Inflation Woes

Today (Monday) is the final day of island fasting.  Tomorrow (Tuesday) will be the celebration!  Fasting is over!  There will be eating and drinking throughout the day.  Games to play and freedom and joy in the air.  Life returns to normal.

Our fasting town

But life is not normal right now.  The inflation that is firing up politics and hurting people at the pump and in their wallets back home is truly a worldwide phenomenon and the islands are not free from it. But many islanders are poor and suffer a lot.

The month of fasting is actually meant to be a month of feasting too.  Each nightly meal should be a feast, with all sorts of favorite foods and abundance, but this year, inflation has curbed the sizes of portions and the ability to celebrate.  Many of the basic foods have nearly doubled in price!  Faced with such daunting changes, islanders have been tightening their belts, eliminating superfluous expenses and calling on their more wealthy friends for support and charity. 

Our team breaking the fast in island style

The tightening of belts means people have been doing less inviting as well.  Where it might be normal to invite neighbors to break the fast together, this year, that sort of abundance of sharing has been harder to come by.  It has been tough on businesses too.  A woman we know who sows new dresses for the holiday did not receive nearly the number of orders that she normally does.  Another business—a gym on the little island, wasn’t able to get anyone to join for the month. (In the past this has been a money making time as people like to work out in the evenings after breaking their fast.) So the gym had to close its doors.  We too have seen a change.  It is normal that we are called on to be more generous with our neighbors this month, but this year we have had a much larger number of people asking for help, including some who rarely come to ask.  

Thankfully for our businessmen friends, the final days of fasting have seen some uptick in business.  Much like the Christmas season, these final days of the month of fasting usually sees big crowds downtown. And even this year the scene has been the same.  The crush of people becomes so great it is difficult to walk down the street.  Bullhorns call out sale prices and every seller is calling out to you, “Welcome!”  This rush will help to keep the businesses going, but I doubt if it will be the boon to the economy that it usually is.

Inflation is taking its toll. It’s hard to know how all this will play out in the coming months.  Will inflation continue?  Is there anything a small country that imports 80% of its goods can do to curb the situation?  

Tomorrow many houses will have doors open wide, inviting their friends, family and neighbors to come to greet them for the holiday. On entering, their loved ones will find the homeowner dressed in new clothes and giving out candy or cakes. But this year we know that as we walk around tomorrow for the holiday, there will be doors firmly closed at some houses. Not because people have traveled away, but because some won’t be able to find the money to get a new outfit or to buy candy or bake cakes, so they will hide at home and pray for a better year next year!

Someone ate too quickly and had to lie down!

PRAYERS ANSWERED


No official word about the medical team authorization but the Health Secretary General (who is the one to sign off on any authorization) went to the French Island for medical treatment and was treated by our old teammate and colleague! This divine appointment means he has been able to speak about all the good our group does and encourage the Secretary General to give authorization without delay! When he comes back from the French Island hopefully he will! After several years, Megan with the help of the team has been able to finish the new edition of the grammar book in the local language, designed to help English-speakers to understand and learn better. It will hopefully be printed before we have to leave! Tom has had some encouraging conversations and study time with Ananas (an older brother) lately—praying that this is a sign of new growth. Two colleague families working on the small island made it off the islands and the one welcomed a healthy new daughter this week! Praising God for new life and safe deliveries. We haven’t had any more tummy bug problems this week. We were able to break the fast with an island sister and her family on the weekend, which was an encouraging time of fellowship.

PRAYERS REQUESTED
Tomorrow is the big holiday— pray that we and all our island brothers and sisters would have good interactions with all our friends and neighbors. Our close neighbor had a miscarriage and continued to bleed for several days afterward. She had a procedure and thankfully should be well now. Pray for her continued recovery. We travel on Saturday to the big island and then Sunday to mainland Africa. Pray with us that our flights would go as scheduled, that we would be healthy and get negative COVID tests. Pray for this week as we have the big holiday, need to say goodbyes and need to pack up our house and bags— pray that we could leave well! Tom has been studying with Uhaju who seems close to a life-changing decision. Uhaju is supposed to study together with his wife with one of our teammates after we travel— pray that this would happen and that Uhaju and his wife could walk together on this journey!