“THE PROCESS IS THE END. FOR IT IS THE PROCESS THAT IS GLORIFYING TO GOD.” --Oswald Chambers

"This life therefore, is not godliness but the process of becoming godly, not health but getting well, not being but becoming, not rest but exercise. We are not now what we shall be, but we are on the way. The process is not yet finished, but it is actively going on. This is not the goal, but it is the right road. At present, everything does not gleam and sparkle, but everything is being cleansed." --Martin Luther

Sunday, November 23, 2008

annoying

We knew there would be many things here to annoy us. Well, a lot of things annoyed us in the States too, so it is not just being here. But since we are here, and this is the TRUE story of our journey, we’re going to tell you about some of them.
BUGS. They are just annoying.
Ask a question, get a ton of different answers-and all said with the tone that they know it all.
Expectations of rides to town, me to buy things for them, etc. etc. There is an expectation that this is the gravy train and I and the college have unlimited funds and can do whatever they want.
Excuses for anything and everything are many. Lying is not a big deal if Africa-it’s not lying so much as saving face.
I gave all the men here corn to plant and do some test plots for me. Guess who is doing all the work? The ladies. I will have to adjust my teaching methods to drive home that I am teaching you farming skills-you need to use them. What good will your knowledge be if you don’t use it or share it with others? If you don’t actually practice what you hear?
“What’s mine is mine, what’s yours is mine and I don’t have to take care of it”. I find stuff all over the place-theirs, and worse, mine. The boys lost the key to the four wheeler, some guys took a joyride on the gator and popped a tire instead of just checking it out as they were told.
We like dogs, but don’t like bugs. They like bugs, but not healthy dogs. They don’t mind the scrawny bush dogs that look so sickly we would shoot them if we saw them in the US. They aren’t real hot on our dogs. The dogs are getting to know the regulars so aren’t too bad. But everyone has told us that we don’t need to worry about anyone taking our stuff! If Brian is gone, they are especially jumpy, but when he is around, they just let us know someone is coming. Yet, they would all love for them to have puppies.
Curiosity and the sense that they can dig through any of my stuff, just because it is out.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

When our "kids" were in the Middle East, they found Pif-Paf (a white powder) to be very effective for crawling bugs. Lying to save face was very common there, too.

Unknown said...

Ahh...I begin to understand why this culture has some catching up to do to get into the 21st century.

Could it be that the lack of simple and seemingly intuitive qualities of honesty, respect for property, and taking responsibility for one's work are one of the thing's that's keeping the country of Zambia in a 3rd world nation status?