Celebration Time!

Our men are freed! It's been a good week for hostage releases and we are shouting "hallelujahs" for our freed coworkers! They are in good health and seemingly good spirits. Relief is a small word for what we feel at the moment!

And the strike has been called off. The disputes between the new gov't and the Labor Unions have totally crippled the nation. I've put in a lot of hours working on a team for emergency plans to get diesel and water and food to our people and to even determine actually WHERE each of our displaced people are ... !

So, it's wonderful to know that we can begin to find the new normal. (I can't say "we can return to normal" because we will never all return to the life we had ... and, in actuality, the life we had wasn't really normal anyway!) But now the planes will fly again and we'll have fuel to get around and the shops will open and the shippers will return to packing our belongings in our old place and the people in our new place will be able to finish packing and move out and ... it keeps on going! And, just maybe, the oil industry will be able to begin providing all of the amazing opportunities to these millions of people who depend on the work that the industry brings. Drivers, maids, vegetable vendors, curtain makers, gardeners, shop owners, restauranteers, ... everyone has been direly effected by the hostage issues and then the strike. Things will not be bustling again in the River Delta areas -- that will take a much longer time to become stable. But, we'll begin to have some stability here.

Peace ... Joy ... Gratitude!