Ch 1 Mingling with Savages

It is a gift to be simple, and Dr Johannes van der Kemp had that gift. Maybe it was because he was over 50 when he started his global health career. Maybe it was the tragedy in his own life. Maybe it was that the medicine of his day had so little to offer. Whatever the reason, he was not ashamed of his true simplicity - “to bow and bend” - and that bowing and bending gave him a chance to live in solidarity with the people he came to serve.

Or at least try to. Not many of his contemporaries respected what he was doing, and the legacy of his simplicity and solidarity was… well there is no legacy. Still, I invite you to at least hear the story of Dr. van der Kemp, the man who mingled with savages.

This is the beginning of a new adventure and an incredible story..Dr. Raymond Downing, one of the deep thinkers about, and a working doctor in the field, has written extensively about the state of global health.  Now we get the story.  The book, Such a Time of It They Had - Global Health Pioneers in Africa has just been published.

The book is available at all of the usual places and sources.  But now in a new experiment, we present the audio version not in an expensive audio setting, but in a a weekly podcast.  I will be the announcer/narrator and sharing the story with you, and Dr. Downing himself will also be sharing his own personal narratives within each episode and chapter. 

We look forward to hearing from you as we learn from you, and seek every week as we go chapter by chapter, to provide an experience of both story, inspiration, and personal reflection.  And here is the introduction by Dr. Raymond himself

Stan Hustad