Thursday, February 26, 2009

Heartbeak and Hearts United

Ok, I told you this would be a special day. First, I discovered when I arrived here that The Gambia was a critical centre for the slave trade from the Africa side. The real surprise was finding out that the village which features in Alex Haley's book, *Roots*, is in The Gambia, not many miles from Banjul. So I immediately put in my pitch to spend a day there. That was today. It is an hour ferry ride across the river, then a 1.5 hour car ride to the village. a short boat ride took us to James Island where over 600 slaves would be packed into obscenely small quarters for three years, precisely to take from these strong young men their energy, strength and will. This made them sufficiently docile to manage the long journey to America. Other acts of inhumanity were presented, which only compounded the horror of what we were witnessing in this island memorial. For me, the trip was a memory horrible and a must.
The caption on the memorial plaque on the beach reads: *Never Again*. The hidden and sometimes subtle varieties of slavery being practiced today leaves me with little confidence that the warning has been heeded. But hope of course is never deterred by evil.
The other event today was a heartwarming event at the CVM house. Remember Martin from Sudan (in my first blog after arriving here)? It turns out that his second marriage was celebrated as a traditional African wedding. He and Rachel now have a 6-week old baby. So this evening the house was decorated brightly in lights and petals. Friends and volunteer staff were present. I officiated at a Blessing of their marriage and Glen led in a dedication of their newborn. Then a big chocolate cake. What a wonderful way to wind up our trip!
We are all still hoping to get a pic of Skippy, the little frog who lives in the toilet. Can you imagine Steve peering into the toilet bowl with that look of satisfaction that appears only on the face of a little boy who was just toilet trained and discovered the reward waiting for him in the bottom of the bowl!! Well, whether or not Skippy pays us a last visit, we leave tomorrow for London, and will be home Saturday night. We are squeezing in one last meeting tomorrow morning with an important Christian leader.
We have been filling in a lot of blanks and noting confirmations as one leader seems to corroborate the insights of another. Like building blocks in something that is a lot larger than what we have in place now. But this is why we came.

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