NO GUNS

Although it has not made it to the press anywhere that I noticed, 3 days ago a French logistician on her first mission with MSF France was shot and killed while travelling in an MSF vehicle in the Central African Republic. I got a shiver of pain when I read about it on IRIN news (www.IRINNEWS.org). I shivered with realization that a comrade was killed and the renewed recognition that our missions are usually played out in areas of danger. Sometimes we forget that. We never forget that guns are not allowed in our humanitarian space, we have seen how guns rather than protecting us, serve as agents of conflict and suffering.
One of my T-shirts that I made recently proclaims " Killing is for cowards". Guns are easy to use to kill. There's nothing brave about a gunman whoever he or she may be. This point needs to be hammered home. I'll leave it at that for now, 'cos I could really let loose with it...and spray the room with my contempt for firearms.

What ?

Somebody sent me an email that described CHAD as the "Dead heart of Africa". How nasty is that! It certainly is the geographic heart of the northern portion of the continent, I can tell it is anything but dead. Two weeks before I leave and I'm starting to not believe I am actually going to. I walk the streets of NYC and try to imagine the dust (or mud) of this heart of Africa. I look around at all the faces of people going about their business and I see others far away going about their own business of surviving, living in little shelters of stick and plastic. The rainy season is about to start and getting around is supposed to be very difficult.( Not so apparently for the Janjawid who can scoot over swollen rivers on camels.)
I hope I can write of what I see and experience and am able to convey it to anyone who reads this. I remain a little scared, but overjoyed to be leaving and embarking on a new path. The reality is and will be much more intense than 'club med' Burundi and I have had some fleeting thoughts of how serious the situation in Goz Beida may be. So, let's see shall we...?