Much has been made of an article written in the London Times Online on December 27th last year. Probably you’ve heard of the opinion piece written by Matthew Parris, who grew up in Malawi. He had just returned from a visit there (I wonder if our paths crossed in December?) and he stated: “As an atheist, I am truly convinced that Africa needs God.” Here's the link:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/matthew_parris/article5400568.ece
We couldn’t help but agree, but why in the world would an atheist say this? Why doesn’t he just say, like many do, that we just need better funding, more rigorously-administered projects, more education, more schoolteachers and orphanages and agricultural workers and solar cookers? We need trees planted, wheelchairs built, food aid distributed, AIDS education. The list is seemingly endless of what Africa needs.
Well, we would not disagree that any of those things are needed. And we would not disagree with the idea that Christians should be the hands and feet of Jesus, helping the orphan and the widow, serving the poor. Indeed, Christians should be the first in line to help the needy.
However, during our time here, we have watched those who are involved in trying to provide those things become very frustrated with lack of progress. Wherever there is push to change, without corresponding "heart work", we don't see progress. A friend of ours, who works with the government, estimates that over 90% of development projects fail. We were shocked to hear this. Now, this is not to say that projects don't bring some relief. Medical work, in particular, eases the suffering of the, well, suffering. What I am talking about is local projects, designed to change communities, change people's attitudes and practices, designed to alleviate poverty permanently. The West's efforts to "fix" Africa don't seem to making the progress we expect. Don't even get me started on that idea!
Often they fail because although they change people’s circumstances, they do not change people’s hearts. Take a look at the opinion piece I referenced above. He goes so far to say that the societies he has seen impede personal progress. Well, yes. I think in the West we put too much emphasis on individualism, but there are aspects of the "group think" here that I'd like to see change. Specifically, we see the evidence of selfishness and fear destroying hopes for change. The AIDS workers who were trained by the NGO don't care about their patients, and don't follow up. They were glad for the jobs, but do them sloppily and the AIDS rates don't go down. The agricultural workers steal as much as they can because they are afraid the jobs are temporary. Local farmers are afraid to change their environmentally destructive practices because they might offend the ancestors. When someone becomes ill, they are sure they shouldn't follow these new ways. The NGO comes in to help a poor village improve health, sanitation, and agricultural practices. "How should we start?", they ask the people. "Buy us a mill so we can make some money" comes the reply. The mill is purchased, and after the foreigners leave, it is sold by the chief and he buys a car, which then breaks. 3 years down the road, nothing has changed for the village. The young mother who tries to get her microbusiness going finds that her relatives come and ask for money whenever she makes a profit. Culturally, she is unable to refuse for fear they will become angry and curse her or spread lies about her. She never gets ahead.
What will end corruption, bigotry, cruelty, greed and selfishness, and most of all, FEAR? We believe the answer is a change in the human heart, done only by the Holy Spirit. It doesn't surprise us when people act like - people. It is not that people here are more sinful than they are in America, it is that this sin comes out in different ways. We don't believe real change will happen widely until people's hearts are changed.
When we are affected by his presence, we start to change. Then and only then can we be the instruments the Holy Spirit can use to change the hearts of others. We begin to understand the power and goodness of His plan, even in the midst of this suffering. We gain power over the curses of our neighbors and begin to love our enemies. And together we see bits of the kingdom of God here on earth. We see it in kindness and sacrifice, in believers standing up to traditional practices which operate in fear of the ancestors, we see it in families being united in the desire to know God, not simply act out what is expected.
This atheist has seen it, the difference in the Christians. We see it here. We hope you see it there, in your self, in your family, in your neighborhood. Christians SHOULD make a difference in the communities in which they live. It is a struggle here to equip the Christians to live as salt and light - they face many obstacles, and one of those obstacles is lack of understanding of who God really is and who THEY are in Christ. That is powerful knowledge and we continue to hope more and more people will grasp it. - Cami
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
AIDS and the news
Recently, this editorial appeared in the Washington Post:
Condom Sense
Pope Benedict XVI is wrong.
Washington Post Editorial, Thursday, March 19, 2009; Page A14
THE LATE New York senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan once said, "Everyone is entitled to his own opinion but not his own facts." This holds true even for the pope.
While on a flight to Cameroon on Tuesday to begin a weeklong journey through Africa, Pope Benedict XVI said, "You can't resolve [the AIDS epidemic] with the distribution of condoms. On the contrary, it increases the problem." In a perfect world, people would abstain from having sex until they were married or would be monogamous in committed relationships. But the world isn't perfect -- and neither is Pope Benedict's pronouncement on the effectiveness of condoms in the battle against HIV/AIDS. The evidence says so.
