update: what to do?

A few months ago, I posted about my dilemma with beggars. At the time I was struggling with how to respond. I continue to struggle with how to respond.

Recently, I was reading in the book of Matthew (in the Bible) and one of the scriptures seemed to answer my question. Matthew 6:42 reads:

Give to the one who begs from you.

Well, that seems simple enough, but really it just leads to another question. What should I give - Money? Time? Clothes? Should my gift come with strings attached, like pick up trash or wash my car? Or should my gift be given out of the kindness of my heart with no strings attached? What are your thoughts? What do you do when you encounter a beggar on the street?

A case for kindness

This is the year of abounding kindness. Since coming to Mozambique I have been given many opportunities for kindness in my new role. I can't say I have always responded the best way possible.

One of the changes in the relocation is that I am now in charge of HR for the four offices and nearly 300 staff. This poses many challenges and provides many opportunities for kindness. My job is essentially an office job, my investment is in the staff rather than the beneficiaries (which is not always the way I want it, it is just the way it is). Practically each day I am confronted with a case for kindness.

In my first week one of our security guards in a northern province experienced a stroke. He is now paralyzed, can't speak or walk. In my role, how should I best respond to that? Well, we tried to get him medical care ASAP and to work with the INSS (social security) to get his benefits quickly.

This week I received very sad news. One of the cooks in the same province was found dead. The cause of his death was alcohol poisoning from overconsumption. We had written him up recently for coming to work drunk. Following his death we discovered that he lost a child last year and his wife had left him. These events likely influenced his alcohol consumption. I didn't know his circumstances, was there something I could have done to help? Could I have been more sensitive? How many people do I interact with daily who have struggles that I am blind to?

Granted, we all still have choices to make, but this event has reminded me why I chose kindness as a theme this year and I hope I will demonstrate it more often in daily interactions.

We are five months in to the year, how are you doing in keeping your new year's resolution?

driving in Maputo

There is an organiational rule that one must wait a certain amount of time before driving after entering the country. That's all well and good, but I want FREEDOM!!! Driving is freedom.

I have been feeling like a caged animal lately. Why? Because we live at the office. I can't drive. Thus, we spend day after day in the building. There were some days when I didn't even see the outdoors. Not good.

Well, this week I started driving. Oh, happy day! However, it was like I was learning to drive all over again. I felt like I was in drivers ed because my boss had to ride along and make sure I passed the driving test.

In Mozambique, they drive on the left hand side of the road and the steering wheel is on the right (opposite from America). I found that staying in the correct lane was easier than I imagined as I just simply followed the traffic patterns. The difficulty came in managing the controls in the car. I wanted the blinker control to be the gear shift and the windshield wiper control to be the blinker control. I cannot tell you how many times I accidentally turned on the windshield wipers. Luckily, those in the car with me (my boss and husband) were gracious about my mistakes.

Now that I am a driver - Kenyon and I are going to explore the city. I can't wait! First stop, hair cut place for Kenyon. Here we go...

Interesting International Facts: PB&J

Did you know?

Where you grow up affects the kind of spread you like on bread. If you are from England you probably like Marmite. If you are from Australia you probably like Veggiemite. If you are from America, you probably don't like either of these things. Yuck!

However, if you are from America you probably grew up eating Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwiches. It may surprise you to learn that those from other places find the combination gross. They just cannot believe that anyone would like the such a mis-matched combination.

The person who recently reminded me of this fact, does like peanut butter with butter on bread. Hmmm...

I think those outside of America limit their peanut butter pairings too much - remember the post about Reeses in Ireland?

apartment search

Last week Kenyon and I were looking at apartments. We saw five apartments in one day. Whew! The good news is, we found one we like on the lower end of the price scale (which is still higher than we would pay for an apartment in Kansas City). I am still perplexed by the prices. Yes, I understand supply and demand theory - there is a high demand and lower supply in Maputo, which leads to high prices. I also understand that one of the consequences of this humanitarian aid enterprise is that the infusion of foreign funds brought in by foreigners (like me) can create inflated pricing structures and a "false economy." I believe the housing prices in Mozambique are a consequence of all of this...but I am still experiencing sticker shock and questioning the rational behind it all - but that is too deep for a blog post and I wanted to share a story of a lighter nature...

While looking at apartments the realtor is speaking Portuguese. Thanks to my background in Spanish I am able to understand quite a bit of what is being said in Portuguese. Now, repeating what I heard is an impossible task. So, we are at an apartment and the realtor is speaking Portuguese.

Realtor: Parking is around back and there are three parking spaces. There are four bedrooms in this apartment. Over here is the kitchen. There is a bathroom off the back for the helper. This bedroom has a private bathroom...etc.

I am translating all of this in to English for Kenyon. I must have been doing a pretty good job because the Realtor suspects nothing. He just keeps going with his presentation. Then he asks me a question I don't understand.

I say in English, "Sorry. I don't understand. I don't speak Portuguese."

He looks perplexed. He says in English, "you don't speak Portuguese?"

I respond, "No, sir, but I know some Spanish."

I have hope that I will be more conversational in Portuguese than I was able to become in Khmer. I also have hope that I may become literate in Portuguese since they use recognizeable Roman characters. I had no hope of reading the beautiful squiggly lines of Khmer - I can tell you from experience it is difficult to go through life illiterate, there is so much I missed as a result (like a much needed road sign).

We hope to move in to our new apartment this month. The language learning will take much longer.