"Frank Reid" wrote in message
...
Otherwise, its the slippery descent
back into hell for Kinshasa, and I can't wait to get out of here for the
summer!

--riverman

Ya know, that idea of "getting out of there for the summer" would turn
into a permanent proposition for me. I've found that when students are
out of school in hostile situations (i.e. riot season in the ROK),
things go downhill real quick. All that teenage testosterone added to
the mix is a bad thing.


Yeah, I know...and from outside my brain it seems like an incredibly simple
choice. It seems like it all boils down to "what kind of maroon would come
back to a place where they could be in physical danger, just to teach
school? Whatever the cost, whatever the hassle, whatever the logistics: get
out of town and stay out of town. Simple, EOS, case closed. This is NOT what
you signed up for."

But then the details start to cloud the issue.

a) The school WILL go on in the fall, and I would be remembered as the Guy
Who Tucked Tail And Ran by all those folks who stayed behind. That would
follow me to the marketplace, and I might find later jobs a bit harder to
get, as many places experience some danger.
b) Then there's my girlfriend and her son who starts his senior year next
year. He's not enrolled in another school, he is South African by passport,
and if we pull out we gotta go through the process of getting him enrolled
*somewhere* (but not the US as they are not citizens). Which raises a real
question about 'where would I go?' Since we don't have jobs anywhere, that
is a real problem. And starting at a new school in his last year would be a
pretty mean thing to do to him, too.
c) Then there's the probem of my belongings....if I fly to Europe as
planned, I can only take 20 kilos for free, and the rest of my 300 kg will
cost me $12 a kilo to ship, and then I'm standing at an airport in Brussels
with 300 kilos of boxes, and then what?? So that means I would have to,
at this last minute date, change all my flights to the US (where I get 140
kilos for free), however my girlfriend would need to sort out her Visa, and
her son's. And their stuff. I would, basically, be abandoning them.
d) I *could* leave a ton of stuff behind, and just fly to the US or Europe
with less stuff, but then I'd miss grad school in England, which would me
$5K poorer fro nonrefundables, and another year farther from my Master's. I
might also lose my teacher's certificate which is due to expire this summer
since I *need* these credits now to renew.

No, I'm in the middle of A Plan here, and it has connections into a Lot Of
Other Things. It would be incredibly difficult, expensive and inconvenient
to yank the cord right now. If I was being targeted, I'd be out of here on
a log raft this afternoon, but I think the presence of several thousand
other non-Congolese, and the constant affirmation from folks who lived
through the pillages of '91 and '93 tells me that, strange as it sounds to
the outside world, it would just be too sticky, too chicken****, and too
disloyal to a lot of people to cut bait yet. Sometimes, you just gotta hang
in there in an ugly and stupid situation...
:-(

--riverman