"...all effort and exertion put forth by man from the fullness of his heart is worship, if it is prompted by the highest motives and the will to do service to humanity. This is worship: to serve mankind and to minister to the needs of the people. Service is prayer."
- `Abdu'l-Bahá
Sometimes I worry that I'm going to get the day wrong and say it's day one hundred and five but it's really day one hundred and ten because I'm bad with numbers like that. I don't really know why I'm bad with math and numbers. I used to really excel in math, but once we hit algebra it all went down hill. I remember being put in algebra in the sixth grade and for the first time really struggling with something in school. I seemed to do better with geometry, so maybe I'm just really bad at most forms of algebraic math.
Anyway, I learned today that I've been officially appointed as a member of the National Teaching Committee by the National Spiritual Assembly. I also requested to be allowed to work with the Office of External Affairs, so now I'm part of that branch of the NSA, too. I had a two hour meeting with the Director of External Affairs (Mitra) this evening discussing what I should be doing for the office. I planned to go to Iringa and Ruaha Secondary School for a bit of a holiday on Monday, but it's turned into a working vacation after my meeting with Mitra! I'm supposed to conduct training in clusters with intensive programmes of growth (currently four) to raise up Public Information Representatives to assist the office in its interfaith and defense of the Baha'is in Iran work. In addition to a few other things, I'm hoping that also the Faith will be officially registered on Zanzibar by the time I leave.
I have to say I'm happy with the appointments, and not just for the sake of my own ego. With the NTC, I'll feel free to offer my opinions, rather than hold back in deference to the actual members of the Committee. As the assistant, I've had a lot of suggestions and comments but I've sometimes kept them to myself because I didn't feel it was my place to offer them. It'll also be nice to vote and have a say in what I'm supposed to do! We elect officers at our next meeting, and I'm a little worried, in some sense, that I'll be elected Secretary because I was basically performing that function when I was the Committee's assistant. (I hate it when officers are elected in that sort of de facto fashion.) The problem is the language barrier. Even now I feel like half an assistant because I have to rely on other people to do translation and various other tasks for me because I don't know Swahili. There has been an ongoing discussion within the community about the use of English and Swahili, mostly because of the presence of native English speakers. I personally feel its important for the friends to use Swahili as much as possible, but then again I'm part of the problem by continuing to write correspondence in English. God willing the world will decide on a universal language before I'm dead!
I'm excited about the External Affairs work, especially because it's actually related to my field of study. The experience it will provide should be invaluable in the future. Most of our work will be in dealing with human rights issues and the defense of the Baha'is in Iran and raising up capacity in the local communities to deal with local government officials and the media. The initial work involves educating myself about the situation of the Baha'is in Iran. My knowledge in that area is admittedly lacking for the tasks I'll be required to undertake, which at various times might include giving public presentations on the situation and meeting with government and media officials.
This evening, I was once again mistaken for Mitra's husband. The real one is in Bangladesh at a meeting. We decided to go to dinner with May (9) and Allen (17) at a sort of family restaurant, kind of like Chili's. The waitress asked Mitra, "What would Mommy like to eat this evening?" and Mitra told her. Then the waitress turned to me and asked, "And Daddy?". I don't even begin to approach looking like I have a 17 year old son! Come on! I might look and act a little older than my age, but not that much. I'm beginning to think that maybe black Africans have difficulty accurately judging the age of white people. According to Mitra, it's common here for older people to marry people quite a bit younger than them, so I suppose there's some cultural influence, as well. But even so! I must be turning into an old man!
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