Dear fellow Bowen Islanders,
I offer you two activities to muse and enrich your Life, for the New Year.
The first is download the Documentary style Movie “I Am.” If you’ve not yet seen it, it’s about the multi-millionaire movie maker who realizes with all his homes and properties he is no more happy than when he was just an average “Joe.” You’ll know who he is.
And.....
Google “Kakuma” Kenya. This is one of the many Refugee Camps that Red Cross Convoys ran throughout Kenya. This one was just starting out in 1992 when I worked with Red Cross. The other was “Dadaab” on the Somali Border with Kenya. Dadaab with 20,000 refugees and was more violent, as Somalia was in Civil War with “Black Hawk Down” and all that American Hero stuff. Now the camp has near 300,000 People. One young woman was born in the camp 21 years ago, and is now married with a new baby. She has spent her whole life in Dadaab Camp.
Camping is great for a week or so, but imagine 24/7/365 for the whole of one’s life? Even on Bowen Island camping is frowned upon.
Kakuma in Northern Kenya, now has near 200,000 Refugees and growing fast, with the recent refugees escaping violence in South Sudan. These are mostly Dinka and Nuer People, the two largest Indigenous Groups in South Sudan. They tend to be tall. Some of them reach nearly 8 feet in height, and have a rich, deep, blue-black in skin tone something like the colour of a clear, night sky. Many of them are my good friends from previous volunteer years in Khartoum, Sudan. My plan for 2015 is to return to help the refugees from South Sudan in Kenya.
Please be in touch should you like to chat with me about these endeavours.
Many of us in the West with all our material comforts, may wonder “where is the meaning in life?” beyond our soporific life style. I walk around Bowen Island, which in previous times was called “The Happy Island” and visit Vancouver, BC, which some say is “the most beautiful city in the world,” but I see very few happy people and almost no one smiling. “A smile is a beautiful expression. Sincerely offered, it is a gift of Love, to another Human Being.”
Merry Christmas. With a smile,
Carmen Charles Rudd
Fine Artist, Humanitarian Relief Worker, Africa.
“Charles Fine Art Videos, Graphic Prints of African People and Colour photos of Bowen Island and Global Travels, are available for purchase to raise funds for his African Relief Work.” Prices are from $10 to $2,000.
My email is; ruddcharlescarmen@hotmail.com.
