Problems and Perspective

I thought I had a great idea for a blog. I had had a frustrating morning trying to get some photocopies made. It took me four tries to find a place that could take the information on my memory stick and turn it into an original, then when I finally got to a place that could make the copies, the power went off in the middle of making my copies, so I only got half as many as I needed.

The story I had in mind, of course, was longer than that

and whinier.

Then I sat in a business meeting and heard the story of a group of men who are trying to keep a Christian Radio station on the air in southern Honduras. Here is a synopsis of the report that was given:

November 28, 2007--the station went off the air due to damage to their UHF receptor.

In this lapse of time there were legal problems because someone else wanted their frequency (since they weren't using it).

Six months later, May 8, 2008,the damaged receptor was repaired and they were back on the air.

Two weeks later, some tubes were damaged.

While they were installing the new tubes, there was a lightning strike which burned up several pieces of a transmitter and a condenser.

Resolving these problems, they got back on the air. In September, 2008, strong winds hit the area, breaking a high tension line which hit some kind of connector on the transmitter, breaking it. (I am not sure if it is the transmitter or the connector, but something broke.) It took 40 days to get someone to fix that for a price they could afford to pay.

Meanwhile, the power company cut the power.

As they were re-connecting the power, there was a power surge which burned up some tubes.

They got back on the air.

Then the guard, who left the station for a short time because his wife was having a baby, returned to discover that thieves had stolen 30 meters of copper wire.

The people who want their frequency continued to cause them legal problems. While they were working out these problems, they were hit again by lightning.

At this point, the decision is made to move the tower to a more strategic place, which involved carrying cement in buckets up a mountain to install the base.

I looked at the photocopies in my hand, and decided my morning had gone pretty well after all.