I can't even make up stuff this good...

Since I'll be traveling the entire month of May - here, there and everywhere - I decided to take the day off and rest a bit. It was a beautiful spring day in the mountains. I considered hiking, but Kenyon had errands to run so I opted to join him. One of his errands was to get a haircut. Turns out this is nearly an all day event! There isn't a black barber shop in 20 miles of the town we live in, so he drives. He drives over 30 minutes to the next city called Lenoir (it looks French, but they don't pronounce it that way). When we get to Lenoir we go through some crazy off the beaten path roads. I'm wondering the entire time, "how in the world did you even find this place?" The answer, an Internet search. We arrive at the barber shop and there are men, known at the barber shop as "heads," everywhere. Kenyon is giving me the rules - normally women don't come to the barber shop so don't be surprised by some of the conversations; they will try to sell you bootlegged videos and such, this is normal; shoes, there is always someone selling shoes, they are likely stolen. So, we go in and I am the only woman there (some other females came in later for a time, but left quickly). He announces when we arrive, "this is my wife" because there seems to be a need to explain my presence. We wait and wait. One barber doesn't seem to be doing much of anything, but Curtis, the guy we are there to see has a line out the door. We are nearly the last customer of the day, Kenyon and I read a couple of recent Ebony magazines. The conversation revolves around politics (Obama, of course) and sports (Duke and North Carolina. I decided it wasn't wise to gloat about my Jayhawks and their fantastic win of the NCAA Championship). Kenyon gets his cut and we leave.

The good part is on the drive to and from the barber shop. There is a sign, I swear I am not making this up, that says - "Hillbilly dolls sold here. $9.95" What is a hillbilly doll? I really wanted to stop and find out, but Kenyon wouldn't have it. My next suggestion was to at least let me take a photo of the sign so I can show people it actually exists. We didn't stop, but it is still worth blogging about. Hmmm, perhaps this will be a unique Christmas gift for this year - I haven't ever been to a place where hillbilly dolls were available. Have you?

Republic of Zimbabwe

The country of Zimbabwe is in a crisis.

In recent years they have experienced a 100,580.2% rise in inflation - that is not a typo. They call this dramatic drop in value of currency and rise in prices hyperinflation...and I complained about the falling value of the US dollar!

Zimbabwe has unbelievable food shortages. These are believed to be a result of government policies by the ruling president Mugabe who has been in power for nearly 30 years.

There has been mass, undocumented violence since the recent presidential election. Mugabe was once a very popular leader. He had tremendous influence over his people and was even considered a hero. Over the years of his reign corruption has reigned. His former Finance Minister tried to run against him in the last Presidential election - he was nearly killed. That did not deter him. He put his name on the ticket again. It is believed that he won the election of March 29, 2008 by a landslide - the parliament election of the same day decisively gave power to the opposition party, it is logical they would also elect the presidential candidate of that party. I say "it is believed" because the announcement of the voting results has been postponed many times...postponed, then postponed, and postponed again. There was a small window of opportunity a few weeks back where it looked like Mugabe was going to concede, but then he changed his mind and chose to hold on to power instead. The violence has been brutal, fear is rampant, but you probably don't hear about it every day on the news. Why? Because prior to the election all reporters were kicked out of the country. Most reports are coming from people fleeing from Zimbabwe for refuge in neighboring countries. Every now and then news reports are given, but the brutality is largely undocumented.

I can say this with confidence, because we have staff inside the country who have been able to contact us and let us know what is happening. We have longstanding partnerships with other organizations in country. I was recently corresponding with one of our partners in the field and asked how things are going. Her response, "it's everything you've heard and worse, much worse. Please pray for Zimbabwe."

I am passing that request on to you. Pray for the people of Zimbabwe, that the violence would stop and peace would reign. Pray that the decision on who is in power will be resolved peacefully...and while your at it that it will be handled honestly. Pray for the people of Zimbabwe who have already seen so much hardship in recent years. I thank God for their courage. Through their vote they stood up to a dictator with a cruel reputation; they were not intimated - they voted their conscience. There are many that are choosing to stay under very difficult circumstances because they love Zimbabwe. I admire their determination. Pray for Zimbabwe.

Grandfather Mountain

This weekend Kenyon and I went to Grandfather Mountain (a local attraction) with some friends from church - it was dollar days for locals. Dollar days happens every April and December. Some of the attractions are an animal area where you can feed black bears, look at deer, a cougar or injured bald eagles. But the thing most people go for are the hiking, there is a hike on the profile of the mountain - pretty treacherous, but lots of fun. There is also the mile high swinging bridge. This bridge really is a mile high, positioned between two mountain peaks, while you walk the wind blows it. Kenyon was leaning over the edge saying, "look at that!" I wasn't quite so brave, I thought I did pretty well just walking across it. The views were spectacluar! I wanted to point out the good things about the part of the country we now live in, it may be small, but it certainly is beautiful. As we were standing on the edge of a rock on the other side of the bridge looking out at the Appalachian Mountain ranges and other scenic views, Kenyon said, "Kansas City doesn't have anything like this!" True, so true. I do love the majestic mountains.

E. coli

I went to the doctor this week. I have some kind of E. coli infection. Where did it come from? I don't know. My doctor put me on heavy antibiotics to eradicate the infection. I haven't missed any work time - too much to do.

Liberia

On a recent trip to Liberia I wrote the following in an email:

I've arrived in Liberia. This is my first time in West Africa. There is no way for me to explain this experience - words fail me. Pictures won't do it justice. It is heartbreaking. The drive form the airport to the Country Directors home nearly put me to tears. This country is still ravaged by the 15 year civil war. Though it ended 5 years ago the effects are everywhere - absolutely everywhere. There are still remnants of burnt cars, looted and burnt structures, bullet holes in building facades, destroyed roads, and poverty, abject poverty, all around. The United States has some culpability in the origins the Liberia civil war. When we freed slaves we dumped those who wanted to return to Africa in Liberia. They are known here as "the Congo people." Well, they came here and took over. They held positions of power and dominated those who had been here. Eventually the indigenous people had an uprising to take back their power from the Congo people. Once the violence started it ran rampant and even ignited a tribal war here. It lasted until the UN stepped in. There are still UN peacekeeping troops everywhere. In the area I am in, the Pakistan army is keeping the peace. We arrived by helicopter under heavy guard from the Pakistan army. They have posts everywhere and we passed a couple of bases. Our pilots were from Russia. I couldn't help but wonder what will happen when the UN pulls out, will war return?

We are about to discover the answer to my question. The UN is pulling out "cautiously and gradually" according to an article from Irin. I pray Liberia does not digress in to a new civil war and the transition to the people of Liberia is without event.