___________________
Obviously, that is just a short piece of it, and you can read the rest of the article here:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/18/AR2009031803136.html
Why do I bother to mention this? Because I totally agree with the Pope on this one. Condoms are not the answer to the AIDS epidemic in Africa. In other places, perhaps they are, and in certain populations in Africa, like truck drivers and the prostitutes they frequent, they are the answer. But in the vast majority of cases, condoms are not going to solve the problem.
I'll tell you more about that in a minute. But first, I wanted to explain something that is not commonly known among people in the West. Before I came out to Mozambique, my cousin and I were having a discussion about WHY there is such an AIDS epidemic in Africa and why it hasn't spread so rapidly in America. Certainly there are lots of people having unprotected sex in America, but the epidemic really has been limited to high-risk populations for the most part, and education and condom use has really slowed the infection rate. Why has it taken off like a rocket here? Was malaria weakening the immune system of people so that they were more likely to contract HIV? That was one theory, but didn't account for its spread in areas where there is little malaria. Poverty certainly has its role to play in weakening people, or giving women few sexual rights. All those are factors, certainly. But in talking to our mission AIDS coordinator, who has a lot of on-the-ground experience with this, and with people here, especially missionaries who have been here a long time, I found that the answer is that many, many people have multiple sexual partners. In America, people tend to be serial monogamists. They have one parter for a number of months or years, then have another (Then there are those who abstain or who have only one long-term partner).
Here, one person will have several partners during the same time period, and each of those people have several. This spreads the virus much more rapidly. Women have few sexual rights, and this makes the problem much worse. It was hard for me to believe that this was going on at first, but unfortunately it is true.
So, why won't condoms solve this problem? Just pass them out to enough people, make them available for purchase, educate people about the risks, and the incidence will fall, right? Experience and research has shown that this is not the case.
Here's an excerpt from an interview was done by Christianity Today:
_____________
Condoms, HIV, and Pope Benedict
Leading HIV researcher Edward C. Green says criticism of the pope 'unfair.'
Interview by Timothy C. Morgan | posted 3/20/2009 04:27PM
Edward C. Green is one of the world's leading field researchers on the spread of HIV and public health interventions. He's the director of the Harvard AIDS Prevention Research Project, and is a leading advocate for evidence-based interventions. He has been sharply criticized by some public health experts for supporting sexual partner reduction programs and for endorsing the so-called ABC method ("Abstain, Be faithful, or use a Condom") for fighting the transmission of HIV. After Pope Benedict's comments earlier this week, Green agreed to answer Christianity Today deputy managing editor Tim Morgan's questions by e-mail.
(Here is one question that he answered)
CT:Is there any country in Africa with a high HIV infection rate that has implemented new programs and seen infection rates fall? If so, what strategies are being followed?
EG:I'm glad you asked this. We are seeing HIV decline in eight or nine African countries. In every case, there's been a decrease in the proportion of men and women reporting multiple sexual partners. Ironically, in the first country where we saw this, Uganda, HIV prevalence decline stopped in about 2004, and infection rates appear to be rising again. This appears to be in part because emphasis on interventions that promote monogamy and fidelity has weakened significantly, and earlier behavior changes have eroded. There has been a steady increase in the very behavior that once accounted for rates declining — namely, having multiple and concurrent sex partners. There is a widespread belief that somehow Uganda had fewer condoms. In fact, foreign donors have persuaded Uganda to put even more emphasis on condoms.
____________
Here's the link to the whole article:
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2009/marchweb-only/111-53.0.html
Why won't condoms solve it? Well, for one thing it doesn't address the behavior that is causing the problem, but also the vast majority of people simply won't pay for condoms, and even if given them, quite a few won't use them. When people are involved with multiple partners, then condoms are needed every single time, with every single partner, and this is realistically not something that is going to happen in an economically poor society. And women with little sexual power cannot force their male partners to use them (especially poor rural women whose husbands work in urban areas, returning for visits). There are all kinds of problems. This is not to say they should not be available, or not be distributed.
People in the West see the propagation of the "abstinence, monogamy" idea as an imposition of moralistic religious people on the culture of Africa. They believe that this idea suppresses people's sexual freedom, and therefore that we should encourage sexual freedom, and try to stem the tide through condom use. They forget that traditional African culture IS monogamous. It has been, in major part, the influence of the West that has caused the problems that are now occuring.
