World Vision Article

Here’s a great article from the Seattle Weekly on World Vision. It’s awesome to hear more details about this amazing group, especially when my good friend Sean works there.

This article and the organization they speak of are both very encouraging as we think of the seemingly overwhelming fight against AIDS in Africa and around the world. Where I don’t feel like I act out much in the international justice realm, I’m encouraged to know that there are those in the Christian community who are standing up to the stereotypes of AIDS/HIV and actually trying to do something about working towards solutions.

Read on: The AIDS Evangelists (Seattle Weekly)

White T-Shirt and Jeans (Sean)

I am back in Paris sitting in the Air France Salon Room which I somehow slipped in with a colleague.  Everyone around me is wearing a suit, a tie, or at least a coat…and what am I wearing you ask?

I had hoped to post a bit more during my trip to Niger and am sorry that I wasn’t able to do so.  Time constraints and Internet capabilities hindered me quite a bit more than expected, but here is a quick re-cap of my last few days.

One for the guys (Sean)

I’ve noticed to common themes between Niger and Kenya that I think the 611 men will appreciate…

Top Ten Things You Should Know About Africa (with 11 things you should know)
11) They love Kevin Costner too Nick!

10) Jesse, when driving in Africa, you basically get to make up your own rules.  Backseat drivers either go hoarse from yelling or are killed by the driver.

9) They eat the same thing for every meal, just the way I like it.

There is no way Brian’s parents ever called as early as every freaking rooster on the continent begins to crow.

7) You know how Coors has the slogan, “Coors beer, taste the Rockies.”  Well, African’s slogan is “Orange flavored Fanta, drink it so you don’t have to drink the water and get some kind of venereal disease.”

6) A meeting that starts at 10:30 AM means you don’t actually get ready to go until 10:30 AM- Jesse would be in heaven!

5) Apricot foot scrub?  Nope the Nigeriens and Kenyans exfoliate with sand Seth.

4) Nobody eats cheese Brian, but we could use some goat intestine to pile up in the middle of your tortillas?

3) Nick, reduce, reuse, recycle?  Well they’ve got the reduce thing down by converting “HAZARDOUS WASTE” containers into water jugs…mmm…chemicals.

2) Between Michael Bolton, Phil Collins, and David Hasselhoff, you’d go mentally insane Seth.

1) The people in rural villages put our savage run to shame…to shame…

Clinic Visit – 9/15/06 (Sean)

My team and I split up today to visit several villages, my main task was to visit two clinics to observe the treatment facilities as well as to discuss our health strategy within these villages…it has been a difficult day…

We began the drive through back roads to exit Maradi and enter the outskirt villages.  We had been driving for about an hour with the windows down when all of the sudden a strange sound began to float through the car.  I listened hard outside and it sounded like hundreds of birds and I wish it had been.  As we got closer and closer to the clinic I realized that it was not hundreds of birds but hundreds of children crying, most of them younger than 18 months old.  I got out of the car and surveyed an enormous outdoor clinic…

Nearly 500 women stood with their infants  who were nursing, crying, sleeping, and the really sick children just sat with distant glares.  The women looked like a giant watercolor painting with their beautiful clothes streaming in the breeze that carried a repugnant sent of disease…I stood for several moments just frozen as I looked on.  After I was able to put myself together I was taken on a tour of the main emergency clinic, a modest four bedroom building where the government funds a nurse.  The nurse first led me to the maternity room.  The metal bead had no cushions on it and in fact the nurse told me that most women sit on the floor to give birth.  No one can afford drugs and surgical equipment consists of one pair of scissors.  The next room was an “injection” room that looked similar to the maternity room.  As I entered this room, the combination of heat and stench nearly knocked me over.  The sickest patients are brought into this room with one bed and treated in whatever way is possible.  The other rooms were for storage (I still don’t know what was kept in “storage” as there is no money to buy anything) and one for administration.

