Lovely, now and then.

Life here can be frustrating. Most days I react to this fact with, well, frustration. I bite my lip and take deep breaths and try not to cuss people out for the ineptitude and general uselessness that is sometimes demonstrated. The generator repair man who doesn’t notice the glaring error in not reattaching the fuel line. The guard who decides to take some “me time” in the middle of the afternoon to wash his clothes, in our house, with our soap, when he should be, uh, guarding. Going back to the offices of the aid commission for the 17th time for a task that should have been completed in one visit.

And yet there are those days in the middle, that somehow the frustrating elements to daily life turn into amusing and almost lovely displays of randomness. We were attempting to get my country director and two volunteers out of our area on the UN flight the same day the arrived on a heli from the village- so it was a matter of exact timing and planning (neither of which have any place in the general vicinity of anywhere close to here)…so we had the guard call for a taxi and decided that we’d all go to try to catch them before they left to say goodbye and hand over last minute paperwork to be sent to the capital. Our national logistics worker piled in the little hatchback taxi, I crawled into the middle, and my roommate took the other side. One of the workers from the field in town on rest clambered into the front. The dilapidated taxi groaned and sputtered as it pulled away from our compound on the pitted dirt road- bottoming out at least twice on the huge holes before hitting the tarmac road. And so we creeped down the road and up over the mountain to the airport- our little rag tag family on an outing. It should have irked me that we still don’t have a car or that we were running around when I had work to do in the office, but, strangely, it didn’t. I found myself smiling a little as I stared out the window into the desert around me- the scrubby trees and bushes still green from the rainy season passed and the people on donkeys with loads of dried palm branches piled so high you wondered how the poor animal kept his balance. And it felt right. Good. Andrew Bird’s Scythian Empire kept playing in my head (random I know) and I was delighted- to be here in this strange and frustrating place with these sometimes strange and frustrating people in this horrid taxi at this moment.

I’m sure it had something to do with hot season winding down and sweat NOT rolling down my back like it usually does in situations like that one.

But mostly I was just thankful to have made it his far. And thankful that Jesus helps me push through the lip biting moments to the joy waiting on the other side.

Current Playlist:

Andrew Bird: “fingerlings”- the entire album is lovely but Scythian Empire, Dark Matter are quite excellent in my opinion.
Frou Frou: “It’s good to be in love”
Chris Tomlin: “God of this city”
Regina Specktor: “On the Radio”
Duffy: “Mercy”
Sanctus Real: “Face of Love”
Jason Upton: “I will wait for you”