BEGGARS AND THIEVES..........................................

The Scriptures tell us that we are to take the spoiling of our goods cheerfully!  Living your life in West Africa, you have the chance to do this almost every day!  Thieving is common in the larger cities. But in most of the villages, stealing is one of the cardinal sins. As you walk around and see what open lives everyone lives in the village, you can understand why stealing from your neighbor would naturally be a sin! So theft was taboo in the village.

The city was another matter. Young people coming to the city to earn a living would see the affluency around them and take to stealing as a way of life.   I have already written about how we lost our entire month's allowance when we were young missionaries in the city of Bobo. That was a big loss and was never recovered.  As you walk through the crowded marketplace in the city, occasionally someone will rush by you, yelling, "Son! Son!" (meaning "Thief! Thief")  and everyone takes up the chase to catch and punish the offender! 

 In the Muslim countries of West Africa, it is the privilege of those who have, to give alms to those who have not, and so there are many beggars in the streets, especially in larger cities.  The first reaction of visitors who came to our country was to give to each beggar they met, and the streets in the center of the city are full of these beggars.  Even those of us who lived in Africa all of our lives had our "favorite beggars" to whom we gave regularly, and other beggars would ignore us and allow our beggar to collect his dues when we passed that way!

But one soon learns certain laws of the beggars.  For example, there are the "gallibouds", young boys in tattered clothes who swarm the streets near the main stores in town, their crude little tin cans held out and asking that you "give to God".  I used to give to them, but after a while learned that these young children are sent out into the streets by their Muslim teachers to help support them.  And so I developed the habit of parking near the bakery in the middle of town, and when the ragged little boys came with their tin cans, I would take them into the bakery and buy bread to be divided up among them to eat on the spot!  They loved this, and ran to meet my car every time I arrived at that street corner, as they were hungry.  Thus I assuaged my conscience and also helped those children directly instead of giving alms to the Muslim teachers.

These beggar boys and sometimes young thieving boys as well were good people to know.  They had special hiding places for their loot down in the ravines along the river running through our city, and there it was that they hid what they stole.  One day I was buying vegetables along a downtown street and stepped out of my car for a moment to pick up my basket of produce, leaving my purse on the car seat.  When I got back in the car, I realized that my purse was nowhere in sight and I complained to the sales ladies from whom I had bought my vegetables.  They told me, "Don't worry - go home and wait. We will bring your purse back to you at your house." And sure enough, someone appeared at our yard with my money and purse later on that day. Of course, they were suitably rewarded as it was not only my money that I wanted to recover but also my official papers which were in the purse as well!  So you have to play the system and know the rules.                       

Another time Dad's passport had been stolen out of the glove compartment of our car and we realized it hours before he was to take a flight to Kenya and needed the passport.  Again we asked one of these young local thieves to look for this important travelling document, and the next morning it appeared at our door , in the hands of our smiling little friend!  So it paid off to know a few thieves.

One young such fellow became a friend of Dad's and he did his best to rehabilitate this young boy.  He may have been the one who recovered the passport for us.  We took him into our home to help him and to give him a small salary so he would no longer have to steal for a living.  Before long I discovered that he had just added to his income through stealing from us!  Pieces of my jewelry disappeared and other small articles around the house.  Even Yusufu could not stop him from his habitual way of life and we finally had to dismiss him.  The last time Dad saw him was at the train station, stoned on drugs. Those are the sad things that happen in life, but it does not deter us from still trying to help.

Actually, I lost a good deal of my jewelry - piece by piece - as we had Isiaka working for us in the house for years. In reality, he was an excellent house worker and Yusufu was there to keep an eye on him.  He too had sticky fingers and helped himself to things he coveted as he worked in our home.  Our faithful Yusufu was straighforward and honest all of his life of working for us.  It is so important having had someone like him whom we could trust with our lives.  What a gem! 

I guess an important lesson we learned from these experiences of theft was not to put our trust in the things of this world, but to keep our eyes on our main goal of why we lived in this country of beggin and stealing!