Next I walked through the outdoor clinic…it was heart wrenching.  The outdoor clinic is divided into several sections and is mainly for children under the age of 5.  Women and children are screened for all kinds of diseases, provided immunizations in some cases, given nutritional supplements, mosquito nets, and sparse other materials and supplies to treat minor illnesses.  As I walked through the tiny aisles lined with women and infants my mind was overcome with emotion.  I was so thankful that all of these women were able to receive some treatment and that they could learn about health…but the sound of 500 tragically sick infants is still ringing in my ears.

The medical assistant was explaining the procedures to me as we continued our tour and I was captured by the eyes of the women as we walked on.  Their eyes seemed to call out to me, to the nurse, to anyone for help and treatment.  Some of the women were laughing, some were crying, but the vast majority had the same distant glare as their sick infants.  It can be difficult at times to see God in these situations…one begins to wonder, “Where are you God?  How long will you forget these children?  How long will you stay away?”  I know everyone will say “God is there, He is in the aid workers treating the infants, His hope brightens the women as they leave with nutrition strategies”…and I agree, it’s just hard in those moments.

I stayed at the clinic for about four hours before it was time to move onto another project.  The well there serves about 200 families and is maintained by the community.  When we arrived I was swarmed by children (always a brief taste of heaven for me) and we discussed malaria and trachoma with several community members.  I was most interested in learning about the children’s health practices so we talked for awhile and they told me if they slept under mosquito nets, if they wash their hands and faces, and they shyly smiled the whole time, they were beautiful.  We visited a school in this community as well, three classrooms for 350 children.

Honestly I am happy to be away from it all right now; sometimes it can be too much for me.  However, our field staff here who work in these situations everyday for miniscule amounts of money are heroes.  They’re dedication to this work and to these children is an inspiration to me and despite how much I’ve asked, “where are you God” they’ve shown Him to me…

Update from Niger- 09/14/2006 (Sean)

It has been difficult to send emails in Niger which I should have expected from the poorest country in the world, but I am available for the time being to write an update on all I’ve seen and done so far.

Our trip into Niger was quite an adventure.  Our flight was supposed to land in Niamey, the capital city at 3:30 PM.  I hadn’t looked out the window much during the flight because we were just surrounded by the Sahara so there really wasn’t much to see.  However, our pilot came onto the intercom and told us that we would be landing shortly so we should take all the necessary preparations.  I looked out the window and was terrified by what I saw…sand, everywhere.  I’ve never seen a sandstorm, but we were flying through one and it was really quite scary.  The wind was loud, I could hear outside and it shook the plane so bad that I though the overhead compartments would empty out.  We kept descending, people were screaming because both sides of the plane were just surrounded in the wind and sand, and as we got closer to the ground I could barely see the runway.  We must have been 500 feet above the runaway when all of the sudden our pilot jerked the plane up to stop us from the landing in Niamey.  The pilot said that the weather was too bad to try and land so we flew around for another 40 minutes (still shaking in the sandstorm) until he decided to land in Burkina Faso where they had intended on landing after Niamey anyway to pick up some passengers.  Eight hours later I arrived in Niger…

Since landing we spent some time in Niamey meeting with our staff there and then traveled to Maradi which is where I am writing this email.  The drive took 10 hours on a “road” through the country and seeing this place is really amazing.  I am surprised how green it is, I’m told the rains have just stopped and so the place looks more fertile now than it will all year long.  Today in Maradi we worked with our field staff on several health issues, but mainly Trachoma.  Trachoma is often caused by flies that land on human/animal waste and then land near the eyes of humans.  It often leads to blindness (there are man blind people being led through the streets of Maradi) and at best can be very detrimental to one’s sight.  Our meetings with the field staff have been great, they are incredibly competent and are extremely qualified…it has been a blessing and honor to sit around the table with them and share stories and laughter as well as attempt to change the lives of some children in Niger.

