Our first confrontation
We were on a muddy congested road driving through a marketplace. We had to squeeze between a stopped motorcycle on the right and on coming traffic on the left. We were close to the motorcycle but passed by without any problems. The motorcycle then passed us and stopped horizontally in front of us. The driver in the occupant got off and walked toward my window. I rolled it down about 2 in. They requested that I roll it down the entire way. I did not. They said that I had knocked them over into the mud with the truck as I passed. They wanted to go to the nearest police station to settle the dispute.
I had verified through my rearview mirror that there was no contact, nor did they fall over as I passed by them. They wanted us to follow them off the side of the road to talk about the dispute. So they got out of our way and went over to the side of the road. I just drove away. We drove about two blocks to our destination and got out of the car and started walking through some village houses to a water system that we were checking on. The guys on the motorcycle eventually found us and started walking into the village also. When we saw them coming we stopped and waited for them to catch up to us. They again stated that we had knocked them over into the mud. It seemed rather odd because neither they nor their motorcycle had any mud on it.
I told them that I saw them through the rearview mirror and it was obvious we did not knock them over. We talked back and forth for a few moments. Being disgusted with this situation Cheryl joined in. She raised her voice and forcefully told them that we did not hit them and that they did not fall down. She repeated it twice. I think I was as shocked as were the two motorcycle riders. I don't think I've ever seen her so assertive. As a result of her demeanor the motorcycle riders backed off turned around and left.
We then continued on walking to our water project and completed our business, although we felt kind of traumatized. We never asked what they wanted from us. We did not want to concede at all the point that we did not hit them. I assume they were looking for some sort of cash settlement. As evidence that we knocked him into the mud the motorcycle driver showed us a spot of mud about the size of a dime on his pant leg.
It was a little bit odd and unexpected. Not so different than a week ago when we got lost in the car and pulled over for a second to look at the GPS on the phone. A traffic control guy walked over to the car and asked to look at my license and said that we needed to pay a fine for parking in this no parking zone. We were at the side of the road away from traffic and there were no signs or any indications of no parking. We weren't parked but we were stopped with the engine running.
I asked him to back away from the car because I was going to leave. So we just drove away. The traffic people don't have much power. They have no communications, no weapons or no transportation. So unless you voluntarily submit to their demands there's not much they can do. In this country where everyone is so poor everyone is always looking for a way to get some money from you.
Today we attended church in the Cotton Tree branch. After Sacrament meeting instead of going to Priesthood and Release Society I went to the young men and young women's meeting and Cheryl went to primary. This is the young men and young women combined meeting. Today it was taught by one of the full-time missionaries in the ward. The lesson actually went pretty well. He asked a lot of questions and the students gave pretty good answers. What you don't see in the picture is the ceiling fans up above. They were on high and so it was really hard to hear. I was sitting by the fan control so I turned it down to medium. I hope no one got mad at me. But it was a lot easier to hear
Because members of the Church in these little rural branches think we're rich (we actually are incredibly Rich compared to them) they ask us for things. We are under strict rules not to spend our own money on them because it sets the precedent in which future missionaries may not be able to meet. However, the things they ask for are usually not very expensive and your heart goes out to them so we find ways sometimes to go around the rules.
A few members have asked us to get scriptures for them. The church subsidizes all of the church products in West Africa so that many people can afford them. The hardcover Bible in the picture cost about $2 and the soft cover Book of Mormon cost a dollar. We live close by the church distribution center so it's easy for us to pick up stuff. So what we have started doing is making these occasional purchases of scriptures and then giving them to the branch president for him to distribute them to the members. We asked him to not mention our names and to give a different explanation on why he is giving them the scriptures.
This is the Lower Fonti town Village that is built upon reclaimed mud from the river bottom. Our project is to install a water distribution system throughout the village. It's tricky because the ground is so unstable. The water tanks have to be on wooden structures that can move. The project has three of these tanks distributed around the village and water faucets by them. The water faucets will be enclosed in a concrete protective stand. This is a project that we inherited halfway done. I question the sustainability of the project because the water towers will have to be rebuilt every few years and villages usually don't do very well at rebuilding.
This is Kapala school. In this project we are building an eating area for the kids so that they have a place to eat during the frequent rain storms. The workers are hand digging the foundation.
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