BAKING BREAD

Trying to get things started here, is a bit like pushing against a brick wall.

I am reminded of the story of the hen who wanted to bake a loaf of bread. She asked many of her barn neighbors to help her pick the wheat, make the flour, collect the ingredients and finally prepared the oven to bake the bread.

Everyone she asked had a very original excuse as to why they could not make time for her. Of course, when the delicious smell of the freshly baked bread wafted through the barn, everyone cued up to have a taste.

Decades of living under a well meaning but misguided hand-out subsistence has placed many here in a very cynical place. The mistrust of empty promises has truly tired the sense of initiative in Africa. In the western world, this cynicism is often interpreted as a show of laziness, ineptitude and/or lack of value for life.

I have to keep reminding myself that if and when they see the project up and running and the smell of a good program spreads through the campus, people will cue up to participate. This optimist believes that after they have sampled this program and seen its results, they will be more apt to lend a hand of their own accord when help is needed in future phases of this project.

I really have to believe that today, or tear my hair out, jump off some dilapidated bridge and end it all. I got a lot of lukewarm pseudo-commitments and unresponsive attitudes at UNGE today and I am looking for a handful of nails to chew to see if that will make me feel better. We will see how I feel tomorrow.