Mafia protected

You have to understand that the Seminary lies on one side of a road, and accommodation blocks lie on the other. The street in-between is a narrow one, but can be fairly busy.

Last Friday a lady was waiting for a bus opposite the Seminary gates when armed motorcyclists robbed her of her rings and bus fare. The teenage criminals roared off to the bottom of the street, where they were both shot: one of them was killed.

Each barrio of our city is controlled by a local mafia. They extract protection money (called a vaccination), organize drugs and prostitution. They also shoot police informers, suspicious incomers and visiting criminals. These street robbers were not from our area and a local had told me they’d be shot.

At the weekend we went to a tourist town an hour away. I sat under the palm trees by the pool, and gloried in the opportunity to get away from the violence. It was then that a heavy coconut-type fruit fell, just missing my head. Olwen reckoned it could have killed me.

I love the Lord’s sense of humour and reckon like Jeremiah I’m safer in the place of God’s calling.

Photo: Not the kind of thing you want to head