May 31, 2008 : Greetings All

May 31 2008 Greetings All
Greetings all - I hope all is well with you and your families. I’m more or less emotionally stable these days. My daughter calls me regularly and sends care packages !! I have a great post mate, with whom I REALLY get along – so we are a solid support to one another. There is also a linguist/missionary here who has lived in Africa for the last 15 years and is translating the bible into several local languages – he is a very interesting dude and he has a truck. A good man to know!!. I also have a few reliable friends in village to help me pass the time and fill me in on all the cultural undercurrents that I usually miss.
The situation where I work is a gooey, conglomerated mess of corruption, incompetence, inertia, foolishness, childishness, and simple village ignorance that is completely out of my hands to fix. I am learning patience and faith each day!! This is also why I drink beer from time to time. Basically any man in town with an above-average IQ drinks heavily – because they see and understand too much but feel powerless to fight any of it. Or they have tried and been crushed by the sheer weight of the plight of their country. My experience here is not the same as the lives of my neighbors. I have choices and freedoms afforded me by my education and economic status that most women here cannot even imagine for themselves. It is heartbreaking. Kind of a downer, huh?? Mostly, this is why I havn’t written much lately – I just don’t have too much good stuff to say. Africa is a savagely beautiful and achingly sad place in so many ways…..I thank God often for this remarkable opportunity, but the experience is very challenging nearly everyday.