If penguins are cool ... how come I'm so hot?

So what is it about Africa?

One of the the really hard things that one has to get used to in Africa is how long it takes to do anything. I mean literally anything. This is a problem in our personal experience at least Niger, but I have been told it is the same to varying degrees throughout Africa.

Here are some examples for you. We are in the second month of waiting for licence for our car. Granted it is an NGO exempt license which has some extra paper work involved, but 2 months! I have the need as a technical support person to have alternate access to the internet for many reasons. Upon our return we looked into a "Dogonay" phone which we can interface with a computer and get access to the internet. We had one of these last term, but sold ours to a fellow missionary when we went back to the US. To get a "new" (used but different) required 5 trips to the phone office, in which I waited approximately 7 hours. For a phone! I told Issiakou that in the US we would think it a waste of time to wait 30 minutes. He smiled. We are still waiting on installation of an A/C unit that we bought when we left for the US, hoping it would be installed sometime in the 6 months while we were gone. It is truly everything.

Beyond that, there is the problem of things that one needs for everyday life just not being available at all. We had weeks where it was almost impossible to find cooking gas in town. Other times in other years was lack of drinking water, or vehicle gas. And we have it better than many outside of the city in smaller towns.

I have never been sure of why this is. Is it lack of natural resources to begin with? Perhaps. The culture that is not nearly as time conscious as westerners are? Maybe, but there are Nigeriens who balk at the waiting too. I don't know that I have an answer, but I do have advice for those thinking about going to Africa, and perhaps other parts of the world for service or mission work. Bring a book, you'll need it while you are waiting!