End of year

Reach the end of 2011 with a good deal of satisfaction. Church has been very supportive and responsive to preaching.

Projects have been fully funded and significant developments. As part of the technical working committee on Palliative Care in Swaziland we completed the policy and got it launched. Extension to the Hospice was built and we provided a centre of spirituality all paid for and opened by the King.

Hosted visit of Rob Parsons of Care for the Family 850 people attended

Secured continuing support for projects for the next three years and additionally secured assistance to start anew project aimed at providign palliative care for Children this will be the big push in 2012. 25% of the funding received within six weeks.  Anyone who reads this and wants to help contact me at revjeff@realnet.co.sz

Chaired a TV programme for UN aids for  World Aids Day

Anticipatiing having to travel a great deal to get support for children who have no access to pain management when facing terminal illness here in Swaizland. more than 1000 died. in 2011 without drugs to ease pain and without nursing care. Something has to be done.

Have had our work permits renewed for another three years.  A lot to look forward to

Christmas Holiday reading  Steve Jobs Autobiography

 

 

 

 

Film

Watched The Single Man.     Found this film deeply moving and its exploration of  love and loss very compelling. Opening section when George receives news of Jim’s death and is excluded from attending the funeral especially significant.  The pain of the Outsider is carried well in the film.  Colin Firth absolutely brilliant.

I have just watched The Social Network and really enjoyed it. Of course much less than factual but conveys a real picture of entrepreneurs and there energy. By and large they just don!t seem to have an off button, but at the same time a heavy price to be paid for their intensity with personal relationships the most likely casualty. Keeping industry and integrity in some kind of correspondence seems to be a huge issue. Have met at least two multiple millionaires who seem to have managed to do this and they have also combined their genius with a commitment to philanthropy.

Got a chance to re-read a book I had not read for a long time. It was ‘A Grief Observed,’ by C.S. Lewis.  Having been involved in a number of especially sad pastoral situations. I found it very helpful,and if anyone is interested it can be downloaded as an audio app from Blackstone Audio Books. Inexpensive and well presented.

Helpful Reading

Really have appreciated reading  ’For All That Has Been, Thanks.’  by Rowan Williams and Joan Chittister.  Superbly put together.  Chapters on Unity and Otherness have so much to say to the small country of Swaziland where I live and work. It is a country that is so much under threat, especially because the disease burden attributable to HIV/Aids is just not sustainable. It has the country by the throat.   The Guinness Book Of Records for 2010 gives the country the  entirely regrettable distinction of having the highest death rate in the world, and the lowest life expectancy in Africa. WEalso have 120,000 orphans in a population of just over one million.

In the face of huge internal problems the country can become too defensive, inward looking and unable to deal with criticisms even when they are intentionally constructive.

Against the backdrop of anxiety I think the paragraph that I found especially helpful was the one that said, ‘To seek unity means that enabling people to speak without fear and without hesitation must become the cornerstone of discussion, ideas must be sought out. Answers must be elicited. Hesitations must be defined. cautions must be honoured before unity in diversity is possible.

Without the collection of ideas, no consensus is possible. Then the group ( or the nation) is reduced to a kind of compliance that wilts in the noon day sun.  There must be the freedom to ask questions without the fear of reprisals.   Is such freedom genuinely part of  life in Swaziland?