Thursday, July 27, 2006

Firsts...

Just before leaving for Bayanga I had a terrible first--my first real grey hair.  It was long and wiry and for one short moment I thought, oh know, so this is what it feels like to really know you are getting older.  I am six months from turning thirty and while I know it isn't that old, I was still shocked to be shocked at finding my first grey hair.  I am pretty much over it so no worries.
 
Our other first occurred yesterday on our trip to two outlying pygmy villages.  We got our truck stuck in a nice, big mud hole.  It took 30 minutes, Darren at the wheel, two Aka pygmies digging with their hands, and me taking pictures to get us unstuck.  Okay, so me taking pictures probably had nothing to do with getting us out but the photos are impressive.  Once you have been up to the door handle in one mud hole I suppose all the rest don't seem that bad but I would rather not find out. 
 
So now that we have been stressed enough to get grey hairs, been stuck in a mud hole, eaten monkey and caterpillars, travelled on local transport (motorbikes sitting three people and the jungle-bus), slept in mud houses, and acquired a second language, we are well on our way to becoming 'real' missionaries, the kind that can either entice others or scare them away completely from becoming missionaries themselves. 
 
What a fun job we have!!!!

Thursday, July 20, 2006

Interesting Places, Interesting People

I want you all to meet Jean Pierre.  He is a pygmy man from the town of Yandoumbe, a village 3 kilometres up the road from the Centre De Formation, our home in Bayanga each summer.  He is originally from a forest village in Cameroon but came here six years ago where he met and married his wife and is now the father of 4 children.  They say there is a sickness in Yandoumbe that causes people not to farm and its primary cause is unknown.  Some say its laziness, others say it's an aversion to becoming 'permanent', but whatever the cause, Jean Pierre is immune.  Having learned from his father long ago that life without fields is no life at all, he has been farming here since he arrived.  Every morning in Bayanga between five and six in the morning you will see streams of women coming down from Yandoumbe heading to the manioc fields of the Bilo (otherwise known as thr  typical village African).  These pygmy women will work from six in the morning until two or three in the afternoon and in return will receive a small bowl of manioc flour insufficient for the needs of a single family in a day.  Why would one want to farm for someone else for a little bit everyday when you could easily farm for yourself and gain as much as you wanted?  This we are unsure of and it is this that we are working towards changing the ideas of these pygmies but it is a slow process.  This Saturday night we will be showing a film in Yandoumbe about the work of the Centre De Formation in order to gather together a large crowd of people.  Before showing the film Jean Pierre, Capita and I will do our best at evangelizing the people of Yandoumbe about gardens.  Why farm for others when you can farm for yourself and reap all the benefits.  Jean Pierre will be our chief witness to what self reliance means.  He and his wife are not in the garden everyday, and their fields aren't the prettiest looking, but they also find the time to hunt and fish and to carry on with more traditional activities that also go a long way in providing for his family.
 
We sat down for a planning meeting with Jean Pierre, Capita and Bernadine this morning and as with most meetings here, it included a lot of story telling.  Jean Pierre told us about when he first got here he met Louis, an American that has been living among the pygmies for twenty years now.  He saw how Louis would give away money or food or soap to people without getting anything in return and immediately he told his wife that no way were they going to take things from that white guy.  He saw how dependent they could become and instead they put all their efforts into making their fields which is a pretty difficult task in the rainforest.  After having cut down all of the rather awesomely large trees in your field you then have the task of turning over the soil containing all of those trees' roots.  However, they are healthier and better off than most of their neighbours and for Darren and I, his family is a rare treat to work with.  Should you ever visit Jean Pierre's garden, you will find fruit trees planted here and there and if you walk to the end of his field, there underneath the trees at the edge of the rainforest is a fruit tree nursery containing the best of the best; Jackfruit, Mango, Avocado etc. 
 
This is the short story of Jean Pierre and we are priviledge to work with him and will be travelling with him all next week as we evangelize the masses about the importance of gardening.  Pray for us and our message.  After all, God was the first farmer on this earth!

Monday, July 03, 2006

Taking evil to court

The following true story I am about to relay to you comes only thanks to my mother who said that people are interested in knowing all about what goes on in the lives of the people we work with.  While this story may cause you to think the whole continent is crazy, if not just C.A.R., my only hope is that it challenges your world view, and that you may begin to see things amongst the unseen. 
 
Let me introduce you to a few people first.  I have changed the names of most everyone in case for some reason someone gets a hold of the cow involved.  (Will explain later.)  Christy is a young, vibrant midwife at the mission hospital.  She is widowed with 4 children and she is an active member of the church and the choir.  Her Dad is a retired pastor, her brother Rick works for agri and her sister Janet is the head of the women's bible school.  About three months ago Christy went, well, crazy.  At first her family thought she was only praying and prophesying but after two days of not eating or sleeping she began to say all kinds of crazy things, pointing out sin in the lives of many of the nurses in our hospital and church, including the pastor and the top people at the hospital.  She claimed that the hospital was killing people through the nurses use of black magic.  The pastors at the church went and prayed for her, the doctor tried to get her to go to the hospital, but nothing was helping her.  In fact she just got worse and worse.  She refused to have anything to do with modern medicine or the hospital, she stopped eating, talking and was nearly always awake, never sleeping at night.  After a week she confessed that her sickness was the result of black magic performed on her by the accountant and head lab technician of the hospital but of course there is no way to prove this.  The two hospital guys both deny having anything to do with black magic.  One is an elder and the other is a deacon in our church here. 
 
