This blog is being written by Cecilia. Tim and I are both well. Tim has been under stress as the clinic downsizes from 1200 clients to a target of  200 clients. And things are also rough because three key people left in the last 6 weeks: the head nurse of the clinic, the head social worker, and the psychologist who did liason work with the community, taught inservices, and was a very supportive person all around. There were also government inspectors at the clinic for more than a week as part of the transition of patients to government facilities. This added to the staff's stress. Hopefully things will settle down soon.

The hospice has not been as effected by the changes even though the hospice is part of the St. Francis Care Center. The every day work at the hospice has been only a little different. However the patients now need to be transported by their relatives to other clinics to get their medication to fight AIDS. Sometimes the relatives just don't come. So it does make the overall care less consistent than when the hospice staff could just accompany the hospice patient across the street to the St. Francis Clinic.

Now to a new topic. I have had questions in my own mind about why some things are like they are in South Africa. I read something in a church bulletin from a neighboring Franciscan parish that answered some questions I have had. So I thought that I would include this paragraph in today's blog. "Central to the evil inflicted by Apartheid was its denial of human dignity. Twenty years later we are still living with the consequences of that denial manifested in different ways, but particularly in the extreme violence of our country. Apartheid taught people of all races to surrender their awareness of the innate dignity to themselves and others. Of all the evils needing to be undone this seems to be the most difficult. It requires that we first radically change our self image, and see ourselves as created in love by God. Secondly it requires us to see all other people as also being created in love by God. To see ourselves and others as God see us; as human beings with the dignity that comes from being made in God's own image."

This quote answers my questions when I hear on the TV news that the average number of homicides in countries around the world is 7/100,000. And in South Africa it is 35/100,00 (I am presuming that this figure is per year, but I am not sure). And on TV we hear about the high number of police men killed while on duty as well as the much higher number of citizens killed by the police every year. And in our local weekly newspaper we read about a great deal of violence in our local area. There is violence in many forms of course. But at this time I am focusing on the criminal forces used by persons on another.

And on another topic, we are into winter weather here. Compared to the U.S. winters, especially in North Dakota, the weather is not very cold. But since many people live without any form of heat, when it is about freezing temperatures outside, it can also seem cold on the inside of the buildings.

I hope that all of you in the Northern Hemisphere are enjoying great weather and long summer days.

Cecilia