Think Globally. Act Locally.

AIDS doesn't kill people; it makes the body so weak that almost anything else will. AIDS develops from having HIV in your body. HIV is passed from one person to another through mixing of bodily fluids. The most common way HIV is spread is through unprotected sex. Sex is a part of life of so many people in the world and those in South Africa are no different. In fact, South Africa has some of the highest rates of HIV infection in the world. This is due to many factors such as unimaginable poverty, very cramped living conditions, paternalism, and the country's leadership in powerful denial about the problem.

All of this has led many, many people to want to solve this pandemic. Primarily through religious institutions and social services, different prevention and treatment centers have sprung up all over the country to assist those in need - often helping themselves or someone very close to them. The past three days here in Cape Town, we have visited several ministries that are doing their best to alliviate the pain and suffering of the tens of thousands in the community with HIV/AIDS.

One of the pastors at the JL Zwane center/church reminded us to think globally and act locally yesterday. This stuck in my mind because I see this as some of the best advice one human being can give to another. It is one of the main reasons I am on this trip, why I travel and experience as much as possible, and why I will never stop learning. I want to know what humanity is. I want to be able to know as much as possible and much of this knowledge is only available through others or learned in communities. The better I understand humanity as a whole, the better my foundational assumptions will be for any given human in particular. This allows me to see what unites us as created images of God and indeed see God (Himself). Acting locally is enabling us to think about the situations we are in and start small. I do plan on acting globally one day but I just see that as expanding the local to include all of God's creation.