A world away, Marj makes a difference as a Maryknoll

By Dale Goodwin

Marj Humphrey ('74, '75 MA) has given "house call" a whole new meaning. Perhaps "mud hut call" might be more accurate.

This Maryknoll missioner and physician assistant sometimes travels for an hour or more to treat AIDS victims dying in the one‑room, unfinished mud huts they call home in Kenya, Africa. Humphrey has given up the comforts of her own home - no television, movie theaters or nice restaurants - to care for people on a continent where AIDS is overwhelming the land.

But she has done it willingly. No one twisted her arm. When she courageously ventured to Africa 15 years ago, she lived in a place with no electricity, no phone and a food choice like nothing she'd experienced.

But it taught her to appreciate her blessings all the more, she said. And it didn't take her long to fall in love with the people of that far‑off land.

"Africans are great storytellers," said Humphrey, who earned her master's in guidance counseling from Gonzaga before earning her PA degree from the Sisters of Charity Medical Center in New York.

"We sing and we dance. It's always a very social thing," she said.

The lifestyle there has inspired Humphrey to have a much closer relation­ship with God, she said. " To Africans, relationships with each other and with God are No. 1. To have relationships, you must have time for each other and for God. Nothing is more important.

"When you go to someone's house, they never introduce you to others who might be there," Humphrey continued. " That felt awkward to me at first. You get to talking, then singing and dancing. Then a meal would be served, no matter how many people or how little food they had. Only after the meal would they introduce you to the rest of the assembled guests.

"It's a custom that says, 'It doesn't matter who you are. Everyone is welcome. You don't have to be someone important to he welcome at our table.'

"You can't hide yourself there. You are what you are. There's not a lot of spit and polish," Humphrey said.