important when classifying and defining those things that can cause termination of said-pregnancy (i.e. abortaficients). While the average Joe (or Jane!) does not seek to understand the mechanisms of action of the different forms of contraception, misconceptions need to be dispelled.

As someone that values life - I want to see a global reduction in abortions. From an economic standpoint, abortions are expensive! Women who don't have access to contraception will find themselves pregnant and will seek abortions, especially if the pregnancy is unplanned. Botched abortions (especially, in places where access to health-care is limited) can result in death or disability of the mother. These costs to society are expensive - children grow up without their mothers, families suffer loss of income and incur out of pocket costs for medical care, not to mention mental/psychological trauma that a woman goes through when undergoing an abortion, etc..etc.

Family planning is one of the single best ways to reduce abortions!

Think about it: if you provide a woman the tools to prevent pregnancy, then you will reduce the need for said-woman to seek an abortion!

The reality is that many women, especially in the Global South, do not have access to simple things like condoms, birth-control pills, or injectable contraceptives. If access is there, then it is patchy at best. And even if access is 100% guaranteed, it is not guaranteed that a woman has the ability to make that choice to use contraception. In a male-dominated world, women simply not have the same ability to negotiate sex.

As a Christian public health professional, I value life. Life of women. Life of children. Life of families. I want to see women, regardless of where they live, and how much money they make or don't make, receive access to and education about a wide range of quality contraception.

So today, on World Contraception Day, while an estimated 215 million women worldwide want to avoid pregnancy and plan their families but are not using modern contraception, it is my hope that this post caused at least one person to pause and think.

Musicka - Cheb Khaled

Hat-tip to my sister for introducing this lovely love-song to me. Now, if only I can find me a man who can serenade me with some French-Arabic music! ;-)

Something about music in another language is simply fascinating to me! This Algerian musician has earned accolades in France and is a household name within the Arab world. I grew up around his other hit song Didi in Mombasa, Kenya (which incidentally he performed for the opening ceremony of the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa). Love his music! Check out his Wiki page to learn more!

Blue Skies

Ah, the joys of technology!! I am in an airplane and we actually have Internet on the plane! I had heard of it – now I get to experience it. This is a crazy world where people get to take their neurotic attachment of being always connected to the World Wide Web to the top of the world. Quite literally. Whatever happened to the simple life? Sigh.

But – I won’t complain – I get to blog from 35000 feet above the ground – how cool is that? So...my flight was delayed by 4 hours and I’ll likely get home at about 4am. BUT here’s where the glass-full side of me that comes out: I am watching a lightning storm out of my plane window and listening to my favorite songs of Hope. It’s an amazing and a beautiful thing. I SO wish that my camera wasn’t packed away in my checked luggage!! I would LOVED to have attempt to capture the beauty of it all. Night shots and black/white photographs are my favorite things. Difficult to capture things without the vibrancy of color, but the challenge makes a good picture worth the effort.

Anyways – I’ll attempt to describe what I am seeing outside right now but you will be stuck with my feeble attempts to use words to describe a glorious picture. J

If you’ve never witnessed a lightning storm from above ground, it is a phenomenal thing! It is currently 11.30pm at night – pitch black outside, save for the little lighted dots on the ground that represents human existence. As I listen to my favorite worship songs, the clouds are lighting up – almost in sync with the music! It’s like being a disco club – with lights going on and off. They almost seem to be almost fighting – sort of challenging each other! Who has the most brilliant strike of lightning? Me! Me! They say. Bam! Bam! The entire sky is being lighted up in a dazzling array of cloud shapes and colors. Sometimes I can actually see a strike of lightning strike another within a cloud and the result is orangey/reddish colors. A.M.A.Z.I.N.G!

