Another slow afternoon at work. The sun shines through the automatic doors. The fax machine whirrs behind me bringing in an anonymous fax from a marketing company. Typical, mundane, 9-5. The good news is I leave in a weeks time. Jetting off to sunnier climbs, namely Mozambique.
As I sit here, a customer advisor with currently no customers to advise I reflect on a topsy -turvy year, one filled with the craziness of life. Occasionally it feels a privelidge, occasionally it feels like a slog. When I think of the 101 things that need doing before I leave for Mozambique I can't help but yearn for the slower pace of life in Africa. Did God really create us to be this busy?! It is perhaps a overstated stereotype when we talk about things like African time. But surely relationships are more important than deadlines, than tasks, than getting "the job done." It is an underlying attitude where people care more about who you are than what you do. That is part of the appeal of Africa to me, but is also something I wish we could import over here. It was a genuine shock to the system returning last year from Mozambique to a world of busyness and meetings. Feeling like I was watching from the sidelines as people rushed through their lives. Eventually of course I was sucked into the race and learned to get use to it again. Though with an underlying sense of mourning the loss of what I had experienced before. It is harder to shape culture than to be shaped by it it seems.
My hope this year is that whatever it is I learn out in Mozambique I am able to translate it into English and not lose my sanity in the process. It is usually harder coming back than going and this year things seem even more open ended than last year. The way ahead seems as unclear as ever but I will go ahead as far as I can see...