Busyness as a Survival Skill and What it is We're Surviving

Crazy busy is the best description for how life has been of late. The benefit is that it helps us not notice how crazy life is in general around here! I recorded a figure skating competition a couple of weeks ago and have tried to watch it, oh, at least 5 times. It's only two hours and when you fast forward through the commercials that brings the total time down considerably. But ... alas ... I still haven't watched the last portion.

Jim had to leave early this a.m. for Port Harcourt so I'm staying awake and trying to get caught up on a few things! It's his first time back since we both had to leave very quickly in early June when our co-workers were kidnapped. He'll check on the progress of the banana tree that we planted last year!

Back to the topic of busyness --

Putting a westernized work ethic in the midst of a land of "go slows!" (the name for the traffic congestion) is a dangerous combination. It's because it makes it difficult for the ex pats to ever stop working. We are so determined to reach our goals, to make a difference, to accomplish something! But we lose time in traffic, we lose time because we're waiting on some local to do his job, we lose time because the job wasn't done properly, we lose time when we're waiting for a delivery or a food order or a meeting to begin or a driver to meet us or ... You get the picture. For the majority of Nigerians the response is "no wahala" -- "no problem!" For the majority of ex pats it just makes us work harder and smarter. But sometimes maybe smarter involves just giving in to the general "go slow" mentality! It's tempting to just sit back and say "whatevuh!"

Deadlines aren't really meant as a date the work should be completed. It's more or less a time to start shouting at someone to get started on the work. If it's before the deadline and they haven't even begun they always say "no problem, we're starting it tomorrow and we'll bring on a double crew to meet the deadline." Silly me ... sometimes I still believe the promises.

So today I'm meeting with a vendor who was supposed to deliver household items to 8 flats in August. And he's mad at us because we have the audacity to complain to him about his lack of service delivery when it's the end of November. He points out the items that he has delivered (which amounts to a little more than half of the list) and thinks we're unappreciative! And of the items he has delivered, we are expecting too much because we think the irons should heat evenly and the electrical kettles actually heat at all ... And, this vendor is one of the best! He is constantly putting down Nigerians because he's only half Nigerian. He laughs at the excuses other gives but he doesn't hear his own voice.

There are lessons to be learned here, as always. The education we are receiving is at least double the value of a university classroom, I'm sure.

One lesson is -- integrity does matter and we should still honor our promises and accept responsibility for our errors. Even when no one else does.

Another lesson is -- pray without ceasing! Praying about attitudes has to be as common as breathing. Attitudes can get corrupted so slowly by the corruption around us. It's subtle.

Which leads to another lesson -- racist statements and generalized statements about a pattern that is evident in a group of people are very similar. We constantly ask God to help us love each individual and not start to lump all faces into one group that we label as "them." I've had quite a bit of heated discussions with folks of late -- as I try to defend a Nigerian that I respect and as more and more seemingly racist comments are made. I typically say, "Would you agree that a racist is someone who makes a generalized statement about a group of people and then makes a statement about an individual based upon the fact the s/he is in the people group?" "Well, I suppose so," someone answers. "So, then, what you've just said is a racist comment." "No, it's not. I'm just stating a fact." And so the discussion goes on ...

Subtleties -- "Never trust a Nigerian." vs "Be cautious about trusting people."
"There's not a single Nigerian in this whole _________ ( insert: "country," "company," "world") that is honest." vs "He's a very honest Nigerian." (I hesitate to use the label Nigerian at all but I want to point out that this person is honest and is Nigerian -- together in one person.)

Anyway, you can see the struggle. And the busyness helps us to not over-analyze the whole thing!

I've learned a lot of other lessons lately. I only hope I'll have time to write about them soon.