You gotta see me bike

Don’t be duped by the pale blue … some would say ‘sky blue’… paint-job. She’s an absolute beauty.

The basket might also have a feminine look about it, but I can tell you it’s so I can carry me heavy-duty tools. And the speed … you gotta see how quick she is. She goes from 0-100 metres an hour in less than 10 secs.

Couple of mates heard some guys talking about seeing some lightning the other night … I reckon they saw me fly by and was confused, coz I've been carving up the streets of West Africa.

Still got some tinkering to do. When I’m done it’ll be fully sick.

Jon

Tear-gas Tuesday

Jon was at his usual Tuesday morning French class, revising verbs, when he heard what sounded like gunshots. His tutor turned on the radio and said (in French) "No need to worry, it's only tear-gas. And the problem (a student demonstration) is a long way away...it's at the university."

"But we live next door to the uni," Jon replied, "and my wife is at home... alone." So he hopped on his feminine-looking pale blue bicycle and raced home.

After a bad night's sleep, I was still in bed...I figured the shots were fireworks. (Jon was slightly amused I was still in bed.) We started to smell the tear gas as it wafted into our yard. So we shut our windows and checked our front gate was locked, then Jon peeked over the fence to see students running down the street, chased by authorities.

We don't have a radio, or TV, so didn't know what was happening but we didn't feel unsafe and the neighbour's kids were still making loads of noise playing outside. At the height of excitement, we heard a knock on the front gate. After peering over the top of the gate, Jon unlocked the entrance to allow two women and their donkey in, who come every week to collect the rubbish. The day's activities weren't going to stop the rubbish collectors doing their job.

We received a couple of phone calls from friends (and one local minister) just advising us that everything was fine, but better to stay indoors, so we went about our ESL preparations (it was test night Tuesday night for our 70-odd ESL students).

Things quietened down, and our friend who lives nearby came past in her car and invited us for lunch. She lives right near the entrance to the uni, so was even closer to the protest. Her housekeeper had freaked out when the students tried to push their way through the gate into the property, as they were trying to hide. So she went and hid under the bed! We thought this was kind of funny, but she was obviously scared something bad was going to happen.

We ate lunch together and things were starting to heat up again, so we stayed for a siesta at her place. We were a bit anxious about getting home as we hadn't finished preparing the tests for our students (warning against procrastination!). When we eventually walked home late in the afternoon people were just hanging around on the streets like they do everyday.

Our friend told us to pack an overnight bag as we may need to stay somewhere else, but everything was fine, and our classes weren't cancelled and all the students came for the test (some even came early, for once!).

Cathlin

Cereal wars - which one is home-made?

Breakfast cereals are really expensive here in Burkina - a small box of basic (ie. not Kelloggs) rice/wheat flakes costs about $5 and it isn't even that tasty. Kelloggs cereals are sometimes on special here (when they're about to expire) for about $7.50 a box. So, as you can imagine, we don't buy cereal. We've been exploring other breakfast options, and Jon has made many a batch of muesli with loads of dried mango, coconut and pineapple (cheap and available everywhere here). Can you guess which one is his muesli, and which is the cereal I used to eat in Paris (for special treats only), that I'm missing a bit?

Working with poverty

We were sitting outside, preparing our ESL lessons for the evening class, when we heard the front gate open, which was unlocked because we had lots of visitors that morning. Before we had a chance to assess the situation, a man – shabbily dressed – was standing in front of us, showering us with French greetings, which is the local way of being polite. In quick succession he asked: How are you? How is the family? How is the house? Did you sleep well? Are you having a good day?

He said he knew the previous missionary who lived in the house (and provided his name), and that the missionary was a ‘god parent’ of sorts, who took care of him in Ouagadougou. He said he had just arrived from a town up north and didn’t know anyone else. He said he was sick, and needed money for heart medication urgently. He showed me some scars and empty medication.

Missionaries in this part of the world are faced with this type of situation every day, and unfortunately, there’s no set of rules on how to deal with it. Sometimes it is a young student wanting some money to pay school fees. Logically, you may ask why not contact the school or pharmacy and see if they are legitimate requests. But the school or medical clinic may be a long way away (as things invariably are here), and may not even have telephones.

Some of the giving guidelines used by people in Western countries don’t work here; for example I know it makes sense in Australia not to hand out money, but perhaps support social services that look after the needy. But what do you do when social services are minimal, or not there?

Usually the sums of money being requested are anywhere from the equivalent of 25 cents to $20. This man at our doorstep was asking for $7.50. As the price of food and essential living costs rise, the frequency of these visits are expected to rise.

To complicate matters, if you do give money and it’s a con, you can expect to receive the reputation of being a soft target and be inundated with requests. On the other hand, you may say no to someone who desperately needed that money, when you had the resources to help. Some missionaries have beautiful stories of, for example, giving some money to a young girl who said she needed money for school fees, who becomes one of the few women in the region to receive an education.

The Bible warns in James chapter 2 not to wish someone in need well, and do nothing about his physical needs. Also, Matthew 25 reads: 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?' He will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.'

For the record, after speaking for several minutes with this man, his story started to change, and the amount of money that the medication cost fluctuated. He also became aggressive (but we weren't sure if this was a sign of desperation or a bully tactic). We sought some advice from a missionary friend on the telephone, and ultimately decided to feed him, but not give him any money.

We have no idea if we did the right thing.

Jon