The Opening Session

This being the week of Nelson Mandela’s 90’s birthday, we together sang “Happy Birthday” to Mandeba (a term of honor to acknowledge the great work that one has been called to do since birth.) This followed the national anthem, of course, of South Africa.

I say, of course, because I am in South Africa, but I have to admit that I have found my world to be very small and very centered around my own experience. I don’t think that I am unusual in this, but I do think that by having traveled now, that I am more aware of it than I ever could have been otherwise.

The main keynote speaker was a 10 year old boy, Anfani Okosun, who is a second year Mechanical Engineering student at Purdue University. His topic was “Transforming Global Trends: The Challenging Role of Social Work.” I have to confess that I only understood a small portion of his one hour speech. I can’t even say that language was an issue as he was raised in the USA.

Then came the most moving speaker - a young man who lived on the streets of Durban, pleading for respect, to be seen as an individual. Probably not as impressive, but much more powerful.