Brokenness

 Sometimes the brokenness of the world is overwhelming.  I can feel it on a large scale when I think of wars in Iran, Ukraine, Gaza, Sudan, Mali, and more.  I can feel it when I think about friends and family going through rough times—money problems, addiction, grudges, depression, sickness.  I can literally feel it when I ride a taxi-bus over roads so broken they don’t seem like roads anymore.  I know this world is broken.  And most of the time I can live with it.  But sometimes, it feels like too much.

Beautiful sunset amid strikes

The whole world has been thrust into a fuel crisis because of the war in Iran.  This has hit the islands pretty hard, and not just with fuel.  Dubai is one of their major trade partners and one of the major stops of the shipping route.  The ships that make rounds between China, India, and the Islands also stop in Dubai.  When the war broke out, some of those ships were stuck in Dubai and the shipments to the islands stopped abruptly causing shortages and leaving some business owners with little to sell. 

That was bad enough, but then about a week ago, the government announced a price increase on fuel.  (Fuel prices are fixed by the government.)  Fuel has always been a bit contentious here—one of those things that shows the brokenness of this place.  Despite the fact that the government buys very low quality fuel—such low quality that it causes engine damage—it charges extremely high prices—twice the price you would normally pay at the pump in the US!  In response to the global price shifts, the government raised the price another 25%.  This was too much for a population where many struggle for daily expenses.  A general outcry arose.  The next day the taxis went on strike.

Over the following days, more and more organizations joined the strike—teachers, fisherman, business owners until it felt like the whole nation was on strike.  Commerce came to a standstill.  Even personal vehicle use was discouraged.  Protests erupted in several places around the islands.  Many of these protests were peaceful, but most were angry.  In many places roads were blocked and fires were started.  To our knowledge there was no looting, but anger was mounting.  On Friday, a protest became violent on our island.  A few people were shot and killed by the government forces.  The next day the government was in negotiations.  They agreed to suspend the price raise on fuel.  Did it take the death of protesters to bring about this change?  Oh, the brokenness of this world.

“Don’t worry” our neighbors said, “Things will be back to normal on Monday.”  Today, Monday morning, taxis are running again! Commerce is back up and going.  But wait, taxis are charging inflated prices!  Gas stations are still charging the 25% increase!!!  What is going on? I went on facebook for answers.  Since gas stations had to pay more for fuel during the crisis, they want to get their money’s worth on the high priced fuel they bought.  In turn, taxis having to buy this high priced fuel are charging their customers more!  What??  Doesn’t this go against everything the strike stood for??  Shouldn’t those gas stations have refused to buy fuel at those prices?  Shouldn’t the taxis refuse to pay for more expensive fuel? Wasn’t this what the strike was all about? Will people stand for it?  

New blooms on our porch amid strikes

Apparently they will, as long as it’s temporary.  

For some reason, this hurts more than the corruption and price hikes, or the striking and violence.  If after a week of unified strikes and protests across all three islands and getting the desired concessions from the government, the people are still having to pay the elevated prices, then what was the point. All of it is broken, so broken.  And the root cause is not a government, or corrupt leaders, but the human heart.  

Perhaps you read this and marvel at the state of things on the islands or maybe it just makes you think of the brokenness you see if your own country or community.  Brokenness is everywhere. So we need to pray.  We need to allow our hearts to break and become burdened so that we pray to the one who has power over the human heart.  Oh Lord, have mercy.  

PRAYERS ANSWERED
In the midst of strikes, we had some good times studying with Muki, Mtsa and Hashiri. There were also beautiful things like sunsets, new flowers and cool constellations. We are glad that after a week of strikes that people are able to return back to work and businesses to reopen. We were able to find local guardians for our kids while they are at school! We are thankful that some of our plans for this summer are coming together. Megan was able to gift Hashiri with a printed Book in the local language and she has been faithfully reading it everyday. 

PRAYERS REQUESTED

Pray for the islands-- for constructive change, for peace, justice and changed hearts! We mourn with those families that lost loved ones in the protests. We also the mourn the loss of a friend and colleague— a godly woman who worked to share her passion of reaching the lost with many— she died suddenly and leaves a hole that will be hard to fill. Because of the taxi strikes, men’s gathering did not happen— pray that they might be able to reschedule or find other ways to encourage each other this month. One of the island brothers has traveled to mainland Africa for medical treatment— pray that he can find good medical advice and relief from his symptoms so he can return home without too long a delay. Our daughter wasn’t feeling well today and couldn’t go to class— pray that this illness would not cause a flare-up in her arthritis and that she’d be feeling well tomorrow. 

