AFRICA: Joy of My Grieving Heart

Before Kuki Gallman wrote her story and played on screen by Kim Basinger, I dreamed of Africa already after hearing my Nanay’s desire of going to the black continent as a missionary.  My mother passed away during the last holidays never seeing the place of her dream but very happy that her eldest son was there making her dreams come true.

Africa is the Land of the Extremes, the land that others believe it is curse forever.  Images of hunger and poverty co-exist with deadly diseases especially HIV-AIDs and the constant outbreaks of lethal pathogens. Peace is almost not existent too in some places due to outburst of violence brought upon by centuries of greed, hatred, betrayal, and dominance both internally and externally.  The concept of Africa is black, negative, ignorant  and backward for most individuals.

However, Africa is the place of great beauty and opportunities, a  Promise Land. A place where black is beautiful and the paradise is your backyard.  And in every depths of the continent where we think there is no future, hope is always manifested.

My dream of Africa was fuelled by my desire to see what I heard and to do what I want, to be a man of service and to be a great student. Africa is a great teacher where you will understand the irony of life as you observed it in its paradise that a life is a circle. The greatest   thing that I learned is to know how to hope and be patient and how to understand the beauty and the gift of life.

Every day as I meet people from all walks of life, everyone has a story to tell. A dying man in the hospital with AIDS, the crying orphaned kid , a battered woman with infections due to female genital mutilation, a distraught conservationist because of the massive desertification and the building of roads for development as they say that disrupt the migration of animals. All of them, to me they are always a color to my canvass of life. A life where hakuna matata philosophy exist.
Sometimes, I ask myself if I miss my home country and the answer is always yes. But anywhere is always a home for me.  A lesson that always imprinted in my mind, that everything can co – exist  but you always have a place where you belong and that is home where your heritage exist.
Today, while contemplating in my place overlooking the azure blue Indian Ocean here in the East Coast of Africa, I can see the pods of dolphins swirling only less than a hundred feet away, as the eagle soars in the blue sky, while the vervet blue balls monkey runs fast as the crows chase them for stealing the eggs in their nest. As the morning sun rose, the humming of the sunbirds and birds of paradise filled the air. The voice of the vultures echoes dominate for a moment – this is Africa, the land of the extremes, the joy of my grieving heart. The place where my I poured out my sorrowful heart when my brother was murdered few days before I set foot here in the Black Continent. He was the one who encourage me to come here and my Nanay who planted in my heart on how to serve with compassion and understanding. Both of them are my inspiration to work as volunteer in this side of the earth. This  is the   land of compassion, beauty, hope and opportunity where nature co exist with men and the place where  the grieving hearts will be healed.