Development

"Let me tell you a story about western people”, an African friend said to me.

The elephant and the mouse were best friends. One day the elephant said to the mouse, “Let’s have a party!”. Animals gathered from far and near. They ate. They drank. They sang. And they danced. And nobody celebrated more and danced harder than the elephant. When the party was over, The elephant asked the mouse “Have you ever been to a better party? What a blast!”. But the mouse did not answer.

“Where are you?” Elephant called out. He looked around for his friend, and then shrank back in horror. There at the elephant’s feet lay the mouse. His little body was ground into the dirt. He had been smashed by the big feet of his exuberant friend, the elephant.

“Sometimes, that is what it is like to do a project with you western people,” the African storyteller commented. “It is like dancing with an elephant.