Powerless to do More

Tuesday, October 27, 2015

*This post is a bit heavier than I usually write, so I’m posting a cute picture of Maddy that has nothing to do with the blog*IMG_0399

I recently read this article and wanted to give a little feedback as my blog.  Nothing super insightful, just a few thoughts.  This is not usually something that I would write as my blog post, but the thoughts are just really weighing on my heart.

http://allafrica.com/stories/201508271257.html

There have been multiple African presidents from multiple countries that have tried to change their constitution to run an additional term for presidency.  Some successful (or unsuccessful depending on how you look at the response from their country men).  This article specifically addresses Burkina Faso (and the burned parliament in 2014), Burundi in 2015, and the leading up to the election that is supposed to take place in DRC November 2016.

In Burundi the president took advantage of an ambiguous clause in the constitution that allowed him to run for a third term.  Although he “won”, major violence broke out in protest.  The super interesting thing to me is that “both Hutu and Tutsi citizens have joined together to oppose the president’s illegal usurpation of power”.

Are those people groups familiar?  They should be, they were the 2 major groups fighting against each other in the 1994 Rwanda Genocide when nearly a million people were, for lack of a better term: slaughtered.  Now they are working together, both believing that their heads of states should be limited to no longer than two terms in power.

The article then addresses President Kabila in the DRC, and the different efforts he has been trying to stay in office beyond his second term which is set to expire December 2016.  In January, Blake and I were stuck within our compound for about 5 days during a big protest that took place in Kinshasa after the president introduced the idea of conducting a general census before the election could be held.  In a country of more than 60 million people, a general census would be sure to delay the election for years before it was completed.  You can read the full article if you are interested.

What weighs on my heart, takes me all the way back to being pregnant with Maddy in Congo.  You see, I KNEW I wasn’t going to deliver there.  People regularly die from routine procedures like having your appendix removed.  The truth of the matter is that no matter how closely we hope we live with the people in our host country; we always have the option to leave.  My friend in Gemena almost died while delivering her baby, although she lived, her baby died just days later.  There is no NICU in the village.  She didn’t have the option to leave.  Where would she go?  How could she afford it?  You see, I have emergency health insurance, I have a way out.  Although we raise support and live simply, we still have MORE, much more, than most Congolese.

Blake has talked about how much “fun” and what an adventure it would be if we stayed in DRC during the election in November.  But what if the election is delayed for any reason?  It would make the serious tensions in Burundi and Burkina look insignificant in comparison.  Again, we have the option to leave, but what about our Congolese friends who can’t just leave when things get ugly?  Its hard, confusing, frustrating, and sad to think about it.  I feel helpless, what can I do?  It seems so overused and so insignificant, but all I can do is pray.  Not that praying is insignificant, because God can move mountains, but it seems like I should be able to do so much more, and yet I can’t.

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