In case you missed it last night, ABC’s Nightline did a story on Ben Affleck’s recent visits to Congo, the country of my youth. As one of four sons to lifelong missionaries, Bob & Anelise Smith, I was born there back when it was known as Zaire. I’m not telling you the year! If you’re not familiar with it, this is the same country made famous by Joseph Conrad’s book “The Heart of Darkness“. You may have also seen the Academy Award Nominated movie “Gorrilas in the Mist” with Sigourney Weaver, which tells the true story of naturalist Dian Fossey. Much of the movie was filmed in Congo. More recently, you might have seen concern in the media as conservationists fear the fate of these gorillas since large numbers of human’s closest biological relative are being killed by the rebels who now swarm the country. I left the Democratic Republic of Congo after high-school and have only been back once to visit in 1989. The REAL human-rights atrocities started after that. My parents and youngest brother who remained behind had to be evacuated at one point as the killing escalated. I’m so glad that Mr. Affleck has taken an interest in turning the world’s eyes to the plight of the wonderful and loving people of this country who have had to endure unspeakable things that you wouldn’t even wish on your family pet. I’ll leave you with a few statistics from ABC’s article: “More than four MILLION dead since 1998 (and many more before then), the most killed in any conflict since the Second World War. 1,200 people a day are still dying from conflict and conflict-related causes such as starvation and preventable disease.”