Feeling philosophical this afternoon.....

The mornings are cooler now.  With frequent rain showers, heavy beyond imagining, as if the heavens themselves open up to wash away the landscape, everything and everyone stops and waits patiently for the deluge to pass, and one feels that mankind has been waiting patiently for such torrents to pass for eons, and it somehow connects you to a forgotten past.  One can't even chat over the noise so instead of competing with this roaring show of force from nature itself, everyone reverently bides their time watching and waiting.  Not adding to the humidity as one would expect, the rain seems to draw it from the air and spread it across the rutted and muddy roads and alleyways in huge brown lakes, rivers and rivulets collecting discarded refuge and carrying it away.  The heavy clouds give respite from the powerful African sun, and as she drops below the horizon in the evening, she hasn't quite the chance to catch up to her loss of face, and we head into the evenings less oppressed, less beaten by her heat.  The mornings aren't exactly crisp, but they are comfortable now, and soon the storms will pass and the humidity will drop, and the lush, deep greens will slowly give way to lighter green, then khaki and finally browns, before the rains begin again.

I'm busier now.  The rig has moved far offshore and the flying has increased ten fold.  Everyone is happy.  Nothing breeds discontent like inactivity.  We are here, far from home and our loved ones, to do our bit, doing our part in contributing to our species continuing growth, to satisfy it's needs.  Our talents lie in taking those equally beholden to providing for loved ones, out to scour the earth for resources to meet our ever increasing demands for more and more.  Like a huge unmanageable organic system, a system so complex economists and politicians, philosophers and the media struggle to understand and to profit from it, as it leaps ahead, stumbling and faltering, then surging ahead again, with everyone swimming to keep their heads above water, many falling by the wayside and some getting very, very rich.  Entire countries and continents get caught up in the wake, struggling for dominance, or even equality, their piece of the pie, but the bigger picture is lost in the individual's daily struggle, to provide for loved ones and find a little piece of happiness.

It all seems purer here in Africa.  One is unencumbered by the many distractions of Western living, and things are simpler, more basic.  As Africa moves ahead, far behind the West in many respects, I truly hope the West's hunger for resources brings Africa forward gently, giving them what we have, but I am hopeful they will retain their sense of community, the element of humanity, that I fear we are losing.  We have raised the individual far beyond a sustainable position, disconnected him through social media and television and the internet.  The African is far more social and connected to the community, their friends and family.   I'm just another individual contributing as well as I can as the clogs continue to turn, but I hope to learn and apply as I am exposed to world's so different from my own.  It's pleasant to pop my head up from time to time and try as one might to get a glimpse of the bigger picture, and my place in it.