Memoir Reading Blog #6

This section of My Heart is Africa continues the theme of aid work from the end of the previous section. Scott and his friend David Huntington meet up for a drink one day during Scott's second year in Kenya. The subject of aid comes up, and the two have an animated discussion about the different types of aid administered. These ranged from effective to downright incompetent. An example on the latter side of the spectrum was the Italian effort to build a fish-processing plant on the shores of Lake Turkana in 1982. The objective of this plant was to provided the Turkana tribe with food and to ship the remaining frozen fish to Nairobi for sale. Unfortunately, the fact that the Turkana are meat eater and do not eat fish, was overlooked by the aid organization. Also overlooked was the fact that Lake Turkana's shoreline is decreasing by an average of eight hundred feet per year. The result of the attempt was an abandoned fish-processing plant located roughly a mile from the lake's shoreline. A more competent example is that of the missionary convent at Wamba. The Consolata nuns who live there train African girls to become nurses. This provides the girls with an education and the chance to break the cycle of poverty that so many nations are stuck in. Also, while Krystyne is visiting her family in Canada, Scott goes on a thirteen-day camel safari over the Chalbi desert. While in the desert, he reflects on how Africa has changed his life and his life's goals.

Again, there is a lot of reflection in this section of the novel. Scott's life goals have been irreversibly reshaped by his experiences in Africa. It is important that we all recognize that there is more to life than the endless pursuit of money and success. While reflecting one night in the desert, Scott tells us, "I realized on that safari, more than any other time during our stay, just how important our time in Africa had been for both Krystyne and me. How stuck we had become in Toronto, how empty the relentless pursuit of a career had become for us." Scott then continues to talk about life in general, saying, "Life has so much to offer. All one ever needs is the imagination and energy to chase down one's dreams.Something I swore I would never lose sight of, no matter the cost." By going out and chasing you're dreams you will end up a much happier person than you could ever hope to be than if you were stuck in a career in the pursuit of money.