Thursday, May 2, 2013
Wednesday, May 1, 2013
Is it really a bad thing
I remember traveling to a developing country a few years back and someone commenting on all the people selling "stuff" to people in the cars while those people are stuck in traffic.
Some of you may have already experienced this, but those those who have - think of the most troublesome traffic intersection in your daily or weekly car travels. Now picture 20-40 people selling you everything from gum, to vegetables or fruit, to water or sodas, to sunglasses, to watches, to tupperware, and on and on.
The person that I was traveling with commented about the craziness of it all and that it was really irritating.
Well a couple of thoughts:
1) It's a way of life for the sellers and the buyers. If it wasn't creating value I doubt people would walk up and down through traffic selling goods with no prospect of buyers.
2) There is a safety concern for sure both with the sellers being hit by cars or the buyers buying product that may be spoiled, tainted, etc.
I always find it interesting as to what is sold at the intersection.
This trip, Jim & witnessed people in the car with us buying yams (15) and another buying lemons (25)
I think in the late 1990s if there were people walking through traffic at the intersection of Poplar & Highland selling milk, cereal, bread, peanut butter, & jelly - their best customer would have been Chalmers - because that would mean 1 less thing (going to the grocery) off her list of things to do.
Some of you may have already experienced this, but those those who have - think of the most troublesome traffic intersection in your daily or weekly car travels. Now picture 20-40 people selling you everything from gum, to vegetables or fruit, to water or sodas, to sunglasses, to watches, to tupperware, and on and on.
The person that I was traveling with commented about the craziness of it all and that it was really irritating.
Well a couple of thoughts:
1) It's a way of life for the sellers and the buyers. If it wasn't creating value I doubt people would walk up and down through traffic selling goods with no prospect of buyers.
2) There is a safety concern for sure both with the sellers being hit by cars or the buyers buying product that may be spoiled, tainted, etc.
I always find it interesting as to what is sold at the intersection.
This trip, Jim & witnessed people in the car with us buying yams (15) and another buying lemons (25)
I think in the late 1990s if there were people walking through traffic at the intersection of Poplar & Highland selling milk, cereal, bread, peanut butter, & jelly - their best customer would have been Chalmers - because that would mean 1 less thing (going to the grocery) off her list of things to do.
Jim
For some reason in my travels around the world, I have traveled many times with someone named Jim.
My friends Jim Greer (JG) and Jim Etzkorn (JE) have traveled with me many times. JG had to be the best ready to go guide I know. Didn't matter if JG had a month to research the location or in the case of one trip a few hours (because of a schedule change) he would get off the plane and let me know the history of the place, top 5 sites we needed to see, etc. When I traveled with JE, he always was one or two steps ahead for our next move, airport, meeting, etc. Never had to worry about the next set of travel logistics with JE - he either knew or he reminded me (a lot) that we had another move (car, plane, hotel, etc.) to make.
Now Jim Levernier (JL). Moving through Ghana, JL always gave me a briefing on the next place we were headed - name of the people, purpose of the institution, expectations for the next night's boarding, and so on.
Even this a.m. maneuvering through JFK airport in NY (btw - which is a mess) JL just flowed through all the mess like there were no issues.
I disembarked the plane here in NY before JL and waited for JL inside the airport - of course there was JL disembarking in mob of people with not only his 3 carry ons, but JL was carrying a nice size bag for a lady who was a first timer to the USA.
Every evening JL & I debriefed that day's experiences and composed our thoughts about the next day's itinerary and objectives.
Thanks JL
My friends Jim Greer (JG) and Jim Etzkorn (JE) have traveled with me many times. JG had to be the best ready to go guide I know. Didn't matter if JG had a month to research the location or in the case of one trip a few hours (because of a schedule change) he would get off the plane and let me know the history of the place, top 5 sites we needed to see, etc. When I traveled with JE, he always was one or two steps ahead for our next move, airport, meeting, etc. Never had to worry about the next set of travel logistics with JE - he either knew or he reminded me (a lot) that we had another move (car, plane, hotel, etc.) to make.
Now Jim Levernier (JL). Moving through Ghana, JL always gave me a briefing on the next place we were headed - name of the people, purpose of the institution, expectations for the next night's boarding, and so on.
Even this a.m. maneuvering through JFK airport in NY (btw - which is a mess) JL just flowed through all the mess like there were no issues.
I disembarked the plane here in NY before JL and waited for JL inside the airport - of course there was JL disembarking in mob of people with not only his 3 carry ons, but JL was carrying a nice size bag for a lady who was a first timer to the USA.
