Plenary, 28 Sep 2005

Meeting date: Wednesday, September 28, 2005

Official Report 444KB pdf

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Time for Reflection

Good afternoon. The first item of business today is time for reflection. Our time for reflection leader is the Rev Bobby Anderson, who is chair of the Network of International Development Organisations in Scotland.

Scottish volunteers are an important part of our engagement with the developing world. Here is a story about one of them.

Graham McGeoch from Glasgow, who was working as a World Exchange volunteer in Zimbabwe, was on a bus journey from Harare to one of the rural areas in Zambezia. He had to change buses at a rural crossroads, seemingly in the middle of nowhere. Graham got off the bus, looked around and could see nothing much beyond a bus shelter, some houses and a lot of dusty ground. He had a long wait ahead—maybe five hours.

A boy who was wearing a Manchester United football strip appeared. To pass the time, Graham asked if the boy played football. He said that he did, so Graham suggested that the boy get a ball and they could have a bit of a game while he waited for the next bus. The boy said that he did not have a ball. After a bit more chat, the boy wandered off—he was obviously bored with the strange Scotsman—and began picking up the litter that was blowing around the bus depot. Graham was hugely impressed with the boy's sense of social responsibility and made a note in his diary to send him a bundle of footballs when he got back to Scotland.

A while later, the same boy came back with a few of his friends and a wonderful African football that was made out of the plastic bags that he had been collecting at the bus station. The bags had been tied together tightly and then heated over a brazier to form a solid ball for playing with. The boys took Graham off to their makeshift pitch nearby and they had a wonderful game. More kids joined in and eventually two full teams battled it out with their new Scottish player.

After the game, Graham walked back to the bus station accompanied by his new friends and found that his bus had come and gone and that the next bus would be some time the next day. The kid whom Graham had met first, who was perhaps 14 years old, took him home to his family, and food was shared with the stranger—a young Scottish volunteer who was far from home. A bed was prepared and rural African hospitality was offered and received.

As the Scottish Parliament and the Scottish Executive engage more deeply with Africa—and with Malawi, in particular—I ask you not to forget Graham's story. Do not fill all your days with business meetings and conferences; make the shift from chronological time to people-oriented time and give yourselves the space and the time to miss some buses.