Complicated in Different Ways

 A week ago we were on the French Island.  We call it the French island, because although being part of the same archipelago, that island is part of France, not part of the island nation we live in.  So despite being geographically close, with the same ethnic heritage, the same people group, the French island abides by the laws and customs of France—and that makes life very different.  Being so similar and yet so different, naturally arises comparisons in our minds.  Moreover, we interacted with many people on the French Island who have never been to Clove Island, Vanilla Island or the Big Island.  They were curious to know about the differences.  How did life work over there?

View of French Island (and visiting cruise ship!)

As we listened to and observed our friends serving in the French Island, one word kept coming to to our minds—complicated.  Life there is complicated.  They deal with so many things that we don’t on Clove Island.  For example: Their city is truly international, having people of different races, backgrounds and nationalities.  There are many from mainland France, but there are also many refugees from places like Congo, Rwanda, Somalia, etc. Moreover there are the undocumented immigrants from our islands and, of course, the original ethnic people group of the island.  They must navigate not only many different cultures, but many different languages, and people with many different motivations for living there.  Then there are the challenges of French government, religious views and laws implemented in a place of a very different traditional faith and government.  Add to that the complication of a large, poor, undocumented immigrant community leading to injustice, poverty, violence, gangs, and racism. 

Moon over French Island

Life there is complicated and as I listen to my friends share about their lives and the relationships they have to navigate and the many factors they must consider as they shine their light, I found myself thinking, “We have it easy on Clove Island.  Well not easy, but a lot less complicated —one people group, one government, one set of cultural rules, etc.”  After a week on the French Island we were ready to return to the uncomplicated life of Clove Island…

Did I say uncomplicated???

We took the boat back to Clove Island.  When it arrived at port the door opened.  In walked the port authorities and local police.  The doorway was on the side of the boat and naturally there were many paths for disembarking.  For some reason, these police officers felt it necessary to tell us all to make a long line snaking through the interior of the boat.  Most of us got into this line and waited patiently for this slow, nonsensical line to move.  I noticed that certain people were allowed to skip the line.  Why?  Well, it’s complicated.  They were probably a friend of the policeman or they held a position of power.

Finally leaving the boat we went to immigration.  To get to immigration you walk through a narrow hallway where officials are constantly asking to get by you in order to get to their offices.  Once through immigration, you pass back the way you came to a room where we are told to wait.  For what?  No one really knows.  

The baggage is being unloaded.  Are we waiting for those bags?  Maybe, but no one will tell you anything.  They finally let us out of the room only to wait behind a temporary barrier where we can see lines and lines of bags.  Why did they let us out of the room only to wait at the barrier?  Suddenly, and it seemed unplanned—more like a wall being breeched than an intended opening of the gates, everyone pushed the barrier aside and descended on their bags.  

Waiting for the luggage to be unloaded

By this time it was getting dark and the area where all the bags were laid out is unlit, so we are all peering at hundreds of bags, some using flashlights, as a hundred people force their way forward, falling over each other and bags.  When bags are found, you have to return the way you came—more jostling, pushing, falling over, but now with bags in tow.  You will fight your way back through the gate, back through the waiting room, cross the line leaving immigration, to get to customs.  

The confusion and complicated mess continues through customs, through exiting the crowded and chaotic port area, through dragging your bags on a confusingly long and unmaintained, dark path with thick dirt, until you finally find yourself on a road where you can catch a taxi home.…Welcome to Clove Island, where life is so simple! 

PRAYERS ANSWERED
We are thankful that God calls people to each uniquely complicated place in the world and equips us to live and serve there. Our two older kids both made it through their AP exams! Our daughter is officially an adult and we are very proud of her. Our youngest has officially been accepted into the same school as his siblings for next year. The women’s gathering was a large group this month and there was some good discussion. We were encouraged by how some of the women have improved in health and situation. Despite some original difficulty, the men have picked a day and time for their monthly men’s gathering!

PRAYERS REQUESTED
Pray that men would come and engage with each other during men’s gathering. There is currently a general taxi strike on the islands to protest the steep and abrupt rise in fuel costs. Pray for resolution and for poorer islanders as the cost of living continues to increase. The other organization that works on our island has a bunch of their team leaving in a couple months. This follows a trend of island teams shrinking— pray that the trend would reverse and that many new workers would feel led to the islands. May we be blessed by big, healthy teams. Planning has begun in earnest for settling our daughter into the US and college this summer— but she doesn’t graduate high school until mid-July so the transition time will be short. Please pray as we make plans that we would make wise decisions. We need to find new guardians for our kids (adults that live within 3 hrs of the school and can take our kids in the case of an emergency) as the current ones won’t be in the country next year— pray that we’d find the right people. 

