Another topic that has recently come up is the relative ethics as well as the social respectability of pursuing a woman, with a known (to use a Victorian word) suitor. Though apparently acceptable in ages gone by this is become a little more of a convoluted issue in the current relationally obsessed culture in which we now live. There are several points to consider as we pursue the answer to this important question.

• Is the suitor a member of the same fraternity as yourself?

If this happens to be the case such a dastardly act will surely be met with the utmost hostility and possibly amusing and life-threatening pranks. We actually encountered a story of such an act during the research for this article. To explain concisely, one member of a fraternity, we'll call him Suitor B, was observed spending an inordinate time with and showing an undue interest in the girlfriend of another member, Suitor A, who was of yet unaware of this intrusion. Other members of the aforementioned fraternity approached Suitor B rather gently at first suggesting that he cease and desist from this unseemly behavior. He failed to respond correctly and after a few days was greeted by a shampoo bottle filled with a mysterious substance, a toothpaste tube filled with a primitive, oily hair cream, and finally a bottle of Listerine filled with a vegetable-based mechanical oil. This potent chemical combination seemed to have the desire effect and the situation was swiftly concluded in Suitoe A's favor.

• Is the suitor a friend of yours?

If he is and you are still seriously considering this course of action, it would seem that you have a limited ability to understand friendship. As a result you probably have an even more limited concept of love and for this reason you should currently not be pursuing a relationship of any sort.

• Do you want to be "That" guy?

Even if the suitor is not a close personal friend, or an acquaintance you have any responsibility to or love of, do you want to be forever known as the guy who will cut another guys legs out from under him. Do you really want to be the reason that a girl tells a perfectly decent guy that she just wants to be friends.

• Is Suitor A an absolute jerk, lowlife, who should probably be given a swift kick?

If this is the case then go for it on one condition. If the girl would be interested in such a punk is she really the one that you are looking for. If she is really a solid girl and is either not interested or possibly deceived about his true nature, then by all means go for it. In this case you may actually be doing a service to the human race. If this is not the case you are merely headed for trouble. There is an old saying that nice guys finish last. This is not always true by any means, or even frequently true. Relationships can not work out for a variety of legitimate reasons. I would argue that the majority of the nice guys finish last situations are a direct result of a so-called nice guy directing his energy in the direction of a woman who is unable to distinguish between a nice guy and a punk who should be given a swift kick.

Overall this is a dangerous situation to say the least. The best advice would probably be to avoid the situation entirely. If you feel very strongly that you should continue to pursue this situation do so at your own risk.

Cape to Cairo

For the sake of argument we are going to consider this to be a new blog. It will serve as a catalog of the various thoughts and ideas that pop into my head over the next few months.

The first one is a Cape to Cairo ride, that is to say a solo motorcycle excursion from the Cape of Africa to the land of the pharaohs. This can be dangerous from what I have heard but the thought struck my fancy. If one were to do this very thing they would immediately collect all the man points that they would ever need. They could literally watch a chic-flic every night for the rest of their life and never have their masculinity questioned. If you are an individual who enjoys chic-flics and often feels a sense of disconnect from your inner man this may be the perfect opportunity for you. I can't say that I have ever done this myself but I believe that this would be fairly similar in effect to wrestling an anaconda in the rain forest of South America. This option is however significantly more expensive and will require you to take a lot more time off (key elements to consider).

Last week in Africa

It seems like my time in Africa this summer is drawing to a close. I want to thank you all for your prayers. This week we are closing out with a little bit of work on the Auto rebuild business, and then we are flying out on Thursday. I will be getting back to LA for debrief on Friday afternoon, Lord willing. Who knows what is going to happen on this trip.

Bakery snapshot

Here is a picture of the bakery that I have been working with this week. That is Ryan in the foreground for a little bit of scale. It is a tin shack with a lot of holes. It gets very cold inside, so much so that it takes almost an hour longer at night to bake the bread than it does during the day.

Hello everyone,
It has been a crazy week here in South Africa. Throughout the week I have seen the way often strange that God works. Originally EI started a data entry business here. After a few months the way the economy was going forced them to shutter the business. Through this experience the connections were opened to start a variety of other businesses in the area. Opportunities were opened even though the original business failed. The business the we were working with this week, the bakery, is a cool situation. The business itself is not very profitable, in fact it is losing money right now. The cool side is the fact that the lady who manages the bakery was saved, through the ministry of one of the CRM people in the area. In fact her mother, who everyone knows as Granny used to be a witch doctor, and she was saved through the same ministry. Through your prayers you have the opportunity to be involved in what is going on.

TIA(This is Africa)

Howdy Y'all,
Today we came face to face with the reality that we are working in Africa. South Africa may look a lot like the US, except that every house is surrounded by electric fence and razor wire but it is a lot different. The bakery has not been doing well because it has been having a hard time making sales. Today was a different problem. The bakery ran out of bread, and then the power went out. We were all ready to do our different tasks to begin to turn around the bakery but when we showed up today it was not going to be that easy. The electricity went out without warning, and nothing went according to plan...

To be continued...

Township and Bakery

Hello everyone,
The last two days have been good and intense. I got up yesterday morning and headed out to the bakery att 6Am. The bakery is literally in a tin shack about a quarter of the size of a tractor trailer. It is not exactly modern technology. It is a very small operation that sells around 90 loaves of bread a day. Next week we will be working in a variety of different ways to help expand that and make it more profitable. If the bakery is able to make a profit then other ministries in this area have a good source of funding. The cool thing for me is that I am getting a chance to use some of the things at McDonald's, so there is a good use for it after all.