treeplanting is wonderful!

Yesterday, I enjoyed a visit from an African chap named Emmanuel Ali Al-Shariff Abdallah Achmud. Emmanuel and I planted together several years ago, and it has only been through email that we've kept in contact.

Emmanuel is a political refugee in Canada from Sudan. He used to lead the student union in Kartoum, and after being chased around Africa and treated in a way that you and I, I'd venture a guess, have never been treated.

Emmanuel has recently returned from Africa, where he had planned to visit Darfur to serve and help and love. Darfur, as you may or may not know, is the location of yet another horrendous genocide. You may not know, because it's very hush hush here in North America. You see, the Sudanese people have no oil. They are very poor and have almost no impact on the economic stability of our country. To top it all off, they don't even have one single weapon of mass destruction.

So, we're sitting there, Emmanuel and I, talking about how he's not that concerned about whether he dies on the next Darfur trip, because he's already died. Hmmm. Then he asks me... ME! about my life. Um, yeah. So, I've been planting some trees. It's real, um, hard.

It doesn't have quite the same oomph when you think about the fact that I go home at night to a comfy-cozy basement suite, where no one hacks at me with a machete because of my faith. I'm ashamed. I'm a fool. Don't be like me, folks. Don't be complacent, don't be lazy, don't be ungrateful. Care. Do. Act. Change.