Yesterday the medical team of Lubango Evangelical Medical Center returned from their spiritual life conference. My timing to volunteer each July is primarily to provide the vacation coverage they need. Tonight as I walked the wards tonight of our little hospital my thoughts turned to Manuel with the infection that ate away his entire jaw and chest, and Gabriel who nearly suffocated on a fish bone.
The medical staff of our center is mainly made up of volunteer expatriates, in spite of enormous effort to change this fact. We benefit from two part-time Angolan physicians. But the truth remains that the future of this healthcare ministry is in the hands of the Angolan people themselves. Canadians, Brazilians and Americans are not long-range solution. I ponder to myself, who will care for the Manuel and Gabriel of tomorrow? It will certainly not be a foreigner like myself, but Angolans standing up and caring for their own.