It has taken me some time to put pen to paper – well digit to keyboard – to write about the horrible loss of my friend and our partner, Paul Miedema. My first reaction was to write about the loss – huge loss – for his family and friends and colleagues at Calabash; the communities they work with; volunteers; and indeed to me as a friend and people and places as a partner – but I wasn’t comfortable with writing that…
Paul Miedema changed our lives. It is through Paul that we connected with the A.V. Bukani Primary School community, a wonderful place we now consider our second home. But Paul did more than connect us – he was our support, our mentor, our ally, and our friend. Just a few weeks ago, we had a long conversation with Paul about a possible sixth volunteer trip to Nomathomsanqa. Paul defined the word “authentic.” He had no tolerance for BS and…
“This world is in desperate need of people like you, who always keep asking questions, care for others and are never afraid to say what needs to be said – but now we must soldier on without you.” Freya Zandatra journalist “A great guy…I will never forget sharing the panel with him at the WTM Africa conference in Cape Town and he opened his presentation by showing how disgraceful and unacceptable it was for South Africans to be attacking people…
(the following is a story from volunteer, Anke) Paul and I met more than three years ago, when he left a short message on a people and places Facebook post about my volunteer placement in The Gambia. His comment turned out to be the beginning of an exciting chapter of the lives Paul and I shared for a while as colleagues, passionate advocates for responsible tourism and social justice, co-authors, and friends. It seems appropriate telling our story through the…