AIM International - Europe - Bridget's Bunia Blog 17

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Bridget's Bunia Blog 17

Bridget's Bunia Blog 17

ìBut have reverence for Christ in your hearts, and honour him as Lord. Be ready at all times to answer anyone who asks you to explain the hope you have in you.î 1Peter 3:15

If only!

The only thing that people here want me to explain is the reason why I'm walking.

White Person, why don't you have a vehicle? White Person, why don't you take the motorbike taxi?

Thinking through my reasons served as an example for the students in the writing lesson on providing supporting sentences in a paragraph that enumerates reasons - either of equal importance or in ascending or descending order.

These are my reasons why I donít take a motorbike taxi. I don't know what kind of order they are in.

1. Two legs seem to be a better bet than two wheels - not that I've seen anyone bite the dust or the mud. But I doubt that these guys have 3rd party insurance cover.

2. I like to be independent - to come and go where and when I want, to stop in at a shop if I so wish.

3. I have to wear a skirt here. I don't want to travel side saddle clutching my briefcase.

4. It would cost me 400 Francs Congolais a journey - almost $2 a day. Maybe I could barter a better price for a regular ride but I can think of better things to use that money on.

5. Walking provides a measure of exercise when there is no gym or sports club.

6. I can talk with people en route.

7. I work out this reasoning in French and Swahili as I go, to be ready to answer everyone who asks.

I was walking along one day when a man pushing his bike joined me and explained who he was and asked where I was coming from.

"White Person, why are you walking?"

"I have two feet, Monsieur."

"Why don't you arrange transport ..?" he began.

A swam of little bodies came to greet me. When I looked up he had gone on his way. I guess he saw the answer to his question.

So what have I got to do to get them to ask questions of more importance?

Blessings

Bridget Howard

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About Bridget Howard

Bridget Howard’s first recollection of Africa is being shown slides of termite hills in the Belgian Congo during a Sunday school class. “From a young age I had a sense of purpose from God that I would one day teach in Africa”.

Bridget is not one to freely give out her age but it occasionally does slip out that she first went to Congo to work 26 years ago when the country was still called Zaïre. Her first assignment was as a teacher at Rethy Academy, the Mission’s school for children of its members. Her next assignment was as a school inspector in Zandeland where, as she puts it, she: “cycled around inspecting teachers and outside toilets of the church schools!”

Following evacuation from Congo as a result of the fighting that errupted around the Great Lakes in the wake of the Rwandan genocide, Bridget worked at Aim’s International Office in Bristol. She returned to Congo in 2005 to teach English at the Institut Supérieur Pédagogique in Bunia. The ISP exists to prepare students to teach at secondary schools run by the CECA-20, Aim’s partner church in Congo.

Since her return Bridget has been sending her ‘blog’. She admits that ‘composition’ was not a favourite lesson when at secondary school but writing has become less of a chore as she told friends back in the UK of her daily experiences of life in Africa. “Maybe it’s an exalted sense of my own importance as being ‘From Our Own Correspondent-like’ I can pretend to be Aim’s very own Kate Adie!”