Sorry for the Delay!
Hi all. I'm sorry that I missed a few days of blogging. It's been a challenging week here. Not challenging in a "specific problem" kind of way. Challenging in a "our vision and calling is a little fuzzy because life here is really difficult at times" kind of way. We have had a week of feeling smashed between knowing we are called here to make a difference and realizing that true change takes a long time to happen and somethings never change. Steve especially has struggled this week feeling frustrated by trying to live life here.
Let me give you some examples. In order to live in Mozambique you must either have a visa which has to be renewed by exiting the country (usually every 30 days) and getting a stamp in your passport OR you must have a DIRE which is a work permit. Well, we have had a DIRE since October of 2005. When Steve changed from working for World Relief to Technoserve he tried to get his DIRE changed to indicate Technoserve as his employer. The department of immigration said he could not do that until his DIRE expired in October of 2007. Unfortunately while we were in America the government issued a census for the whole country. All expatriots who held DIREs were required to get a sticker on their DIRE. However we were out of the country and could not comply. So when Steve went to renew his DIRE under Technoserve they told him he had to get his sticker first, but the people in the sticker department said he had to renew his DIRE first. Finally they agreed that he could renew first and get his sticker. However when he went to renew they said there was a problem because we had moved and he had to change his address so now he would have to go to another department for "address change" approval. Of course the address change could not be approved without a renewed DIRE and a census sticker. You get the idea...no one could help because the other department had to help first. Steve's still working on getting this sorted out.
Add to these kind of "document" issues the simple logistics of living here. For instance while driving down the road when you come to an intersection you must ALWAYS check to make sure that there are no speeding vehicles coming into the same intersection from the intersecting direction. Just check for a green light, you say. Unfortunately a green light is no guarantee that you will be granted the right of way. You see on any normal day you will have 8 to 12 cars run through an intersection after the light has turned red. There seems to be some unwritten rule that if you've had to wait more than 15 seconds then surely it must be your turn to be selfish and go. Also you must always be aware that chapas (local transport) feel it's completely permissible to turn right from the left lane AT ANY TIME without signaling or merging. Therefore you must always be on your guard for chapa drivers!
I could go on and on about all the things that are wrong, difficult, challenging, irritating, frustrating and just plain old dumb, but I think at the root of it all is the struggle between expectations and reality. You see as people who have lived and existed within a first world country for most of our lives we have expectations that the "logical and right" way will always find it's way into everyday dealings. However, that is rarely the reality here. The realities are not pretty and therefore we constantly hope that maybe, just maybe this one time things will be different. But inevitably they are not different and that leads to frustration, anger, impatience and exhaustion.
Again, I could write paragraphs on this, but frankly who wants to hear all that negative stuff? Let's just leave it at this. Life is hard here. Hard in a way that is truly hard to explain if you have never lived it or experienced it. Hard in a way that leaves you feeling mentally, physically, emotionally and spiritually drained. Hard in a way that sometimes makes you want to throw the towel in and go back to life as you knew it before. But you know what? Not everyday is hard and walking away from this "experience" before God has called us to, will only lead to further frustration and challenges. SO we will continue to struggle on the hard days and rejoice on the great days. The best thing you can do for us is to continue to pray that God will lead our days - the good, bad and ugly and that He will "supply all our needs according to His glorious riches." (Philippians 4:19) And boldly ask that He would continue to show us where He wants us to be.
Let me give you some examples. In order to live in Mozambique you must either have a visa which has to be renewed by exiting the country (usually every 30 days) and getting a stamp in your passport OR you must have a DIRE which is a work permit. Well, we have had a DIRE since October of 2005. When Steve changed from working for World Relief to Technoserve he tried to get his DIRE changed to indicate Technoserve as his employer. The department of immigration said he could not do that until his DIRE expired in October of 2007. Unfortunately while we were in America the government issued a census for the whole country. All expatriots who held DIREs were required to get a sticker on their DIRE. However we were out of the country and could not comply. So when Steve went to renew his DIRE under Technoserve they told him he had to get his sticker first, but the people in the sticker department said he had to renew his DIRE first. Finally they agreed that he could renew first and get his sticker. However when he went to renew they said there was a problem because we had moved and he had to change his address so now he would have to go to another department for "address change" approval. Of course the address change could not be approved without a renewed DIRE and a census sticker. You get the idea...no one could help because the other department had to help first. Steve's still working on getting this sorted out.
Add to these kind of "document" issues the simple logistics of living here. For instance while driving down the road when you come to an intersection you must ALWAYS check to make sure that there are no speeding vehicles coming into the same intersection from the intersecting direction. Just check for a green light, you say. Unfortunately a green light is no guarantee that you will be granted the right of way. You see on any normal day you will have 8 to 12 cars run through an intersection after the light has turned red. There seems to be some unwritten rule that if you've had to wait more than 15 seconds then surely it must be your turn to be selfish and go. Also you must always be aware that chapas (local transport) feel it's completely permissible to turn right from the left lane AT ANY TIME without signaling or merging. Therefore you must always be on your guard for chapa drivers!
I could go on and on about all the things that are wrong, difficult, challenging, irritating, frustrating and just plain old dumb, but I think at the root of it all is the struggle between expectations and reality. You see as people who have lived and existed within a first world country for most of our lives we have expectations that the "logical and right" way will always find it's way into everyday dealings. However, that is rarely the reality here. The realities are not pretty and therefore we constantly hope that maybe, just maybe this one time things will be different. But inevitably they are not different and that leads to frustration, anger, impatience and exhaustion.
Again, I could write paragraphs on this, but frankly who wants to hear all that negative stuff? Let's just leave it at this. Life is hard here. Hard in a way that is truly hard to explain if you have never lived it or experienced it. Hard in a way that leaves you feeling mentally, physically, emotionally and spiritually drained. Hard in a way that sometimes makes you want to throw the towel in and go back to life as you knew it before. But you know what? Not everyday is hard and walking away from this "experience" before God has called us to, will only lead to further frustration and challenges. SO we will continue to struggle on the hard days and rejoice on the great days. The best thing you can do for us is to continue to pray that God will lead our days - the good, bad and ugly and that He will "supply all our needs according to His glorious riches." (Philippians 4:19) And boldly ask that He would continue to show us where He wants us to be.
posted by Sniders in Africa at 9/20/2007 04:41:00 PM
<< Home