F L A M E

African Journals

"Guinea Bissau - Pain and Progress"

Guinea Bissau is indeed a land of pain and unrest, yet we do see signs of progress. This impoverished nation can do very little to provide education for their children or medical care for the people. They have only been an independent nation since 1974 and are still struggling to learn how to govern themselves. The biggest hindrance is lack of unity for the good of the country. There are about 36 tribes, four of which are much larger then the others. There is a constant power struggle between tribes as well as political parties some of which run along tribal lines. There is not an equitable distribution of representation and power in the government for tribes or regions. Regretfully this scenario is typical of most African countries.

Our hearts weep for these people. Death is a part of life for them in a very real way. A pastor who lives less than a mile from us lost his two year old son to sickness a couple weeks ago. Sabadu, who named her new-born daughter in 2003 after Martha recently lost little Martha to a high fever. Duarte, our electrician, lost his teenage daughter through an automobile accident. It is very difficult to handle the death of children and young people because it usually is unexpected compared to someone who has lived a full life and then dies. When your child dies, it is like part of you dies - part of you does die.

A month ago we received word that Central Market in Bissau, which covers an entire block, burnt to the ground. We have been in this market many times - especially Martha as she lived near there in 2000. The many merchants there are all "little people" scratching out a living. Hundreds of small stands were there selling everything from fruit and vegetables to toothpaste and shoes and even the money changers (where we get the best exchange rates). Our heart aches for all these people who have lost their little businesses. There is no such thing as insurance for this in Guinea Bissau. Many of the people are selling whatever they can on the sidewalk outside the Central Market area. The government says they will rebuild Central Market again. This is the third time it burnt to the ground; the first was during the civil war in 1998. When it will be rebuilt nobody seems to know. We see people here go hungry during the later part of the dry season that starts in November and goes through May. Although in April people have the opportunity to earn some money gathering cashew nuts for the farmers. The export of cashews is the largest income this country has. During the rainy season people grow gardens everywhere they can. Last Sunday in Church we handed out thousands of seed packets donated by Ed Hume seeds, Inc. from Puyallup Washington. We wish Ed Hume could see the joyful look on people's faces when they received the seeds!

Other countries have stepped in to help Guinea Bissau such as China, Cuba, Taiwan and India. However we suspect they have ulterior motives. We know in fact that the Chinese have built schools, buildings, and a hospital in Canchungo. They want rights to Guinea Bissau's fishing grounds off their coast. It is one of the few really good fishing grounds left in the entire world; mainly because they have always fished it with primitive methods, not exhausting the supply. Fish is a main part of the Guinean diet. It is affordable for most people. We hope and pray that the Chinese will not be allowed to come in with big trawlers and fish processing ships and devastate the fishing grounds. India is promising to come to Canchungo and put a pressurized fresh water system in the town; also, to redo the entire electrical system. This may be a benevolent act on India's part - we don't know; we hope so. Taiwan has sent doctors and dentists in the past as medical help which is badly needed. When the local government turned toward China, the Taiwanese left.

We understand that our U.S. foreign aid program is considering helping the Guinea Bissau cashew farmers. We have also heard there is an American company attempting to be in the center of this aid program. They would force out Lead Ministries and one other group, who have spent more than seven years working here in Guinea Bissau teaching farmers how to process the nuts rather than sell them raw to India and Singapore. We live in a depraved world!

Guinea Telecom is the only telephone company with landlines in the entire country. It is owned by a Portuguese company. The equipment they have was obsolete sixty years ago in the U.S.! In 2003 it was nearly impossible for us to communicate from Canchungo to Bissau. When we came back in October 2004 we were delighted to find out there were two cell phone companies in the country. The cell phone companies leave much to be desired compared to US cell phone companies, but it is a vast improvement over what it was in the past.

We have concluded that Guinea Bissau has too many holidays. In fact most people don't know how many holidays there really are. They do not have set dates. The government determines which are national holidays and sets the dates for them. (Remember, it is still a young government). The biggest holiday is "Carnival". This year it started on February 25th and ended on the 28th. It is similar to New Orleans "Mardi Gras". Most Christians prefer to be out of Bissau during this festival, because of the drinking, looting, vandalism and riots.

