During the years, I come to realized that you when you volunteer you need to do it with passion or not do it at all. I think it is important to love your job, because when you work with people, facing their problems and beliefs you need to work with a lot of patience and acceptance. Because none of us is alike and only trough love, respect and acceptance we can manage to live in a more beautiful and peaceful world. That is why when I first have a conversation with the African doctor, who was helping my little angel Kelvin with his inability to walk, and we concerned the topic about homosexuality, I felt a need to find more information about how people in Africa confront this “problem”. 1 Algeria / 2 Angola /3 Benin /4 Botswana /5 Burundi /6 Cameroon /7 Comoros /8 Egypt /9 Eritrea /10 Ethiopia /11 Gambia /12 Ghana /13 Guinea /14 Kenya /15 Lesotho /16 Liberia1 /7 Libya /18 Malawi (enforcement of law suspended) /19 Mauritania /20 Mauritius /21 Morocco /22 Mozambique /23 Namibia /24 Nigeria /25 Sao Tome /26 Senegal /27 Seychelles /28 Sierra Leone /29 Somalia /30 South Sudan /31 Sudan /32 Swaziland /33 Tanzania /34 Togo /35 Tunisia /36 Uganda /37 Zambia /38 Zimbabwe In the World, there are 82 countries, in which homosexuality is forbidden with a law. The greatest part, 38 of them, are in Africa. In Uganda for example (which is situated only a few kilometers away from Bungoma – the town I was volunteering, and from the Kenyan-Ugandan border) the penalty for this crime was death until 2009. Since then it is softened to life imprisonment. In Kenya, people are less severe about homosexuality 10 years or more of imprisonment. Eventually I found the article in Kenyan penalty codex. “Section 165. Any male person who, whether in public or private, commits any act of gross indecency with another male person, or procures another male person to commit any act of gross indecency with him, or attempts to procure the commission of any such act by any male person with himself or with another male person, whether in public or private, is guilty of a felony and is liable to imprisonment for five years.” Maybe I am not the typical volunteer that can just go and do his/her job for a couple of months or weeks and the leave the place. I am the worst type, because sometimes I am too curious and I ask too many questions. And when I am asking people about their culture and religion, sometimes I find out really weak points. And I am starting to think that nowadays everybody believes in nothing and everything. When I was talking about homosexuality with some pastors and ordinary people in Kenya, what they told me is that “the people who are attract with the same sex as their own”, would be considered as sick and poisoned one, who need to be “fixed” and changed because of their undignified behavior. And with all my respect for all human beings, I disagree. Jesus loves you always, even when you don’t feel worthy. When others do not accept you, even when you don’t accept yourself, He is the one who always accepts you. I am always telling and writing about what my parents taught me – there are no good or bad people, there are only good or bad actions. And everybody deserves his chance to have this purity and good life, because everyone deserves to be happy. And God loves you no matter what you choose, because remember… Every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future. And you don’t need to be “fixed”, but to believe and to search your own way of happiness. But more important I believe that having a family is the most natural and beautiful thing we can do in our life. Creating and leaving a generation. So living between many cultures my only choice is acceptance and I love those who have same-sex attractions, but still I believe they need to search their way to purity for the name of the family and procreation. And I don’t believe that imprisonment is the best choice to call them to practice chastity. Because only by talking, and not ignoring one’s problem, it can be solved. It is a false form of compassion to lead others to think that they can find fulfillment by living outside the will of God. Unfortunately, the culture today has shoved into our faces the lie that if we can’t have sex with whoever we want, then our freedom is robbed, we are being judged, and we will never be loved or understood. They tell us that those who have same sex attractions only have two options: sexual promiscuity, or living in the closet in fear. But there is another path, and it is filled with hope. And this path is love. Love, patience, acceptance and purity. Remember, don’t judge, but talk. And I am writing to you, my readers, because I believe with all my heart in love and peace, of good relations between people. A pen is mightier than a sword!