Quote of the Day

Here are some quotes we have heard lately:

 

As I was planning a menu for a seminar with some folks:  "You can have a tomato, cucumber, onion salad or a tomato, onion, lettuce salad.  But you can't have a tomato, cucumber, onion and lettuce salad.  That is not the Mozambican way."  During the same planning session, "We can't serve beans and rice.  Beans are heavy and will make you sleepy."

 

"If you have two wives you are not sinning."  Said from a pulpit.

 

"We will give you your refund."  Said several times but with no results.

 

"If you have a business without challenges, it is not a real business."  Helena, the chicken project manager

 

"You need to tell a Mozambican something seven times before you get a response.  By the fifth or sixth time he says, hmmm, I've heard this before."  From one Mozambican to another who was wondering why he hadn't heard back from him.

 

"Where is the miner?  He didn't return because of AIDS."  "Where are his parents?  They died of AIDS."  "Where is the driver?  He crashed into AIDS."  Billboards for AIDS awareness.

 

"Today I need to learn how to say in Arabic, 'You are a beautiful child.'"  said by a short-term missionary in Morocco regarding some children who were making fun of her.

 

"You can't plan for a disaster until it happens."  Heard in a meeting shortly before the floods and hurricane came to Moz.

 

From a wisecracking friend:  "They have computers in Africa?  But only powered by bicycles, right?" 

 

"Me, Me, Me" a Renault billboard with a picture of a new car

 

"We have sinned and God is angry with us."  A comment by Alda, the vegetable lady regarding the floods, hurricane, drought and arsenal explosion in Mozambique this year.

 

Given as an example of self-control:  "Sometimes I am very hungry and I want to eat other people's food, but I have to use self-control and not take it."

 

On the wall of the WR office:  "Meekness is not weakness, but power under control."

 

And we'll end with a joke Steve heard:  A South African, an American and a Mozambican were bidding on a job.  The South African bid 9,000, the American 10,000 and the Mozambican 12,000.  The guy who wanted the work done said to the Mozambican, "You were supposed to underbid the others!"  "No," he said, "I'll just hire the South African and we'll split the 3,000!"