The government is run very inefficiently. There are too many layers of bureaucracy. Many government workers are paid sub-standard salaries and or are not paid regularly so there is little incentive to do a good job. There are consciencous people working in the government. The president of technical and vocational training is a delight to work with. He is solidly behind our school and wants to accredit our school with the government. In our estimation it took unreasonably long to process our application for a "Non-Governmental Organization" (NGO) status. We applied April 15, 2005 and received the document on early December 2005. We were not put on a government published list of NGO's until March 2006. This complicated things for us in getting our container through Customs and the Port of Bissau in March 2006. We understand that other NGO's have taken over twice as long.

Recently there have been a number of arrests of high ranking government officials for embezzlement of public funds. These arrests were made by the new President's regime. At first we were encouraged that it appeared something was finally being done to clean up the corruption in the government. However, upon closer observation, we see that those arrested are from the opposing party to the new President - Hmmmmm!

Looking at the thirty two year history of this "baby" nation the pattern of government is very similar to most other African countries as mentioned previously. The transition to democracy from tribal, then colonial power and survival of the fittest is a difficult struggle and we must be understanding. Relying on the merits of your achievements as an elected government official or President requires a whole new mind set. The old African way to run things prescribed that once you were in power your primary objective was to exterminate any threat to that power. Power was rarely used to better the life of the people. We know a beautiful exception to this. King Ferreira who is King of the Manjako tribe centered in the Canchungo area, is a very honorable man. He wants to see his people rise out of poverty and the children have an opportunity to be educated. He very strongly endorses Jesus' Industrial School and is pleading with us to build a Christian high School for his people. The King has become our personal friend. We need more men like him.

If the level of education increases and people can be taught how a democratic government should be run, maybe elected officials will be compelled to be a "Government for the People". There are some Christian men in influential high government positions. The Secretary of State (a non-elected position) is a man we know and have talked with. Martha has known him since 1994. He is an honest, sincere, hardworking, intelligent Christian man. We are also encouraged to know that there are young Christian men and women studying law and those majoring in political science, who may enter the political arena in a few years, Lord willing.

The military has a significant role in the Guinea Bissau government. They are supposed to be under the authority of the President. However in the later part of 2003 the General of the Army made a house arrest of Kumba Yala, the President at the time. He forced Kumba Yala to resign as President. There were legitimate grounds for removing Kumba Yala. The current head of the army was appointed and it is very unlikely this would happen again. At this point the military has their hands full with a rebel uprising in the San Domingo area at the North Western border with Senegal. The rebels are trying to discredit the new President. We hear that at the villages near the border the rebels steal the possessions of the local people, take their food and terrorizing them. They plant land mines in their gardens and along their paths. Many children and adults have lost arms and legs. Some have died. Sometimes they destroy whole villages and all the people in them. Tony de Silva, a son-in-the-Lord, works for the Government Customs office in San Domingo. The fighting between the army and rebels became so intense he and his family fled to the south. Many of our neighbors are in the military. Their wives and children are still here while the men are gone. We try to help them as is appropriate without making them dependant on us. Martha's heart especially goes out to them, as she experienced her first husband being away at fighting in the Vietnam War.

We are far removed form this scene and are in no danger. These types of things hinder us but do us no harm. During this time the soldiers were heading north and needed diesel for their vehicles. They got fuel but did not pay for it so the Canchungo gas station shut down. Gas was not a problem for us but we buy our butane for our refrigerator and stove from the gas station so the problem struck home to us! Things were resolved in a few days but as a precaution we now have two reserve tanks of butane instead of one.

During our last trip to Bissau we met with the US assistant ambassador who is located in Dakar, Senegal. This Embassy covers Senegal and Guinea Bissau. There was much discussion about emergency evacuation of US citizens from Guinea Bissau in the event of an emergency. There were eight of us from the US at the meeting. We now have the necessary information for registering ourselves with the embassy in Dakar.

Life goes on in Guinea Bissau. The church of Christ here in this country continues to grow. The "Jesus Film" has been instrumental in bringing many people to Christ. The local churches are reaching out to many with "evangelization" in the villages and towns. In 1994 the percentage of people who were considered Christians was 3-5%. Today our guess is about 12% of the population are Christians. The progress seems slow but this country has been one of Satan's strongholds. Our experience here teaches us that he doesn't give up easily! Christ is the only "real" solution for this country. We look forward to our Jesus' Industrial School being one of God's instruments in bringing souls to Him.

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