The Lima Peru LDS Temple Mission: My Friend in Botswana

Favorite recent and insightful quote I have read recently:

Favorite quote I have recently read: "The word temple comes from the Latin templum, which signifies an extended open space that has been marked out for the observation of the sky. In what manner is such a space marked out? According to Dr. Hugh Nibley, the word templum, "designates a building specifically designed for interpreting signs in the heavens--a sort of observatory where one gets one's bearings on the universe." The root "tem-" in Greek and Latin denotes a "cutting" or intersection of two lines at right angles, the point where the "cardo" and "decumanus" cross, hence where the four regions come together." Matthew Brown - "The Gate of Heaven"

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

My Friend in Botswana

This month my friend James returns home to Utah after two years living in Botswana and serving in the Peace Corps. We have kept in touch when he has a chance to get near an internet connection. His duties have been to assist the government of Botswana with educational efforts to teach the community in which he lived to understand how the HIV/AIDS epidemic may be arrested. He is well qualified to teach and work with people due to his love for people and easy outgoing nature, plus a master's degree in social work. Botswana has one of the most severe HIV/AIDS epidemics in the world. Among adults from ages 15 to 49 nearly 1/4th of the population have tested positive for HIV/AIDS. The UN estimates 20 percent of all children in Botswana are orphaned and presently living without parents. The capacity to care for kids is being exhausted, especially as the current generation of grandparents begins to thin. Further, according to Wiki, the epidemic threatens economic growth and political stability the entire region.

On a river trip, a few days of rest

James has done all he could for the people of his community and lived under difficult circumstances on his own with little support for his endeavors. He has had to stay in at night due to roving lions, dealt with many bugs and insects that sting and bite, plus poisonous reptiles, absolutely incompetent drivers, several car accidents, bus and vehicle breakdowns. In addition to the aforementioned vehicle breakdowns he has been forced to hike miles and miles across country looking to hitch a ride. I have told him several times he needs to write up his experiences into a book. He has posted many of his photos from his life in the Peace Corps. He does takes beautiful photos.

Elephant on the run

I have known many young men over the decades as a scout leader and my associations in the Church, but never anyone like him. To borrow and paraphrase from the Buddha -- James 'in the midst of abundance counted nothing as his own and with pure and unselfish desires' gave two years of his life to helping those who are at peril in Botswana.