I encourage you to read the article in CT and investigate this matter further. In a later post, I'll talk about AIDS and our local situation. - Cami
Condom Sense
Pope Benedict XVI is wrong.
Washington Post Editorial, Thursday, March 19, 2009; Page A14
THE LATE New York senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan once said, "Everyone is entitled to his own opinion but not his own facts." This holds true even for the pope.
While on a flight to Cameroon on Tuesday to begin a weeklong journey through Africa, Pope Benedict XVI said, "You can't resolve [the AIDS epidemic] with the distribution of condoms. On the contrary, it increases the problem." In a perfect world, people would abstain from having sex until they were married or would be monogamous in committed relationships. But the world isn't perfect -- and neither is Pope Benedict's pronouncement on the effectiveness of condoms in the battle against HIV/AIDS. The evidence says so.
___________________
Obviously, that is just a short piece of it, and you can read the rest of the article here:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/18/AR2009031803136.html
Why do I bother to mention this? Because I totally agree with the Pope on this one. Condoms are not the answer to the AIDS epidemic in Africa. In other places, perhaps they are, and in certain populations in Africa, like truck drivers and the prostitutes they frequent, they are the answer. But in the vast majority of cases, condoms are not going to solve the problem.
I'll tell you more about that in a minute. But first, I wanted to explain something that is not commonly known among people in the West. Before I came out to Mozambique, my cousin and I were having a discussion about WHY there is such an AIDS epidemic in Africa and why it hasn't spread so rapidly in America. Certainly there are lots of people having unprotected sex in America, but the epidemic really has been limited to high-risk populations for the most part, and education and condom use has really slowed the infection rate. Why has it taken off like a rocket here? Was malaria weakening the immune system of people so that they were more likely to contract HIV? That was one theory, but didn't account for its spread in areas where there is little malaria. Poverty certainly has its role to play in weakening people, or giving women few sexual rights. All those are factors, certainly. But in talking to our mission AIDS coordinator, who has a lot of on-the-ground experience with this, and with people here, especially missionaries who have been here a long time, I found that the answer is that many, many people have multiple sexual partners. In America, people tend to be serial monogamists. They have one parter for a number of months or years, then have another (Then there are those who abstain or who have only one long-term partner).
Here, one person will have several partners during the same time period, and each of those people have several. This spreads the virus much more rapidly. Women have few sexual rights, and this makes the problem much worse. It was hard for me to believe that this was going on at first, but unfortunately it is true.
So, why won't condoms solve this problem? Just pass them out to enough people, make them available for purchase, educate people about the risks, and the incidence will fall, right? Experience and research has shown that this is not the case.
Here's an excerpt from an interview was done by Christianity Today:
_____________
Condoms, HIV, and Pope Benedict
Leading HIV researcher Edward C. Green says criticism of the pope 'unfair.'
Interview by Timothy C. Morgan | posted 3/20/2009 04:27PM
Edward C. Green is one of the world's leading field researchers on the spread of HIV and public health interventions. He's the director of the Harvard AIDS Prevention Research Project, and is a leading advocate for evidence-based interventions. He has been sharply criticized by some public health experts for supporting sexual partner reduction programs and for endorsing the so-called ABC method ("Abstain, Be faithful, or use a Condom") for fighting the transmission of HIV. After Pope Benedict's comments earlier this week, Green agreed to answer Christianity Today deputy managing editor Tim Morgan's questions by e-mail.
(Here is one question that he answered)
CT:Is there any country in Africa with a high HIV infection rate that has implemented new programs and seen infection rates fall? If so, what strategies are being followed?
EG:I'm glad you asked this. We are seeing HIV decline in eight or nine African countries. In every case, there's been a decrease in the proportion of men and women reporting multiple sexual partners. Ironically, in the first country where we saw this, Uganda, HIV prevalence decline stopped in about 2004, and infection rates appear to be rising again. This appears to be in part because emphasis on interventions that promote monogamy and fidelity has weakened significantly, and earlier behavior changes have eroded. There has been a steady increase in the very behavior that once accounted for rates declining — namely, having multiple and concurrent sex partners. There is a widespread belief that somehow Uganda had fewer condoms. In fact, foreign donors have persuaded Uganda to put even more emphasis on condoms.
