One of my colleagues was beaten up

last Friday. I was only told about it this morning  when  he finally managed to get a message to those of us with whom he has been working.

Now all I have ever done is provide this man with communication boards when he has worked in some difficult and dangerous places. I have never met him but I have always admired his courage and his courtesy. He comes across as a very polite man. When he has asked me to do something it has always been asked in terms of "Would you have the time....?" or "I don't like to trouble you but...." and when I have done something he has always responded with things like, "Thank you. That's just what I needed." 

He is the sort of person I don't mind doing things for and for whom I will make the extra effort. Once in a while he has sent short group letters to all of us. He has told us more about his failures than his successes. We have been told about his many successes by other people.

He's a doctor. He is working in a part of the world I would not even want to visit. It is dangerous. Being a doctor hasn't protected him in the past but, until now, he has not been beaten up. He had a knife wielding lunatic try to stab him last year. The local people have tried to protect him ever since that happened. This incident though is about the politics of the country in which he works. He tries not to even speak about this. He never ventures an opinion. He tells the local people his job is to help - help everyone who might need his help.

So I am sitting here feeling more than a little shaken and concerned. We have lost aid workers before. We will lose aid workers in the future. It's a dangerous job and it can be a very, very dangerous job. This time though it feels just a little different because I have worked with this man for many years. He has given his life to working with people in one of the most dangerous countries in the world, a country which now seems to be spiraling out of control.

The message we had has suggested that he is being cared for by the local people but now they are telling him he is too old and too frail to continue working for them. They think he should "go home" because they don't want to be responsible for his death. The want him to stay because, without him, there will only be the two nurses he has trained. It is something he needs to think about. His permit to work there will expire again next year. Whether it will be renewed is something that is questionable.

But there is a sentence in his message that makes all this much more complex. 

"I don't know where home is any more."