On our long drive from San Jose to Nosara we listened to the audio version of the book The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life by Mark Manson. Something I heard in the book has really been hitting home for me this week. The book was talking about how happiness is the ability to solve problems and true happiness is finding problems you enjoy solving. A wise panda, yes, a panda, imparts his words of wisdom on the author.
“Don’t hope for a life without problems,” the panda said. “There’s no such thing. Instead, hope for a life full of good problems.”
This was a real “Ah ha” moment for me because I think I have been hoping for a problem free life, but really, I don’t know a single person that doesn’t have problems. The author then goes on to say:
“Warren Buffett’s got money problems; the drunk hobo down at Kwik-E Mart’s got money problems. Buffett’s just got better money problems than the hobo. All of life is like this.”
This is such a good lesson in how to think about the experiences you encounter, and learning how to think about your experiences does, after all, shape the experience of your life to be either good or bad.
It’s a good thing that this teaching came to me when it did because today I got the full on practical experience. I got an email from my landlord in Kinshasa this morning saying that the refrigerator from the apartment I just moved out of was missing. It turns out that my cleaning lady, whom I entrusted to return the keys to the apartment to my landlord’s assistant after my departure, and whom I gave two months severance to, freaking stole the refrigerator!! That’s crazy! So they are taking the cost of the refrigerator out of my deposit. My organization paid for this deposit and I am really now hoping that it doesn’t come out of my next paycheck. Even if my organization does take the hit for me, it’s still kind of f*cked and not in a subtle way.
Antonio said, “Man, we’ve been getting screwed over a lot lately.”
I immediately thought back to this book and repeated to him the lines quoted above and said, “At least we’ve got good money problems. At least we have money for people to take.” This eases the sting. A little bit. Because my cleaning lady definitely doesn’t have money for people to take, or at least she didn’t before now. I am pretty sure she sold that refrigerator and made a hefty sum. The job market in Congo is grim for highly skilled individuals, and for people like her, an uneducated woman, it’s practically non-existent. It’s possible she will never find another job.
Today’s featured photo represents an intervention my organization is doing in the east of Congo to combat this issue. It’s a Village Savings and Loan Program in Walikale, an unstable area that is regularly visited by rebel groups. People in the community pay into these savings each month, and this pot of cash is kept and managed by a trustworthy group of individuals elected by the community. Once a good stash has been raised community members can then make microloans to start a small business venture, like purchasing and selling sugar in the market, and then they make several payments to repay the account once money starts rolling in.
In the end, I am grateful that I don’t have to resort to stealing or trying to start a small business with a few hundred dollars. I am grateful for my good problems.
Magic 53/365, VSLA Group in Walikale, North Kivu, DR Congo
