Two meetings, two countries, two sponsors, two very different experiences.
The Cush Consultation met in southern Sudan and brought together 80 participants—expatriates and Sudanese nationals (missionaries, pastors, evangelists, radio technicians, pilots, teachers, and health workers)--to examine how the Christian mission community might collaborate to reach the unreached with the good news of the gospel and the compassion of Christ expressed through the provision of safe water, simple medical treatment, and education. We slept in grass-roofed houses, ate all the organs of the goat, bathed from water splashed out of plastic basins, and met in an upainted, concrete tin-roofed structure. Our strategic planning was guided by the Spirit, because we had little or no data on the specific physical/spiritual needs of southern Sudan or the activities of which groups are actually working in the country.
Three days after returning to Kampala from Sudan, I flew to Arusha, Tanzania for the Global Implementers Meeting of the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation. Over two hundred participants—physicans, public health managers, administrators, planners and leaders from 18 countries—convened to share and look for “the way forward” to prevent and treat mothers and children with HIV infection. And though we seek to alleviate death and suffering in one of the weakest, poorest, and most vulnerable populations in the world…we are not suffering in any way at this meeting. The Ngurdoto Mountain Lodge lies at the base of Mt. Meru and looks towards the snows of Kilimanjaro. At 6500 feet we are enjoying a cool 72 degree low-humidity climate. Four choices of juice every morning, a buffet extending for 25 feet, satellite television, Internet café, golf course, Olympic size swimming pool, and a luxurious conference hall with cathedral ceiling and microphones in front of each participant to facilitate questions and discussion.
The progress in preventing mother-to-child transmission is impressive. Just five years ago the foundation had 8 sites in six countries. This year they boast over 1100 sites in 18 countries with over 2 million women tested over 5 years. The lectures are a mixture of medical, public health, and programmatic evaluation, but are generally driven by data. That data is not cheap. Millions of dollars. One presenter this morning estimated that the software developed for their project in 28 sites cost about $100,000.
Midway through the third day of lectures, I am still feeling the culture shock from making the transition from one meeting to the next. This morning I was thinking that I am sort of a third-culture kid (TCK), raised in the objective information-driven highly-resourced professional world of medicine and public health, but transplanted to the church/missionary culture in Africa with a relative paucity of resources and more organic process of development. I feel like Jennifer and I have sort of melded the two worlds, but I no longer feel entirely comfortable in either. There are aspects of each which I love and embrace, but we’ve forged our own third way—doing little studies, analyzing our data, making conclusions, thinking critically—but living by faith and trying to apply the tools we’ve been given in a remote setting with compassion in the name of Christ.
I suppose its not bad to feel uncomfortable, because this world is not our true Home. We are sojourners…just passing through.
PS- The photos above show the contrasting accommodations: Yei , Sudan–v- Arusha, Tanzania. Keeping in mind, of course, that the Tanzania photo does not reflect the general level of development thoughout Tanzania.
PPS- The luxurious accommodations in Arusha were funded entirely by the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, Johnson & Johnson, and Bristol-Meyers Squibb—no funds from WHM.
Two meetings, two countries, two sponsors, two very different experiences.
The Cush Consultation met in southern Sudan and brought together 80 participants—expatriates and Sudanese nationals (missionaries, pastors, evangelists, radio technicians, pilots, teachers, and health workers)--to examine how the Christian mission community might collaborate to reach the unreached with the good news of the gospel and the compassion of Christ expressed through the provision of safe water, simple medical treatment, and education. We slept in grass-roofed houses, ate all the organs of the goat, bathed from water splashed out of plastic basins, and met in an upainted, concrete tin-roofed structure. Our strategic planning was guided by the Spirit, because we had little or no data on the specific physical/spiritual needs of southern Sudan or the activities of which groups are actually working in the country.
Three days after returning to Kampala from Sudan, I flew to Arusha, Tanzania for the Global Implementers Meeting of the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation. Over two hundred participants—physicans, public health managers, administrators, planners and leaders from 18 countries—convened to share and look for “the way forward” to prevent and treat mothers and children with HIV infection. And though we seek to alleviate death and suffering in one of the weakest, poorest, and most vulnerable populations in the world…we are not suffering in any way at this meeting. The Ngurdoto Mountain Lodge lies at the base of Mt. Meru and looks towards the snows of Kilimanjaro. At 6500 feet we are enjoying a cool 72 degree low-humidity climate. Four choices of juice every morning, a buffet extending for 25 feet, satellite television, Internet café, golf course, Olympic size swimming pool, and a luxurious conference hall with cathedral ceiling and microphones in front of each participant to facilitate questions and discussion.
The progress in preventing mother-to-child transmission is impressive. Just five years ago the foundation had 8 sites in six countries. This year they boast over 1100 sites in 18 countries with over 2 million women tested over 5 years. The lectures are a mixture of medical, public health, and programmatic evaluation, but are generally driven by data. That data is not cheap. Millions of dollars. One presenter this morning estimated that the software developed for their project in 28 sites cost about $100,000.
Midway through the third day of lectures, I am still feeling the culture shock from making the transition from one meeting to the next. This morning I was thinking that I am sort of a third-culture kid (TCK), raised in the objective information-driven highly-resourced professional world of medicine and public health, but transplanted to the church/missionary culture in Africa with a relative paucity of resources and more organic process of development. I feel like Jennifer and I have sort of melded the two worlds, but I no longer feel entirely comfortable in either. There are aspects of each which I love and embrace, but we’ve forged our own third way—doing little studies, analyzing our data, making conclusions, thinking critically—but living by faith and trying to apply the tools we’ve been given in a remote setting with compassion in the name of Christ.
I suppose its not bad to feel uncomfortable, because this world is not our true Home. We are sojourners…just passing through.
PS- The photos above show the contrasting accommodations: Yei , Sudan–v- Arusha, Tanzania. Keeping in mind, of course, that the Tanzania photo does not reflect the general level of development thoughout Tanzania.
PPS- The luxurious accommodations in Arusha were funded entirely by the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, Johnson & Johnson, and Bristol-Meyers Squibb—no funds from WHM.
1 comment:
They chose the TZ resort for all you medical types because of the kidney shaped pool ;-).... party on garth!
maryann
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