Missionary Gas

From where I’m writing you can see trees that look as if they’re out of a Tarzan film. Tomorrow (Tuesday) we’re due to fly to Scotland for Christmas, and part of the routine is to get a couple of days’ break at a hotel near the airport prior to the journey. Medellin’s Black River international airport is an hour from the city in a 7000ft Andean valley. Today’s missionary faces hazards that would have taxed the Apostle’s brilliant mind. Not only those of air-born travel, but of internet-born messages. As many noticed our email address book and account were hijacked last week by online sellers in China. What was surprising was that some believed that I was recommending buying equipment from them, and perhaps someone can explain to me why it was North Americans who thought this. The canny Scots of course sussed a bad deal immediately, the prize response must go to Bill Mitchell, with his reply: Dere David and Olwen, I am much thanking you for your shari...

These days a frequent comment I get from students is, “You won’t be busy now that classes have finished” I tell them, “This is when the work starts.” There are special meetings to attend, articles to write, web sites to sort and a zillion things that were left undone to be done. Among the special meetings were those with two academic officials from the Colombian Ministry of Education: a stern looking priest in a dazzling white shirt and one of those powerful Colombian females whose eyes are heavy with mascara. They’re the kind of people who turn up in my nightmares, but were actually very good at their job. The Seminary wants to launch a post-grad course on ethics with the complication of it being an online one. They came to suss out if we were up to it. The outcome is uncertain and we dream on. Our poor undergraduates also had to face the Ministry of Education at 7am on Sunday, with a new external exam they must pass before they can graduate. This applies to...