____________
Here's the link to the whole article:
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2009/marchweb-only/111-53.0.html
Why won't condoms solve it? Well, for one thing it doesn't address the behavior that is causing the problem, but also the vast majority of people simply won't pay for condoms, and even if given them, quite a few won't use them. When people are involved with multiple partners, then condoms are needed every single time, with every single partner, and this is realistically not something that is going to happen in an economically poor society. And women with little sexual power cannot force their male partners to use them (especially poor rural women whose husbands work in urban areas, returning for visits). There are all kinds of problems. This is not to say they should not be available, or not be distributed.
People in the West see the propagation of the "abstinence, monogamy" idea as an imposition of moralistic religious people on the culture of Africa. They believe that this idea suppresses people's sexual freedom, and therefore that we should encourage sexual freedom, and try to stem the tide through condom use. They forget that traditional African culture IS monogamous. It has been, in major part, the influence of the West that has caused the problems that are now occuring.
I encourage you to read the article in CT and investigate this matter further. In a later post, I'll talk about AIDS and our local situation. - Cami
Ben turns 3!
I've been delayed in posting this entry about Ben's birthday party on March 1st. He had a "bug" party, so we put up pictures of bugs all over, spread out all our plastic bugs, and made a "dirt cake", which was layers of chocolate cake, pudding, chocolate shavings, gummy bugs, and oreo crumbs. It sure was good and Ben enjoyed his party very much. We invited five little friends and their parents, and some other adult friends, and it was a very happy day. Hard to believe it has been 3 years since Ben made his appearance at the hospital in Portugal and how many places he has been toted since then! We were counting up his plane travels the other day and they were quite impressive. Portugal to USA, Florida to LA, Connecticut to Hawaii to Minnesota to Colorado, Florida to Ohio, Connecticut to Florida, New York to Mozambique! Then quite a few car trips since then. Ben is a sweet little guy, who is VERY stubborn and quite adventurous. Everyone comments on his love of climbing on things, and he travels everywhere to his own soundtrack (DUHM Duhm Duhmn) as he hums his "theme music" while he plays. Often he sings to himself and he loves the Rescue Heroes, Spiderman and Superman. Last week Kevin urged him to eat his food, ben, and he replied "I not Ben! Right now I Superman!" Ok Superman, eat your food. He keeps us in stitches and we can't imagine life without him. -Cami
Friday, March 20, 2009
Those Fine Young People
Sorry about the title, guys! I know you'll hate it. But I wanted to post about some wonderful young people who are trying to make a difference here. There is a local orphanage, run by a young Mozambican man who is married to an American, and some of the missionary teens periodically try to do things to support them. Last week, they had a car wash/oil change and asked all the expats to come by and donate in exchange for services. I couldn't make it to the location, so they came to my house and whipped out their vacuum cleaner, buckets and sponges, and cleaned up our car in a jif. I realized, as I watched, that Benjamin doesn't know what a vacuum cleaner is! He hasn't seen one since he was less than a year old.
Anyway, these "fine young people" (really, they are!) did a great job and raised some money to donate to the orphanage. These same folks lead the worship at the English Fellowship every other Sunday night with overheads, keyboards, drums, guitar, piano and singing, and we feel greatly priviledged to benefit from their talent. You have no idea how much professionaly-done worship can minister to a tired missionary!
So, thanks guys! And yes, there in the front row is Ian, the young man who was airlifted out near death with malaria just a couple of months ago. We are all glad to see him back and looking great (no matter how dirty he is). Praise God! - Cami
Boogers
Well, I complained in a previous post about people digging for boogers and God thought He'd have a laugh at my expense. Me and the boys have been sick this week with croup/cold/flu with fever, wet cough and lots of congestion. Ben, predictably, has been very boogery and I've been too sick to follow him around the house wiping his nose constantly. So, he's taken to wiping his nose on the back of his arms, then coming to my bed and wiping it on ME or on my bed. Ewwwwww! Finally this morning I hit on the idea of giving him a big cloth handkerchief and he seems interested in wiping on that instead. Here is a photo of him, fast asleep with his head on the kitchen table. I asked him to take some cough medicine so that he wouldn't be up all night coughing, and he refused. When told he would sit there until he took it, he said "ok" and there he sat until he fell asleep. It is so pathetic! He is such a stubborn little guy, and even an offer of chocolate could not budge him. Toby was always such a sensible little guy, and when told "Here, drink this bad-tasting medicine and I will give you a lollipop." it went right down the hatch. Ben would rather die than let it touch his lips. I managed to get a little into him, but he did indeed cough half the night, keeping both of us up. Next time: we sit on him. Sheesh. - Cami
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