Every evening JL & I debriefed that day's experiences and composed our thoughts about the next day's itinerary and objectives.
Thanks JL
No big deal.....
Ever think about what if 1 or 2 things you have in your life today that makes your life safe and dependable every day.
This past week my mornings started and my evenings finished with a bottle or canister of clean water. Putting in/out my contacts, brushing my teeth, taking my daily pill regime, and so on. Every place, except Nsaba, where we stayed had water to the bathroom faucet - never turned it on due to the uncertainty of the water.
How many times do you just go to the faucet and turn it on for something and never think about that as a gift?
It's not that the many people around the world aren't aware of the benefits of clean water - the safety, future health, etc., it's about that it's REAL WORK for some many to get it.
In my short stay, I saw more access to electricity than I did to clean water or even water at all. At Nsaba (rustic - see previous post), we had good electricity for lights and ceiling fans (and of course the satellite TV) - but if you want to use the toilet you have to fill the top of the toilet with a bucket of water OR if you want to take a shower you have to do it with a series of bucket pours over your head (10) AND all of that water is brought toted from the closest water source (not clean water) and 50 gallon trash cans are filled to make it "easy" to pour all those buckets.
People in Ghana operate much of their lives around the next purchase of clean water like we revolve around purchasing gas for the car or the next Starbucks.
Now this is where the world gets normalized:
There are people we know, see, read about, etc. in the USA that aren't capable and don't revolve their lives around the next gallon of gas or the next cup of black coffee from Starbucks (I don't know the funny names to order coffee at Starbucks) and so they can't or don't.
In Ghana and other places, there are people that can't buy the clean water on a consistent basis or just don't have access.
The differences lie between - quality of basic health, i.e. how one feels and exists every day and in many cases, especially the children, life at all.
I used to work with a group of guys in the early nineties that would always give me alternative theories as to things like how the pyramids were built or the large graphics in the Peru landscape that can be seen from space - aliens! Could be true - but our history says something like the pyramids in Egypt were built by millions of people moving pebbles and boulders to eventually construct the soaring geometries of rock. Pyramids were not built by free will - built by the enslaved.
However - what the pyramids do prove and may be one of the reasons God allowed the enslavement to last so long is - it's a demonstration of what can happen when millions of people set their sights on getting something done and that He wanted everyone for thousands of years to come to contemplate the power of mankind.
We're not going to solve bringing access to clean water to all those in the world while we are on this earth - nor will we probably solve the challenge of of the homeless in Memphis and other cities - but we should keep trying.
Wonder how strong is Free Will?
This past week my mornings started and my evenings finished with a bottle or canister of clean water. Putting in/out my contacts, brushing my teeth, taking my daily pill regime, and so on. Every place, except Nsaba, where we stayed had water to the bathroom faucet - never turned it on due to the uncertainty of the water.
How many times do you just go to the faucet and turn it on for something and never think about that as a gift?
It's not that the many people around the world aren't aware of the benefits of clean water - the safety, future health, etc., it's about that it's REAL WORK for some many to get it.
In my short stay, I saw more access to electricity than I did to clean water or even water at all. At Nsaba (rustic - see previous post), we had good electricity for lights and ceiling fans (and of course the satellite TV) - but if you want to use the toilet you have to fill the top of the toilet with a bucket of water OR if you want to take a shower you have to do it with a series of bucket pours over your head (10) AND all of that water is brought toted from the closest water source (not clean water) and 50 gallon trash cans are filled to make it "easy" to pour all those buckets.
People in Ghana operate much of their lives around the next purchase of clean water like we revolve around purchasing gas for the car or the next Starbucks.
Now this is where the world gets normalized:
There are people we know, see, read about, etc. in the USA that aren't capable and don't revolve their lives around the next gallon of gas or the next cup of black coffee from Starbucks (I don't know the funny names to order coffee at Starbucks) and so they can't or don't.
In Ghana and other places, there are people that can't buy the clean water on a consistent basis or just don't have access.
The differences lie between - quality of basic health, i.e. how one feels and exists every day and in many cases, especially the children, life at all.
I used to work with a group of guys in the early nineties that would always give me alternative theories as to things like how the pyramids were built or the large graphics in the Peru landscape that can be seen from space - aliens! Could be true - but our history says something like the pyramids in Egypt were built by millions of people moving pebbles and boulders to eventually construct the soaring geometries of rock. Pyramids were not built by free will - built by the enslaved.
