scissors and staplers

A donated car’s odometer mysteriously stops working.

Petty cash accountability forms vanish.

Cameras and computer equipment disappear overnight--and there’s no doubt that it was an inside job. 

It’s one thing to get incensed by reports of corruption at the national level--I was thoroughly disgusted to hear that top Bank of Tanzania officials were building themselves mansions with heated swimming pools, state of the art generators and elite private security services just a few months ago. 

It’s one thing to read about that rottenness, but it’s another thing to sit in a meeting on Monday morning, at the NGO you volunteer for, hearing about the theft and tampering that occurred over the weekend and to realize that the person or persons responsible for the loss of thousands of dollars worth of donated goods is sitting there at the table with you. You just don't know who.

This theft, this corruption, this widespread, short-sighted, grab-all-you-can-for-yourself-while-you-can culture that poisons everyone from the staff of small NGOs all the way up to the bigwigs in Dar es Salaam makes me sick, makes me weary, and in bad moments, makes me tempted to throw my hands up in despair and give up all hope that anything can get better. 

This is not a Tanzanian problem, or an Africa problem, I know. It’s humanity’s problem, so it’s my problem--haven’t I walked out of the office with a pair of office scissors or stapler? It’s just that, in the right environment, the scissors and staplers too easily turn into a few laptops and projectors, and before you know it, into millions and millions of dollars meant to fight violence against women or buy medication for orphaned HIV-infected children.

I don’t even know what to ask those of you who pray to pray for. It seems an impossible thing to ask that people in positions of power, everyone from the humblest guard with keys to the store room, to the Bank of Tanzania Officials and their heated pools, would forego greed and abandon their pursuit of lavish, selfish gain. But, who knows? God is God and one day, there will be no more of this garbage--and meanwhile, we know his grace can change the hardest, most corrupted of hearts. So pray that he does! And pray that we would not grow weary.