We began to speak together very amicably, sharing about the different spiritual practices of our particular traditions. Up to that time I had lived with the prejudice or 'listening' that everyone wanted peace. The painful awakening of that moment put a lot of things into a new perspective. My time in East Africa was another such awakening experience. I judge my weeks in East Africa to have been among the most painful of my life.
Draught is bad enough.
In some places it is indeed deadly, in others it inflicts in calculable sufferings, great and small. The lack of electricity certainly has a profound effect on life. When it becomes difficult to do anything from sunset to sunrise, one senses a great curtailment of life. But it was the prevalence of death and violence that most impacted upon me. There are the long prevailing tribal animosities which the Christian spirit often seems to fail to heal.