I'm the patron of the journalism club at my school. Never been to a meeting, but I'm on the stationary so it must be true. The students decided that they wanted me as their leader despite the fact that i don't know anything about journalism and it didn't matter whether i wanted to or not because they went and told the headmaster that i was their patron. I was a little surprised when the club leader showed up at my door with a stack of invitations to local journalism types for the end of year club party for me to sign. My first duty as Patron, was to ignore his indirect request for me to finance the party, i guess my dollars were showing. i sign each of the invitation and at the bottom of the pile there is an itemized list of party supplies with a price next to each. At first i didn't know what i was looking at but i connected the dots, and my reaction was to be a little pissed. You made me your Patron without my knowing it, ive never been to a meeting, i don't know the members but you think its ok to ask me to buy a bunch of food and soda for you and your friends. If i sound bitter, i guess i am a little because after a while, when a solid percentage of my interactions with Ugandans amount to them asking me for stuff or money, yeah its starts to wear on me and shape my attitude towards them. Im not really opposed to being part of this club, Ill do it and try to make it into something worth while for them and maybe after i know and like the kids ill want to finance a party for them, but for now its hard to care too much. So i gave the price list a good looking over put it back on the bottom of the stack. handed them back and gave him a big dumb smile.
In response to my last post, my friend Aubrey was inspired to write a post about me. Her blog is probably better than mine so you can start reading hers now.
http://aubsinthepeacecorps.blogspot.com/2011/10/my-good-friend-ryan.html
