They Asked Me Back

A Conversation Between You and I:

You:  Hey Kyle, how’s it been?

Me:  Oh hey my favourite person, yeah it’s been good.  Busy over here in Africa, but good.

You:  Cool cool.  So do you have any big news about your life?

Me:  Well in fact yeah I do.

You:  Well what is it??

Me:  Mercy Ships has asked me to come back for another year to serve as the Media Liaison during their field service in Guinea, Africa.

You:  Wowzers!  What a scoop!  Well are you going to take it?

Me:  Yeah… yeah I am.  One more whole year.

You:  That’s super exciting!  But I’ve got a few questions…

WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO BE DOING??

Back to reflective essay style writing – and I apologize in advance for the lack of photos so i’ll try to keep it short.

This last week I had my first real media team.  It consisted of a Journalist from Switzerland that came on board for four days to write a story on Mercy Ships in Congo.  She was putting together a series of radio pieces for the biggest radio station in the french side of Switzerland and it was my job to make sure that she got everything that she needed.

Now at the same time there was some side circumstances around this visit that were stressing everybody out.  In the end they turned out to be not important, but as it normally is with worrying about things they usually don’t seem silly until you look back on them way later.

But I was on high alert the whole time I was with this Journalist.  I paid close attention to every single thing she said, followed her every footstep and basically became her best friend.  This was all pretty difficult as she conducted all her interviews in French, but a few timely nods and well-placed laughs and you can convince anyone that you understand their language.  And after a few days everyone realized that the Journalist was here with the best intentions and that she was super nice and great and people finally relaxed.

I took her around, we interviewed almost all of the french speaking crew, we went into town and interviewed local nurses, we did ‘on the street’ reporting, we walked through the market being accosted by fame seeking locals – we did it all.  The entire process was fascinating for me.  She was a professional and thus super good at what she did and it was great to see.  She also made my job easier as she respected my instructions and had grace for me when I made the slight mistakes.  When her week was up she thanked me, told me that I had helped her immensely in her job and that she is very excited for what Mercy Ships is doing.

Now she is going to go home and broadcast to an entire country the incredible story of what we are doing here.  People are going to hear those stories and potentially be moved to volunteer, or to donate, or just become educated about Africa and maybe they’ll be moved to start their own word-changing charities – I don’t know!  But I do know that I helped make that a reality.  Isn’t that awesome?

So that’s my job.  That’s what i’ll be doing from now until June 2015.  I don’t think it’s going to be easy, in fact I slept most of the weekend after she left just trying to recover from my constant vigilant watch, but I feel great now looking back on it.  I’m pretty psyched that they asked me back too, because that means that I didn’t do too bad of a job!

… Back to us talking at a tasty cafe…

You:  Wow Kyle!  That’s awesome!  I’m sure you did amazing at your job and that you also did it quite handsomely.

Kyle:  Well yes in fact I did.

You:  But wait!  I have one more question!

Kyle:  Yes valued member of my community?

You:  What can I do to help you forward with this?

Kyle:  Well I’m glad you asked because…

I NEED YOUR HELP

If i’m coming back for another year then I need your help.  Thanks to you I raised enough money to be here for these six months, but I don’t have near enough to spend another year.  Soon I’ll be making another video as well as a newsletter that will formally ask for help, but in the meantime think on it, take my proposition and see how it sits with you, because if you’re jiving with it I would be more than grateful for any assistance.  If this feels good (or maybe great!) you can donate on my Mercy Ships donor page but for now all I ask if that you think of me as you contemplate where you may give money this year.  I can promise you that it will be going to a worthy cause.

Thanks for reading.  I’ll hopefully talk to you all soon.

But wait!  Why is there a random picture of a train station?  Because without a photo this showed up blank on Facebook which is just no good!  Also because it symbolizes the next step in a journey or something?  I don’t know – you be the judge!