David Finally Writes a Blog!

As you can probably tell, all of our Blog posts thus far have been written by Amy. I think it is finally time that I write one. We are not in Nairobi. We are not in Dar es Salaam. We are in Jersey. Hurricane Irene gave us a little surprise, and there just aren’t that many flights to Kenya, so we will be leaving Saturday. We were ready to go. We are ready to go. A week of YAV orientation got us prepared. Will a week of sitting around unravel us? We just want to see where we will be. We want to know where we are going. We want to start language school...etc. etc.

Last night I forgot all about these concerns. Last night at dinner Amy and I watched as one of my idols came in and sat down at the table next to us. Last night I got to shake hands with Dr. Cornel West. Dr. West is a professor at Princeton University. Amy and I knew this, and thought there was a slim chance we might see him on campus somewhere. We never dreamed we would be able to talk to him. It was worth an extra week just to shake hands with this great writer/orator/(and now) radio personality.

"To be a Christian is to live dangerously, honestly, freely - to step in the name of love as if you may land on nothing, yet to keep on stepping because the something that sustains you no empire can give you and no empire can take away."

—   Cornel West

"Never forget that justice is what love looks like in public"

—   Cornel West

"The country is in deep trouble. We've forgotten that a rich life consists fundamentally of serving others, trying to leave the world a little better than you found it. We need the courage to question the powers that be, the courage to be impatient with evil and patient with people, the courage to fight for social justice. In many instances we will be stepping out on nothing, and just hoping to land on something. But that's the struggle. To live is to wrestle with despair, yet never allow despair to have the last word."

—   Cornel West