Two weeks passed and Christy just got worse and worse so to help solve matters, they called in a village doctor to perform his own magic on her using village medicine.  For the last three months they have been performing this medicine on her, which involves washing her body with the right kinds of herbs everyday.  They say her sickness isn't all that uncommon and has been seen up north.  They call it the cow sickness because when she first got sick she stripped all her clothes off and wanted to run into the bushes and eat grass.  They said she was acting like a cow.  Now it is 3 months later and she is showing little improvement.  They have moved her to another city where she is still receiving very expensive treatment from a witch doctor which is eating up three peoples salaries each month.  They are all very afraid she will die.  But it isn't quite like you think.  It isn't the physical symptoms that may eventually kill her.  What they believe is that the person who sold her to the original black magician has put her soul in that of a cow somewhere in Nigeria.  Should the cow in Nigeria die, then so too will Christy. 
 
If this in itself isn't sad enough, not two weeks after she first got sick, the father, a retired pastor, let's not forget, went down to the local police station and put in a request to sue the two hospital staff members because they caused her illness by selling her to a black magician.  I know this may sound crazy, and no this isn't  a remake of the Salem witch trials, but it is possible to be charged with causing illness or deaths by means of black magic, sorcery or witch craft, whatever you want to call it.  I have no idea how such cases are judged since to my knowledge, the hospital does not give out death certificates saying "Cause of death: witch craft".  It remains as one more example of how everything here has more than just a physical cause.  You don't just die of a heart attack here, there always has to be some underlying cause. 
 
I can't truly say what is wrong with Christy.  Maybe she just snapped, maybe she is possessed by evil spritis, maybe her soul is in a cow, or maybe she just thinks it is and fear itself has driven her mad.  I can't say but I wish I could.  I remain a physical evidence kind of person though the longer I am here the more my worldview continues to shift and challenge me. 
 
One more quick example.  My friend Elise recently moved away from Gamboula.  Her husband took a second wife after having some 15 affairs and Elise left him and took her children with her.  Technically, she isn't allowed to leave with her kids but she is frightened for their safety so they are with her. (She has 10.)  Only 2 days after she left town her ex-husband had a bad motorbike accident, breaking his femur and doing incredible damage to his leg.  After only 3 weeks in the hospital he left and headed for a small village in order to seek village medicine (which, by the way, after 4 months, is not working and he may never be able to walk again because of his stupidity).  He has since filed charges against Elise and Clarisse for 'causing' his accident by magical means to prevent him from following after Elise.  While it would have been a good use of magic the charges are false and how on earth do you prove that in a court of law.  Could you imagine a black magic episode of CSI?  Anyway, as long as her ex is hobbled, Elise is safe, though the military have come to warn her about the court case twice since she has moved.  They won't proceed with the case until he can travel and the way he is going that won't be for a while. 
 
You may think I am anti-village medicine but I am not.  However, there are some things that work and some that don't and in the case of a broken femur I think traction and a hospital bed are better than herbs and rubs.  I am also deeply concerned about women's rights and I am sure you will here more about this from me later. 
 
Ange

Sunday, July 02, 2006

Life turns upside down

What is a reality in every big city weekly, is a rarity here in Central Africa.  Yesterday we were hit with the sad news that Constant, the head African of our agroforestry program was involved in a head on collision in a village south of here.  Constant was driving the centre's landcruiser truck while the other was a car.  They were both approaching the top of a blind hill from opposite directions at high speeds when they hit and two people in the car were killed along with a three year old boy who was riding in the back of the agri-truck.  To make things even worse, the two dead are the secretary of the province of Berberati and the vice-Mayor of Berberati, who also happens to be the younger brother of a recent presidential candidate and minister in the government.  There are four other people seriously injured and in our mission hospital, including a pregnant woman.  We are all in a state of shock and we are unsure as to what the final outcome of this tragedy will be.  Constant is generally a good driver, if not a little fast, but I know he must be beside himself right now knowing that his vehicle was involved in the deaths of three people. 
 
Not unlike the United States, lawsuits are common here and we are bracing for what could be an expensive battle with the families of these very important men.  One of the men has left behind four wives and numerous children.  The judicial system is very corrupt and we are hoping for the best but won't be surprised by the worst.  What this means for our programs here we are unsure.  Our work here will be unaffected but we are concerned about the mission as a whole.  We are asking for prayer from all our readers.  Please pray for Constant and for his family.  He is in protective custody as it is likely that if he is free family members of the dead men may try to harm or kill him.  Pray also for the impending court cases and for Roy who will likely be involved in much of the details as he is Constant's boss and the vehicle was a work vehicle.  Pray that we would have a positive attitude as we handle the fallout from this tragedy and that we respond appropriately and with love. 
 
Thank-you, Angela