Year End Update
Ahoy mateys! Tis my year-end-update ~~
{This story goes best with the soundtrack It's a Hard Knock Life (choose your own version)}.
All work stations are go! This comes 12 hours after a hard night of drinking.
You will know why I drank after you read my letter. Please find the attached brief below.
Star date 20403.4 2–5:
Captain’s Log:
Why do I even write these things? Does anyone even read them? I might as well put it in a time capsule, as I’m stuck in a very far away place where people can’t reach me.
I spend my nights watching a lot of TV. A lot of Netflix. Occasionally, I watch Youtube, but sometimes I have to stop because a lot of documentaries are narrated by Brit-ish people and there’s enough British backpackers around for me. So most of the time it’s Netflix cartoons. Is my life bad? That I watch so much cartoonish TV as an adult? What am I doing with my life? I don’t have a job. Would it be better, or at least excusable, if I had a job and then watched so much TV? But I do have a job? So can I still watch TV now at 1 am? Yes, that is the current time.
OH BOY! I’ve hoped you enjoyed reading that doozy of an introduction.
I’ve talked a lot about hope in my letters. I will now provide an update. Hope and her mum returned to their country three weeks ago, where they were able to recover the kidnapped uncle. As I presumed, the perpetrator was the uncle in-law, who kidnapped Hope’s uncle as ransom to compel Hope’s mom to return, so that he could marry Hope’s mom. Yes, that’s the culture they live in, where the widow must be wed by the brother in-law. They went to court and upon discovery, the brother in-law was jailed for 6 months for committing the crime and stabbing Hope’s grandpa. Moreover, the court ordered Hope and her mom to live with the brother in-law’s family. Most likely, Hope’s mom will be the third wife of the brother in-law, and Hope will probably be married off and sold for a pittance of a sum.
Knowing Hope’s mom is great - she had such courage to voluntarily return to her home country, knowing the imminent danger she faced upon arrival. But this was something she was willing to risk, to save her family member. Hope’s mom knows my story, and she thinks it must be hard for me. But I know her story too: her husband murdered right before her eyes, she shot in the process while covering her baby during the onslaught. In the “first world” (what a horrible term) it is hard to fathom and grasp this story, true as it is. It is also hard to grasp the fact that Jesus came down from his pedestal, having the powers of God, to take on the form of a helpless babe in a manger and eventual sacrificial death, so that some would be saved. Was that too hard a pivot? Was that too hard a pivot literally or thematically? Since, we are now, after all, in the new year past the Christmas season.
And so, I begin my new year-end update on the news of Hope. Now Hope is gone. Never to be seen again. Alas, what I share of Hope is true. Today, I just found the news. So ends that thread… We can only hope her return and imprisonment as a third-wife and sacrificial bride leads to something even more beneficial to all.
For me, the last 18 months have been quite interesting. Yes, I’ve met many interesting people. I once had a coworker tell me everything takes 18 months; it doesn’t matter if you have a team goal for the year or a yearly budget - everything still takes 18 months to complete. Eighteen months ago, I was in the thick of exploring job/business opportunities in Cambodia. I’m grateful for the profusion of opportunities and avenues I’ve had to explore. What have I learned in the last 18 months? A lot! I consider it a privilege to write, though no requirement encumbered upon me, but still, too much to share in a one-page length letter. I do enjoy writing, however, most official representatives of embassies and other ambassadors don’t. Still, free of the shackles of adhering to strict guidelines, I can freely share and dross on about any topic I want, and provide a varnish-free picture, something those that are required to write letters cannot do.
Of course, that Bohemian-style (what does that even mean?) means someone will outright reject what I write, and I’ve probably lost half my readers at this point. Or maybe half my readers never even opened this letter to begin with. Still, in all my letters I add truth to the story: only it is for the reader to ferret out the truth.
Wait, wait. But what have you been doing these last 18 months?
Ah, but that is something you will have to wait another 18 months to find out… JK. I have some very big news coming out soon, so you’ll just have to sit tight for that. In the meantime, I still have a lot of hope for a lot of things!
Cheers.