Motorcycle Taxi Diaries

 The town of Nimodo lies 20 miles south of our town.  How long does it take you to travel 20 miles?  20 minutes? 30 minutes?  An hour if there’s traffic?  An hour and a half if there’s really bad traffic?  Does it ever take you two hours to go that far?  It does on Clove Island.

A view of Nimodo

The road between here and Nimodo was not in great shape. Then the rains came.  The damaged road was no match for heavy rains that tore up the potholes and ripped open the cracks, washed away the asphalt and left a ghastly mess.  There is hardly a patch of road left that isn’t gashed, pitted or rutted, the rest are just piles of broken gravel and asphalt.  The result is an extremely slow and bumpy ride — 2 hours to go 20 miles.

I was doing this twice a week this past month for the sake of a teacher training program in Nimodo.  Every Wednesday and Sunday I would leave the house at 12:30, catch a taxi and arrive in Nimodo around 2:30.  (Thank God for interesting podcasts to listen to.) Then I would teach from 3-5:30pm and then have the long ride back to look forward to. 

But there’s a problem there.  With the road being the way it is, the taxi buses aren’t running as often as they did.  Finding a bus after 5pm is hit or miss.  I wasn’t interested in staying in Nimodo overnight, so I asked the organizers for a better solution.  I told them, “If you want me to come do this training, you’ll need to figure out a guaranteed way to get me back to my town.”  The solution they proposed was a motorcycle.  Someone would give me a ride on the back of a motorcycle when the class was finished.

This has been a pretty good solution before.  A motorcycle is cheap (requires less gas) and faster as it can avoid a lot of the potholes (although these days the roads are so bad, it isn’t  much of a faster—shaves off 10 minutes tops).  I’ve ridden on the back of a motorcycle so many times at this point, that I’ve bought my own helmet, despite the fact that I don’t own or know how to drive a motorcycle.

The teacher training group

There is something wonderful about riding on the back of a motorcycle.  You get to experience the island’s beauty with 365º freedom of view.  Being on the back, you don’t have to be overly concerned about the road in front of you (although you do have to keep an eye out for the pothole bumps).  At the end of the trip, I arrive bottom-sore and windswept, but mostly, I really enjoy the ride.  Until the last Sunday…

That Sunday, the teacher giving me a ride couldn’t get the motorcycle he usually uses.  I waited around 30 minutes while he called around looking for something.  Finally a guy pulls up with a motorcycle, we hop on and head out.  It’s now about 6pm and the sun is setting and it quickly becomes apparent that this motorcycle has no headlights.

“Don’t worry,”  the teacher yells to me from the front of the bike.  “We’re getting a better motorcycle in the next town.  It’s my half-brother’s.  Brand new.  Very Nice.  Not like this one.”

That’s all well and good, but we still have to make it to the next town.  As darkness descended, I was praying that his eyesight was better than mine, because I couldn’t see a thing.  In fact, I was praying generally that we would be okay.  Sometimes a motorcycle or a car would pass us.  For a moment, their headlights would light our way, but soon we would be on our own again.  The sky continued to darken and my prayers became more fervent.

Just then a taxi pulled up behind us, lighting our way beautifully.  Only, he didn’t choose to pass us.  Instead he followed us, as if he wanted to help us out.  In fact, I wonder if he did it on purpose.  Islanders understand about broken down vehicles, perhaps he was just doing us a kindly service.  Or perhaps he just wanted to go slow.  Either way, it was an answer to prayer. He followed us all the way into town.  After another long wait, the good motorcycle was ready and the rest of the trip was uneventful.

I’m happy to say the training in Nimodo is finished!  No more motorcycle trips—at least for a little while.

PRAYERS ANSWERED
We are thankful for light to guide our paths! We are thankful for our time on the big island and French island this past week and for smooth travel to the French Island and back home to Clove Island. We’re thankful for the good work being done on the French Island and for the faithful witness of our friends there— it is a difficult and complicated place but we see God’s hand at work. We are thankful that the group on Clove Island were able to gather together as a larger group this past weekend and celebrate the group’s birthday! We are thankful that we were able to bring more copies of the printed book in the local language with us from the French Island.  

PRAYERS REQUESTED
Pray for the women’s gathering this week and for discussions on what to study next with them. The men should meet the following week, but already it is seeming difficult to find a day when the main players are available. Pray for our colleagues on the big island as they continue to process their son’s medical needs and what it means for them. We are still waiting to hear if our youngest has a spot at boarding school for next year. Pray for an answer soon. Our kids in mainland Africa will begin AP exams this week— pray for good concentration, low stress and good health at this time.