Watch the Walk

How I feel about office "efficiency" here Equipment: two outdated computers, probably with multiple resident viruses. Personnel: one secretary, two men to run the office and tell the secretary how to do her job. Missing: the boss who has the authority to do things. Decorations: a couple of bookshelves stacked high with folders full of documents and extraneous papers, a coating of dust, a picture of the president, multiple printers and photocopiers, of which maybe one works partially. All photocopies must be done in another office on another floor of the building.  It's that time of year when my service visa has to be renewed, and yet again I shake my head over the inefficiency of the government offices. After walking in and announcing that I needed a letter to take to immigration to request a new visa, it took most of an hour for them to do the following: 1) locate in the computer a similar letter which they could adjust with my details; 2) change the details, which in...

What are you thankful for today? I can make a pretty long list of things for which I am thankful, but at the end of the day I'm most thankful for the nature of character of Him whom I worship. He is perfectly faithful. He's not capricious. Who He is will always be reflected in how He acts. And that's not something to be taken for granted. Here on the island I'm often told by friends not to trust others. "They'll steal from you."  "They'll betray your trust."  "You think that they're trustworthy, but they're not. Give them an opportunity and they'll turn on you." I constantly have friends talk about how they can't trust their boyfriend, girlfriend, husband, wife, or essentially anyone other than their own mother. They don't trust anyone to be faithful to their promises. And the government acts the same way. They say nice things, but turn and do the opposite. Money is quietly channeled into personal pockets and pri...

It's pretty here. (photo cred: S. Parker) I live on a tropical island. There are palm trees, fresh fruit, delicious fish, sandy beaches, and delightful music. But not everyone wants to stay there. Is it just the dream of every island dweller, some sort of island fever that you're born with? Is it the dream of every person stuck in a country where corruption rules and many go for months without being paid their promised salary? Or is it the need of a person in a health crisis who knows that they'll find no solutions on their island? So my islander friends and neighbors take boats to another island. The government authorities of the other island try to prevent it, but try enough times and you'll make it. But the problem is, a person without papers isn't free to move around the island easily. They constantly live in fear of being discovered. Some places the immigration police search houses for illegals. Other places they simply walk the streets checking every person th...

"Snow?" you say questioningly, perhaps with one eyebrow raised. "That doesn't seem likely on a tropical island."  Well yes. But let's say there's no snow, but you're still not going anywhere. It was a Monday morning. I woke up thinking it was an ordinary start to an ordinary week, but then my phone starting going off with multiple messages: unrest in town, school's been cancelled. Time to keep an ear to the ground on what's going on. Then I heard gunshots. Hmm, definitely not an ordinary Monday. We don't normally hear gunshots here. Although I'd heard rumors of families with guns hidden away, weapons aren't a common sight on this island. Even the bank security guards are lucky to have a night stick. Normally they just sit slouched in a chair, looking bored. Occasionally unrest will involve rock throwing, but still... guns are an entirely different escalation. As a team, we were planning on getting together throughout the week to f...

Flower necklaces!  How's your cringe face? You might need to warm it up a little. Cringe. Cringe a little harder. Okay, let's go! Picture this: you're a young-ish girl in a grand gathering of women, all dressed up, singing songs, reading from the respected book, dancing, giving you flower necklaces and other gifts. It's your day. Nope, not your birthday. But it's all for you, celebrating you. Why? ... you got your first period. Menstrual cycle. Aunt Flo visited. Monthly. Whatever you want to call it. They're all there to celebrate that you're now a woman.

With some of my "peaceful" neighbors BAM! BAM! BAM! BOOM! Baa! Baa! Rr-r-r-r-r! "HEY YOU! COME HERE! HURRY!" "YOU'RE WRONG! YOU'RE STUPID! WHY DON'T YOU LISTEN?!" In case you haven't gotten the idea yet, I don't live in a very quiet place. When you think of a tropical island, maybe you think of warm beaches, quiet breezes, and peace, but that's not exactly my reality. My neighbors have been doing construction, so often I'm waked up by 6 or 6:30 in the morning with the sound of a load of rocks being delivered, or workmen yelling at each other, or roofing metal being dropped from the second story into a pile on the street. And since it's warm and there's no AC, my windows are always open, so the sounds reverberate on my concrete walls and seem to only be louder inside than out. Yesterday there were a couple people working on building some walls and doors out of metal. All afternoon I suffered through the sounds of metal be...

It's clove season here! Time to dry the fresh cloves Sometimes life here on Clove Island is unpredictable. And sometimes the only prediction is that it will be unpredictable. An example of that would the the school system. Although I'm not teaching for a public school, I have many friends whose kids are in the public school or they themselves teach there. So I get in on the drama a little too. A little extra spice for your spices? See, it's September. September is the month when school should start. And it's quite possible that school will start this month, but when? The governor sometimes sets a day for returning to school, but maybe the teachers still haven't been paid for the end of the last school year. And they often refuse to submit grades for their students until they're paid. If the students don't have grades, they don't know if they passed to the next grade or not. And so school doesn't start. How long will that go on? We don't really kn...