After a tiring day yesterday, I went to bed about 5pm after the conference till morning just to get enough sleep of course missed the dinner organized by my friends here Kota Kinabalu. This morning a friend came to pick me up for a church service at about 830am which is also in the same hotel complex, this hotel is 5 star hotel with over 1000 beds and designed to cater for both holiday makers and business traveller, good concept. Anyway, we enter church and yes, everyone seems nice and i take up an empty seat and my friend who was meant to be sitting amongst the guys having a baptism chooses instead to sit with me. Church begun with nice songs that I already knew which was nice and when they asked the first time visitors to stand, like every visitor, I stood up. All other visitors got very warm welcome with handshakes and I realized, am being avoided especially in handshaking but didnt mind because I didnt know the reason. On sitting down my friend tells me, Asians dont understand the geography of Africa and they think you have Ebola since you look african. My first thought was an angry thought and a possible walk out but something told me ignore them and enjoy church anyway, since it was nice service and besides, its wrong to get angry with everyone for two reasons....1 chances are that not everyone is thinking the same way and 2 I told myself that I had come to pray not because of them. I know what you are thinking now as you read this. Yes, church is meant for those that know that they are just human beings who need God not saints because all the non sinners are all dead, yap that includes me as a sinner. After service I enjoyed watching the baptism ceremony. This happens like this because we Africans are badly branded mainly our own problem. After church service, I thought about how we Africans dont know the value of branding. While in the USA last month, I went sailing with friends in Annapolis and during the sailing, I was involved in deep discussion with one particular nice guy on the boat and after a long discussion, this guy keeps quiet in the middle of a sentence and I ask him what is wrong? He says you seem a nice, intelligent guy who loves his country, his family and his business and am like so? He says, I guess there are millions like you in Africa and I tell him of course, what did you think? He then says why dont we ever to get to hear about people like you. All we hear about Africa is disease, poverty, war nothing good comes out of Africa in terms of news. I told him its not the problem of the west but a problem of Africans, we have failed to brag about the good things and we are actually fueling the same negatives in our own media houses, homes, churches and the more. I told him CNN is there to promote American positive interests, BBC British interests, CCTV Chinese interests, Al jezira the Arab interests what is there to promote African interests? Almost all African presidents have enough money to individually set up a BBC of sorts. I know some of you are saying why blow our own trumpet? If you dont as Africans who is going to blow your trumpet? Trumpets alert people of possible good stuff as well? Why are we then blowing own trumpet when it comes to negative stuff? If an individual or a country or continent fails to tell their own story someone else will and trust me it wont be the right story......am well travelled and I know that every country or continent has its own issues just like different families, business, clubs etc. this is food for thought!! Nice Sunday and see u in kampala soon God willing. Some church pictures attached
Posted on: Sun, 19 Oct 2014 13:25:48 +0000
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