I'm a bit frustrated by this
I have run into it so many times that I believe that it is the cultural norm in Africa.
I have some history with the culture of Africans, from Africa. I once was the principal military/security advisor for a man, an African, who ran for the office of president of one very large country there. While doing the work up for that project, I spent several years and lots of very long days pouring over maps and data and interviewing people and reading reports and all of that with a military eye, and I advised the candidate factually.
He was well educated and could not actually live there for fear of losing his life, so he campaigned and made plans from afar. I got to know him well and admire him greatly. He wanted me to be a lot more than just an advisor, and I cautioned him about bringing in "White people" to just take over and run things.
I began to see that something was missing from Africans, it was a lack of drive as if they did not really want to solve their problems. I studied them more and more and one day, I asked this man, "Tell me, why is it that in all of recorded history, no black African has ever built anything over one story tall?" It would seem like a racist question, but I posed it never the less.
He answered that there was indeed something missing with the black African, and we just sort of left it at that.
But in the years that have ensued, none of my friends have been able to get anything done over there. We have had money to send them oil, but that didn't work. We tried to build a couple of hospitals, but those plans fell apart too. In summary, although westerners from Europe to the US to Britain, to well, everywhere simply can't make anything work there. I even served under an Army Ranger who rose to become an ambassador, and he quietly told me to run from these people because no matter what we did, nothing would work out. He said everyone in power is corrupt and the cultural pastime is corruption and wastefulness.
So that was the background story to my latest, toss my hands in the air attempt to help over there. I came to know a pastor in Uganda who is struggling. He passionately has asked for my help several times. He wants financial support, prayer, and bibles. Through my investigations, I found out it was completely impossible to get even one bible to the man. A friend who has tried now over two decades has not been able to ship a single bible over there that was not stolen while shipping. Now only DHL will ship anything there and they are very expensive, like $200 for a single bible to Kampala, the capital of Uganda!
After praying about it for a couple of weeks, I thought I was hearing that I could send him $100. So I texted him and asked him how he gets cash. Now due to all the corruption there, most companies will not allow you to send money to a lot of countries in Africa. MoneyGram.com was not one of them.
I tried to just send him a small test amount, $20. I was unable because I did not have the credentials of the man's account, and his wallet ID number. So, I shared this information with him but it seems as if he can't understand the concept here. He just keeps telling me to just send it without filling in the details...
But I can't, I tell him because I cannot advance to the actual send page with all the open fields. He continues to tell me to do this and do that, and that's when I recognize the pattern. The African thing. The African thing, by my definition, is that they want you to do all the work, do absolutely everything and they simply seem unable to lift one finger to help themselves.
I texted him my thoughts about this and asked him (Monday) to simply open an account, then forward me the account numbers...Monday.
Well, it's Friday and despite several attempts and him suggesting I go to other services, he has not just gotten off his butt and opened an account!
I decided I'm not going to lift one more finger to help him at all. I am really frustrated with people who won't do the simplest of things to help themselves. And now I feel convicted for not helping him...BUT I CAN'T!
Help! Am I wrong feeling like it is a waste of time to help these people who can't seem to help themselves? Am I wrong? Am I missing something here?