However - what the pyramids do prove and may be one of the reasons God allowed the enslavement to last so long is - it's a demonstration of what can happen when millions of people set their sights on getting something done and that He wanted everyone for thousands of years to come to contemplate the power of mankind.
We're not going to solve bringing access to clean water to all those in the world while we are on this earth - nor will we probably solve the challenge of of the homeless in Memphis and other cities - but we should keep trying.
Wonder how strong is Free Will?
Tuesday, April 30, 2013
DL 27
Jim & I on the plane headed to New York.
Ready to get home, so I hope that Mayor Bloomberg doesn't want us to stick around to clean up NYC water...
Ready to get home, so I hope that Mayor Bloomberg doesn't want us to stick around to clean up NYC water...
Last Day in Ghana
I read the Idlewild Chimes last night and the story Steve Montgomery was telling about his visit to Rhodes and the panel with the Rabbi, priest, etc. and then rolled that into the old joke of a Rabbi, Priest, and Imam walked...
Well I have one of those too.
In a few of my posts I talked about the need for a smaller bottle that is a better fit for children to carry rather than a 5 gallon bottle. So today Kofi, Jim, Kwadro(?) from Immanuel Medina (see earlier post of our visit there) and I met at a bottle factory on the outskirts of Accra.
We walked in to the office and the lady (Tracy) asked what we needed. We told Tracy (Ghanian) what we needed and the dialogue started to drift into nowhere, i.e. we can't do it, here is what we got, etc.
We then told her that we were missionaries, a reverend, and an elder and she asked again why we were there - this time we told her the full story of clean water, the children, and so on AND she stopped and said step into her husband's office.
We entered the second office where we met Walid (Lebanese). From the minute we all got on the same page, the page grew and grew. Quickly, both Tracy and Walid said they want to help - both Tracy and Walid are Catholics.
So I won't go into all the details, but here are a few:
1) First we negotiated a new (lower) price for the 5 gallon
2) They gave us 2 cases of hand pumps that fit on the 5 gallon bottles
3) They gave Kwadro 20 5 liter bottles and 20 8 liter bottles to take to Immanuel Medina and test for the "right" size.
4) Walid wants to really develop a new bottle that is exactly the right size with maybe a handle to make it easier to carry. We are going to work with Walid long distance to figure this out.
I am not sure all the reasons I was on the trip. I know that I probably frustrated many at times with my pragmatic views and desire to raise the level and service of the clean water mission, but I today I think I was there to support Kofi, Jim, & Kwadro in the quest for the right bottle solutions for the users of the clean water systems.
So today, 4 Presbyterian men, 2 American and 2 Ghanians, walked into a factory and sat down with 2 Catholics, 1 Ghanian and 1 Lebanese, and....
Well I have one of those too.
In a few of my posts I talked about the need for a smaller bottle that is a better fit for children to carry rather than a 5 gallon bottle. So today Kofi, Jim, Kwadro(?) from Immanuel Medina (see earlier post of our visit there) and I met at a bottle factory on the outskirts of Accra.
We walked in to the office and the lady (Tracy) asked what we needed. We told Tracy (Ghanian) what we needed and the dialogue started to drift into nowhere, i.e. we can't do it, here is what we got, etc.
We then told her that we were missionaries, a reverend, and an elder and she asked again why we were there - this time we told her the full story of clean water, the children, and so on AND she stopped and said step into her husband's office.
We entered the second office where we met Walid (Lebanese). From the minute we all got on the same page, the page grew and grew. Quickly, both Tracy and Walid said they want to help - both Tracy and Walid are Catholics.
So I won't go into all the details, but here are a few:
1) First we negotiated a new (lower) price for the 5 gallon
2) They gave us 2 cases of hand pumps that fit on the 5 gallon bottles
3) They gave Kwadro 20 5 liter bottles and 20 8 liter bottles to take to Immanuel Medina and test for the "right" size.
4) Walid wants to really develop a new bottle that is exactly the right size with maybe a handle to make it easier to carry. We are going to work with Walid long distance to figure this out.
I am not sure all the reasons I was on the trip. I know that I probably frustrated many at times with my pragmatic views and desire to raise the level and service of the clean water mission, but I today I think I was there to support Kofi, Jim, & Kwadro in the quest for the right bottle solutions for the users of the clean water systems.
So today, 4 Presbyterian men, 2 American and 2 Ghanians, walked into a factory and sat down with 2 Catholics, 1 Ghanian and 1 Lebanese, and....
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