I just finished a book about one of the Lost Boys from the Sudan, What Is the What? (Thanks Lisa, for lending me this book). If I questioned the existence of God in the past, this book really did me in. What this young man endures, watching the genocide of his people, babies thrown down wells, people being burned alive in their homes, walking thousands of miles with little food and water to get away from the violence, watching children his own age die of starvation or being eaten by lions in the jungle.

Amazingly, President al-Bashir is still in power and after twenty years of subjecting the people of Southern Sudan to this treatment, he is doing the same in Darfur as the rest of the world does nothing to stop him.

I have a keen interest in post-colonial Africa. Each memoir, biography or fictionalized account of this area of the world I read never ceases to amaze me at the depth of man's inhumanity to man. Melville had nothing on this theme compared to Africa's recent history.

I have dreams of one day going to Africa and becoming a teacher or aide worker at one of the refugee camps. My children are too young right now and I hope and pray by the time they are old enough there will be no need for aide workers, but somehow I doubt it.

Labels: Life