Friday, October 14, 2005

Diplomacy and hand grenades

As I always say, it’s been an interesting week…or several weeks in this case.  The news this week is popping with stories of final status talks while at a colleague’s house a hundred and fifty kilometers away, hand grenades announced a different message.  This week the UN inspector issued a favorable report regarding the “final status” talks for Kosova.  That means, according to various sources, that the diplomatic talks on Kosova’s future will begin shortly.  People here are pleased, though certainly no one will be happy with the final outcome.  It’s impossible to do anything that would please all parties at this point, but that is the nature of negotiations.

 

While that was going on, we also got word that someone threw a hand grenade into the yard of a fellow missionary in a town about 150 kilometers from here.  The hand grenade exploded about midnight, shattering a number of windows but hurting no one.  Then, the following morning they found another grenade placed by the front tire of their vehicle, rigged to explode when the vehicle moved.  Praise God the second grenade was found and the various authorities were summoned and the grenade removed.  We used to feel, as American missionaries, that we would probably never be hurt except by accident, or mistaken identity…now, not so much.

No comments: