Tip of the Week-- August 6, 2015

Is it really August?  How did that happen?  Well, after 4 weeks of silence, I'm back with another tip.  Part of my silence was due to a few different trips across the border to see colleagues in the neighboring country (and the other parts were just life-craziness).  Those border crossings, however, have served me well, as they've provided me with today's Tip of the Week.

Crossing land borders in West Africa is something of an art.  For one thing, you can never expect the crossing experience to remain constant from moment to moment or place to place--one time you sail across without so much as showing paperwork, other times you spend painful moments filling out seemingly meaningless forms.  Then there is the unpredictability of these authority figures; you never know if they are going to be friendly or scary.  Your border stops are also not a one stop affair, but rather 6 or more buildings you have to hit, spread over a distance of a few miles. 

Here are the goals of every border crossing: A clean crossing in the shortest time possible with minimal drama, all while avoiding any pitfalls that will cause you major headaches later in your trip.  Bonus points are awarded if you don't have to fill-out any paperwork.  So here's how to navigate this terrain and avoid the pitfalls:

Make sure to hit all the stops.  As I mentioned above, there is no such thing as a one-stop border crossing.  To enhance the bureaucratic inefficiency, the border involves multiple stops, poorly marked and spread across an uneven distance.  In general, it works like this... leaving a country, you pass through a customs stop, then a gendarme (like national guard) stop, and finally a police stop.  As you enter the next country, the order is reversed--police, gendarme, then customs.  So in general 6 stops, some more painful than others.  At some, you may be waved right through.  Don't let this convince you, however, that you can just drive right through other stops (or the same one on a repeat trip), because if someone sees you and gets upset about the fact that you didn't stop, they have their ways of causing problems for you later on, sometimes even remembering you on your return across the border.   To make matters more complicated, there are additional offices/stops scattered throughout the border area--these usually only pertain to semi-trucks carrying loads.  When in doubt, slow down and make eye contact with an agent.  If you get no reaction, you can probably just keep going. 

Be cheerful.  As soon as you get out of the car, you should go into joyful greeting mode.  If you know the local dialect (even if it is just the greetings), use that, as it gives you some "street cred".  You want to be overly happy without being overtly obnoxious.  Think, excessively gleeful morning person and then back down a notch.  Or, for those who need film references, take Elf and downgrade two degrees.  This concentrated effort covers up any fear or nervousness you might be experiencing, but more importantly, you want this happiness to be infectious, so that the agents treat you nicely.  Granted, they might be nice to you only because they think that anyone this happy about a police stop must be mentally deficient or instable, but we take what we can get.    

Be patient. Never, ever, ever express your need to keep moving through.  Do everything in your power to convince the agents that, if given your choice, you'd spend all day with them.  The more you hurry, the more they slow-down.  This is a proven fact.  If you so much as say the word hurry, as in, "I'm in a real hurry", you'll find yourself seated on a bench, neglected.  The paradox here is true: the more patient you are, the faster you will get through.  Also, if you've played your overly happy facade right, they might push you through faster just to get rid of gleeful little you.

Be deferential.  You know how when two dogs met, one often rolls over and lets the other see his underbelly?  When the dog is scared, his tail will be tucked up, even when he is rolled over.  However, some dogs are just so happy to be with others, that even when they roll over, they are wagging their tails.  This is what you want.  Completely submissive and respectful, but still wagging your tail playful.  Feel free to crack jokes and be a bit playful, but always remember to show who is clearly in charge.  (In all seriousness now, it does help to remember that in our day and age, these guys are doing a rather unpleasant job that is completely necessary for national security...even if they do seem a bit inconsistent at times.)

Print out the Mission Order. I will never be able to explain to you why a printed page that anyone with middle-school level computer skills could produce carries more weight than your passport, but it seems true.  A mission order (ordre de mission) is nothing more than a statement that your vehicle is traveling from a certain location to another location on certain dates.  It is printed on letterhead and stamped with your organization's ink-stamp.  As always, its necessity is inconsistent. On a good number of your crossings, you'll never be asked for one, but should you be asked and not have one, you'll have reached an awkward impasse.  So do yourself the favor of getting a template made and printing one out every time you travel.

Hold your cards close to your chest.  In the world of bureaucratic inefficiency, the further you go down the road of jumping through all the hoops, the more hoops you'll find yourself needing to jump through.  There is, often, this tendency to want to show every document you have in order to prove that you are legit and that everything is in order.  Don't do this in this setting.  Every document you show will elicit a thorough investigation and may remind the agent that you really should fill out Forms X, Y, and Z.  Only show the documents asked of you, and if possible, start with the Mission Order.  If the agent takes only a cursory glance and waves you through, consider yourself lucky and go with it. 

So there you go.  Put these tips into action and soon you'll be competing with the veteran border crossers, comparing crossing-time and the number of forms filled-out.  They really should make a video game out of it.

Prayer Requests:

1. Praise/Prayer Request... Some weeks back I asked you all to pray for Amadou, a young man with a serious muscle wasting disease.  We've got him on a good treatment regimen and he is gaining back some muscle mass!  He still has a long road to being able to walk and function independently again, so continue praying for him.  (And if you are one of my physical therapist friends, and you'd like to come visit, I have work for you!)

2.  Praise--The Masterplanning seminar that we had been praying about went very well.  I believe it gave our Malian administration some very important tools for setting goals and pursing them strategically, all while remaining true to our vision and mission.

3.  Continue to pray for the young men in the village of Tarasso.  Since I last updated you, they've come under severe persecution.  We are not visiting them weekly as we had been before, because that was drawing too much attention.  Instead a pastor is going in alone every now and then to meet with the guys.

4. Pray for a Bible study with young believers here in town that I've started.  Some have been in the church for a while, but have very little foundation.  Issa (for whom we've prayed often) is my co-leader, and I'm hoping to model this type of intentional discipleship for him, so that he can one day lead this kind of group.

5. Pray for our hospital administrative director, Josue.  He is applying for a visa to the United States in order to do a shadowing experience with administrative personnel in a hospital in Ohio.  He had his first interview and was rejected.  He is rescheduling this, hopefully within the week.  Pray that this second interview would go without a problem.