(sigh) I simply want to ask God – how the heck did you create such beauty? You’re a genius. I mean, I know how charged particles create static electricity in clouds. But that took years for the human brain to fathom and understand! You, Lord, simply spoke these things into existence. Or something like that. While my evolutionary-theory-trained mind cringes at the above sentence that I just wrote, I still cannot believe that all these things are due to chance. There is too much complexity in nature to completely rely on the notion that chance incidents led to the cascade of forty chain biochemical reactions that lead to clotting of the blood, or that the human eye with its rods and cones – one of nature’s most amazing inventions – is a freak accident...or what I am seeing outside my airplane window – a beautiful lightning storm in the clouds – is a due to colliding forces from beyond yonder.

I am simply joyful. Little things like this remind me that my source of joy and hope is my Lord. I may stumble, fail, or rebel with each new struggle I face on the ground, but my strength is always renewed when I place my joy on the Creator of blue skies. Peace to you all.

Breast Ironing

Just when I thought I had heard it all...

Breast Ironing - a practice in Cameroon - to 'flatten' the breast of pubescent girls in an effort to deter unwanted sexual attention and possibly rape. What has our world come to?

The Opposite of Love is not Hate...but Fear.

I visited my housemate’s church today and heard the above line. I won’t go into the nuances of the sermon taught by a guest preacher Gene Robinson on a topic which deserves an entire blog post of its own: homosexuality and the Christian church. He threw the above-mentioned line in response to the question of how to respond to those in the church who show retribution against the LGBT community. The line above stuck with me today and has given me much to think about...I could write a book!

For starters, what is love really? Who are the subjects of my love? Both questions have been answered for me in the Bible. The what: The Bible tells me Love is supposed to be sacrificial and focused on the needs of others and not my own. The who: my biggest imperative as a follower of Jesus is to love God and to love people in my life. But what does it mean to love God? An entity that I haven't seen but simply believe exists. And how do I really love people? Especially when my social construct and definition of love may be different from those around me.

However - this is not a post about Love. It's about Hate and Fear. The preacher went to speak about homosexuality - a topic that makes my mind normally spin in 10-million directions - but today my mind was riveted on to this: When am I most prone to hate? What things am I bitter about? Why do those feelings arise? Who causes those emotions to arise? Is it things like hunger, poverty, oppression and war in some far off land? Or is it when something close to my heart hits home.

And what is hate anyway? Is it a bitter feeling against an event or a person? Webster defines hate as an intense feeling of dislike and hostility. Most of us are uncomfortable using the word 'hate' against people - as it denotes too strong an emotion, and perhaps we want to be perceived as balanced, rational beings. In fact, as I write this - I wonder - is there any thing or person that I actually hate? I cannot think of one person that I hate. However, to be completely candid, there are people who are not high on my favorite-people-list. Do I hate them? No. Do I have a hard time loving them? Yes.

While I deeply care about many issues especially that which relates to injustice and inequality even in far-off international settings and I hate - for example corporate money-making machines that exploit poor people in sweat shops and I hate people who fuel the market for child pornography and the sex industries in places like Mumbai and Bangkok, I find that I am most prone to 'hate' when feeling slighted by those that claim to care for me and that I care for. Family who are a part of my human existence and friends who make my social being a reality.

And so - what is it in my struggle to love someone that inspires this 'hate'? A sense of injury is usually tied to this 'hate'. I couldn't care less if a stranger off the street said or did something mean towards me. But if family/friend failed me, it is often difficult to love them. I often have to relearn how to love again instead of holding onto hate.

Today - I understood for the first time the notion that fear can be tied to hate. That fear of self and fear of man could drive the underlying sense of injury which then leads to 'hate'. Instead of loving someone, I am fearful and afraid of what they could do to me, and how they could crush me at my most vulnerable state. How is it that the Fear of Man cripples us so much so that we choose to hold onto 'hate' instead of looking beyond the immediate and choosing to love?

(sigh) I don't know. My responses towards others are conditioned from years of interacting with other human beings. As self-aware as I try to be, I'll likely still do both - love and hate. It's part of my innate human nature, I suppose. However - as I learn more and more how to be like Jesus, I hope that I can let go of my fear and learn to love others well.