A New Crew!!

Onwards!!!! in Africa

MSF (Doctors without Borders) teams from around the world came together to support demands for an independent investigation of the American/Afgan War Crimes in Kunduz.  The group above is the team I now work with in Nairobi. In the background you can see our fancy warehouse where we spend our time coordinating the supply and logistic requirements for Central Africa. This is a shiny brand new position for me and I am honored to be given this new responsibility. I will be working diligently with this highly skilled and dedicated team to ensure we get what is needed to the Docs in the field. The team responds to requests for supplies to address nutrition campaigns, immunization against disease, natural disasters and of course emergency medical aid for victims of conflict. From paper clips to Paracetamol.....we make it happen...and fast!!!

Recently my Mom, ever the voice of reason and philosophical probing in my life, talked about our organization and the lack of press. And when I think back to my life in Canada, Doctors without Borders was a collection of vague notions of bravery and good intentions in a world I knew too little about. (Maybe that's changing....MSF got a mention in the New James Bond movie Spectre. Now that is the big time!!)

But it was over a cup of coffee at the Port Renfrew Hotel with a stranger that I learned about the importance of the work being done. Starting with  a conversation about the motorcycles (of course) we were riding, we drifted toward discussion of his work with MSF - the suffering - the need for people to recognize the absence of real information about what is going on in some parts of the world. We sat for hours hunched over cups of coffee and talked in almost conspiratorial tones of the secrets and realities left untold or ignored. I was fascinated.

And my Mom is right (of course). The puzzle pieces of middle East/ African realities are scattered thoroughly. The press, try as they might, have little ability to gather all the flotsam and Jetsam and arrange into some kind of comprehensive offering. 

Even in his very festive Bow Tie Poncho looks sad.

And so here we are with a new tragedy before us. It reminds me of a cool morning on Sept 11 when a man stopped me on the jogging trail and told me that New York was under attack. I remember thinking that life has changed forever...and it had. I had the same feeling on November 13th when celebrating my 53rd birthday I had that same feeling. A brutal,barbaric and incomprehensible attack on the City of Love.

Is it the case that ISIS is the antithesis of our BBC/ Al Jazeera inspired sense of knowing the world around us?  When I think of the millions and millions of disenfranchised who suffer a near unimaginable daily existence, it starts to make sense to. The rules of war, The Geneva convention and a sense of fair play are not the playbook of future conflicts that are now clearly inevitable.

I promise to lighten up in my next Blog but it's a time for reflection. Our greatest institutions are not the Canadian Parliament Buildings, the Acropolis or even Madison Square Gardens in New Your City. They are the City of Love and the freedom to live as we chose. To protect those institution we may have to learn to share.....

My heart goes out to the people of France and my efforts to supporting the truly important institutions.

Thanks Lucy.... The Dino is short for Dinosaur by the way....Cow!

 Heading out for a morning Run at Karura forest with Sam. Thanks for Reading!!! Layno