What is it with developing countries and their propensity to operate any societal institution or structure corruptly with a myopic view of future development and without a clear understanding that corruption both large and small continues to challenge the trust of their people, cities, counties, businesses, churches, etc.
Corruption is nothing new to human existence, but the pervasive acceptance among developing world nations continues to astound us on this trip, whether the corruption comes from a high ranking government official in hopes of hidden compensation to supplement his growing thirst for wealth or the local police officer wrongly accusing someone in order to augment his meager salary.
We took a taxi home one night in Kenya when a police barricade impeded our progress. The well dressed officer approached the passenger window, oblivious to the two of us sitting behind the tinted glass backseat. “Good evening”, exclaimed the officer as he asked for the driver’s license and registration and simultaneously looking for any leverage for a bribe such as an expired taxi registration and vehicle insurance. The driver was operating within the law, but that didn’t exonerate him from further scrutiny. Questions continued until the officer noticed us in the back seat. “Friends!!! How are you tonight”, asked the officer while clutching his M16. A little nervous, we continued an awkward conversation for a few minutes before the officer implored the driver to continue on his way and take his new friends to our destination.
The LOCATIONS PAGE is the latest webpage to be unveiled on www.shiftingparadigms.org by our fantastic web designer Timothy Burch at Visual Prophesy!
The locations page gives concise and poignant descriptions of who Paradigm Shift will work with in the coming months and downloadable 1 Page PDF Country Briefs for each country we’ve worked in with descriptions of what took place.
So, go to the top of the page then click on the Locations link to get a better sense of what is happening for Phase One at Paradigm Shift.
Janelle in Heuheutenango, Guatemala at the site
of the Mayan Ruins.
Our Guatemalan friends took
us there to teach us about the country’s heritage.
During the Guatemalan civil war, Solomon and Mery were driving up to the house of a Mayan family who lived high in the mountains to give them some corn and other food when four guerrillas soldiers who were carrying grenades climbed into the back of their pickup. The soldiers began to throw the corn out of the truck and, in their dialect they said to each other that they should kill the old man and take away the old woman to cook for them. But little did they know, Solomon and Mery had studied the language they were speaking and could understand everything they said.
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