So, I’ve just been introduced to the wonders of an i-phone and its internet capability. I feel like I’m becoming a modern person all of a sudden. That i-phone is the reason I am able to break my silence :).
Several weeks ago, someone forced themselves into my house. I came home and saw that the door in the kitchen was standing open. Nothing seemed to be amiss, and I thought that maybe the welding on the lock had simply broken loose. But, as I inspected more closely, I discovered that about $6 in change was missing from my dinner table and my old computer was missing from my guest room. That computer wouldn’t turn on and had a cracked screen, and I can’t imagine that it would bring much of a price. I suppose it could have been sold for spare parts. I had been shopping the day before and my refrigerator was full of frozen meat and fresh vegetables. Ironically, if the thief had stopped at the kitchen and loaded themselves down with chicken, ground beef, apples, and zucchinis; they would undoubtedly have left with a greater monetary value. I teach regularly, and my mind is wired to automatically seek out new thoughts and new illustrations. I wonder if, in our lives as Christians, we become convinced of what we think has value. We search it out with focus and determination when perhaps God has other plans. We know what we need. Maybe we should stop and look in the fridge and see what God has bought for us. I realize that I just compared Christians to a thief, but that’s not the point…
There will be special pride awarded to anyone who can pick out the allusion to Star Trek in the above paragraph.
Many missionaries around the world employ local citizens as domestic workers. Families in Niger who have the means to live in cement houses and give separate rooms to individuals are typically expected to provide some kind of job opportunities for other members of society. Many families have a cook, a few guards (unarmed watchmen), a gardener, and perhaps a nanny. In the US, only very wealthy families employ such positions. However, Niger’s subsistence-based economy is very weak and jobs are scarce. The most recent minimum wage, set by the government of Niger, is about $60 per month. I began writing this paragraph in an effort to give you a small glimpse into the economical situation of Niger, but now find myself needing to explain the complexities a system that is quite different from anything that popular economics can describe. Many, perhaps most, people in Niger do not have traditional jobs. The majority of people are members of large family groups which live on compounds of mud-brick buildings and rely on subsistence farming. Niamey, the capital, and other larger cities contain a bit more diversification but remain squarely within the confines of a subsistence economy. Food prices can be extremely low depending on what is being bought. Since huts can be constructed quickly on open lots, rent can be low or even nothing. Water is brought from wells or given by wealthier families to people in need. Therefore, $60 per month is not as ludicrous as it seems; the gap between rich and poor is extremely large. So, if you are wealthy (in Niger just about any expatriate would be considered wealthy) you are expected to provide employment, and to not do so is seen as greedy. Here, if you come home from a long day of work at the office, wash your car, and shuffle into the kitchen to prepare dinner, the opinion of you would not be that you are hard-working, but that you are stingy and refuse to pay others to perform tasks that you are clearly too tired to perform yourself. Petty theft is a problem in Niger, so guards would seem to be a logical need. But, cooks, chauffeurs, maids, and nannies might seem to be an outrageous waste of missionary finances that could have gone to better use. In Niamey, if every wealthy family did their own cooking, guarded their own property, cleaned their own houses, surveiled their own children, and drove their own cars, thousands of people would be without critical employment. I am single, drive a 16-year-old car, and have exactly three chairs in my house; so, I employ a night guard, and that is seen as sufficient.
About three months ago, a girl living at a Christian orphanage was taken by her extended family because they had heard rumors that she was developing faith in Christ. She was returned to the orphanage a few weeks later injured and sick. She died in the hospital. Though I didn’t know her, I heard the news and was truly, but momentarily, saddened. About a month ago, a student at an English-speaking high school became ill and was sent home after vomiting blood. He died in a private clinic that evening. Though I didn’t know him well, the news struck me like bricks, and I was troubled for days. I took great exception to my own emotions. Why should the boy’s death be so much weightier than the girl’s death? Do wealth, education, and a biological family really endow greater value into a human life? I have often been critical of an American culture that can be so disturbed by nine murders in a U.S. city but view with marginal care the news of hundreds of people murdered in African villages. I suppose, at some point, we are all victims of our own prejudices. I did, however, find peace in the fact that both the orphan and the student were Christians and under the covenant of Jesus. Such cannot be said for every daily death, and this should be the fact that really troubles us.
A few pictures from our sparse but quaint game park.
Recent Comments