THIS IS MY FATHER'S WORLD

God bless my father's heart. His motivations are always pure, just the execution is a bit clumsy.

I received a call from my Mom who was a bit frantic. I was worried, because she was calling me from her land-line, and not Skype. I just spoke to her yesterday and it would only be an emergency to hear from her 2 days in a row. She had arrived home to find a new computer sitting in the place where her old computer sat. New gear excites me, but it frightens my Mom. After finally figuring out how to turn the thing on, alien blue lights and all, she tries to open a document she was working on. No dice. After some fussing around, she realizes that this new one cannot connect to the Internet.

When my Dad returned home that night, he had some great news to share. "I took the computer to one of my deliveries asked a guy how to make my computer faster. He laughed and said there wasn't much that could be done. So, I bought a new one!" Obviously, my Mom didn't receive this as good news at all, and immediately got on the phone with her son.

After 2 post sale service calls, a transfer of all the files from the original computer, a long distance call to Calgary for the router WEP key, the computer finally gets set up.

And kudos to my Mom. She is able to do some pretty advanced things: composing spreadsheets and documents in Chinese (through keystrokes, not with a tablet), emailing people in various languages and with various attachments and, if said recipients can't view the various attachments, she knows how to scan a "hard copy" and then resend as an attachment! She shared with me that most of her peers have steered clear of computers, perhaps out of fear, perhaps out of laziness. I'm really proud of my Mom!

I'm proud of my Dad too. He is always thinking not of himself, but of others. No one can fault him for that.

HEARD IN THE FIELD (PART 2)

We celebrated the birthdays of 3 of my colleagues today with cake and song. As we disbanded, I wished Nick happy birthday...

Hey Nick, happy birthday man! Thanks for giving us a reason to have cake today!
Actually I was induced by my parents 2 weeks early.
(*blink blink*)
My parents won a sales award, a Safari trip to Africa. They weren't going to let me stop them from going, so they induced my birth 2 weeks early.

HEARD IN THE FIELD

An excerpt from We Africans Have Long Stories by Laura Pope (a book written by a daughter of one of my South African teammates)

A GOAT

Pinky, Gift, Presilla, Dauna and I are walking single file along a dirt path surrounded by maize crops on the way to our next Home Based Care patient. Dauna is talking with Presilla.

Presilla, what a beautiful dress! It looks so good on you.
Why does it look good?
It fits your shape and your figure. You have a beautiful figure.
But what use is a figure when I have no husband?
Would you like to marry?
No, I don't need a man.
That's right, you don't need a man. You're a strong woman.
I just need gode.
O, a goat? Yes, then you can milk it and provide for your family?
No, GODE.
Well a goat provides a better relationship than a bad man anyway.
No, GODE.
Yes, a goat. That's a good goal.
GODE!
Goat?
I finally interrupt: Dauna, she's saying GOD!