Missonaries, Mercenaries and Maniacs

A combination of factors have led to the relatively low posting rate lately.

1. I am in Juba where the stories tend much more towards the "...and then I sat at my computer and planned a meeting" type. Super exciting.
2. I am in an extremely foul mood which has lasted for about a week now and apparently is rather evident from what I've been writing.

I was having a debrief session with a colleague I supervise the other day, another expatriate, and she was pretty stressed and pretty unhappy and one of the things that was bothering her was that she was "afraid she might turn in to" me.

It wasn't said with malice or anything like that, she is just an extremely idealistic (in a good way) person and was afraid of sinking in to the morass of cynicism I seem to swim around in. The conversation basically was about whether she should get out of conflict-style countries and go back to your more long-term development settings, where people tend to be less bitter, have more normal lives and not scare others in to new career paths.

Now, obviously, when you have become someone else's example of what not to become, something has gone wrong. And, until I can write without sliding in snarky, bitter little bon mots (or, not so bon mots, as it were), I'm keeping schtum.

How's this for a little Oprah moment on The Thirsty Palmetto!