Tomorrow I will be leaving to visit two of our villages.  My time will be spent at two medical clinics learning about malaria, trachoma, and guinea worm as well as spending time working through an economic/market development project we’ve implemented for women.  So far so good…

Top 10 Quick notes that I wrote while driving today- 09/14/2006
10)  It’s hot, really hot…and right now it is the “cool” season
9)  To: Jon from Blockbuster Video, your shirt and name tag made it here and one of my friends wears it everyday
Everything is red, the dirt, the houses, the sunsets, everything…
7)My French sucks, just awful
6)Michael Bolton appears to be a hit here just like in Kenya
5)I’m not sure if the men work…at all…mostly just the women and children
4)The Hausa tribe scars their children on the face as a custom so most people I see have the same scar pattern across their face.
3)Everybody eats sorghum, beans, peanuts, and millet…mmm…millet
2)Roads are pretty much wherever you want them to be
1)…So are toilets

Sean in Africa

Another very exciting thing is happening with this blog: My good friend Sean Baird is heading off to the country of Niger on September 10th. While he’s away, he has asked to be a "guest blogger" here at Twenty-three, sharing his thoughts on his work in Africa as well as his insight into the greater issues he’s working with, including disease, poverty, AIDS, water, and working with relief organizations.

Take a look at his post below and please check back often to hear more about what Sean is doing. I feel incredibly privileged to let this site be a vehicle for his voice and I ask that you please consider his ideas. For those of you who are new to my blog, from Sean’s email list and referral, welcome. It’s great and humbling to have you join this conversation here.

Please pray for Sean as he is away, that he will be safe and continually challenged by God’s calling to help those in need.

Two Week Trip to Niger (Sean)

My good friend Seth has been kind enough to create a space for me to share my thoughts and experiences with each of you on his blog rather than start a new one up or put a ton of time into maintaining my old one.  I hope that you will feel free to comment and I will do my best to respond, you can also send me an email at baird.sean@gmail.com  with more specific questions/concerns.  I am traveling to Niger for work but will refrain from using the name of my organization and would appreciate the same from those of you who know where I work in order to maintain integrity with my employer.  Seth will delete comments that mention the organization – sorry to be a stickler, but people have lost their jobs because of these things!  I also hope you will take time to read the things Seth is writing about/discussing on his blog.  I believe the issues Seth discusses here are becoming increasingly important for Christians (especially the posts about beer!) and his voice is an important one to me as I strive to follow Jesus in a global and postmodern time.  With all this said, welcome…

I leave on September 10th to begin round two in Africa.  This time I will be traveling to West Africa, which will be a striking contrast to what I saw in East Africa (Kenya- see http://underafricanskies.blogspot.com/).  West Africa does not receive the same attention as Southern and Eastern Africa receives due to the relatively low prevalence of HIV/AIDS.  Thus funding for these countries is vastly insignificant compared to the rest of the continent despite the fact that extreme poverty reigns paramount along with atrocious malaria death rates and devastating hunger.

Niger is one of the world’s poorest countries, in fact the Human Development Report (United Nations Development Project) places it as 177 out of 177 for the development index which measures educational attainment, life expectancy, average household income, etc.  One of the major issues surrounding Niger is famine, which occurs after regular droughts in the arid climate just south of the Sahara.  The only fertile land for agriculture in Niger is the bottom one fifth of the country, which is called the Sahel (for a brief summary of Niger, please go to https://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/ng.html).  My time will primarily be spent in the Sahel and will focus on health issues (trachoma, malnutrition, etc) as well as observing economic development projects that are implemented to promote markets within the communities. 

However, what I look most forward to is time spent with the communities, listening to their hardships and joys, seeing smiles stretch across the children’s faces, and being invited into their mysterious lives.  I find myself excited and nervous at the same time, much like I was before leaving for Kenya.  Part of me fears some of the things I know I will see- the tears of infants falling due to starvation, exhausted mothers doing everything they can to provide for their families…poverty sears one’s heart when it stares you in the eyes.  But part of me feels excited for another chance to connect and learn, another chance to hold those captivating African children, and another chance to see the beauty that can come out of such darkness.

I am going to try and write two posts a week including one or two more before I leave, so welcome to Twenty-Three, take a tour and see what Seth is addressing and stop by to get updates from Niger…thanks again Seth, you’re the best.

- Sean

PS- Check out some of the pictures below…a colleague took them in Niger about six months ago.