Chairing last weeks staff meeting had me give the word to our student representative Abia Anibati from Sudan. He’s busy with his MTh at the University of Pretoria and working on the idea of mission in the gospel of St. John. A pleasant, capable and amicable fellow by any standards. Well, amongst other things he describes the difficulty of our foreign students to get efficient and sympathetic treatment in the hospitals and clinics around Pretoria: “If we ask in English, people just talk to us in seTswana – and tend to ignore us if we can’t understand their vernacular.” That’s not much the spirit of “Ubuntu” – especially if you consider that our students only go there if they are seriously ill and in need of medical assistance and treatment. However there seems to be system in that madness – it happens regularly. Students don’t like going there. I am fuming. What kind of hospital is that? We need this to be addressed. I am sure the Korean CEO at Steve Biko Hospital is not aware of this shameful treatment of patients from the rest of Africa – and don’t we have friends at the trauma unit with Dr. Ilse Gravett and others who have trained our advanced deaconess course last October with Grace Rao and others. Well, we’re considering alternatives – like visiting my house doctor and going to our dentist instead, but I still think this is unacceptable. What can you loose by being friendly and providing some extra help to those, who need it most?

Back at home I read the latest edition of the Beeld and find a letter to the editor from South Africans living in Austria. It seems they experience something very similar. They are discriminated just because they are foreigners – even if they are employed and pay their own way. Read more about that here: http://www.beeld.com/Rubrieke/Gasrubriekskrywers/n-Uitlander-Dan-is-jy-seker-ook-werkloos-20120511

Seems that people everywhere need to be encouraged to be a helpful, sympathetic and merciful neighbour to those, who need this most. Just think of the good Samaritan and do likewise.