Today's events

Tim and I both had to write self reports for our advisor. These reports were to include issues that have been raised during our time at PFO and how these issues will affect life overseas. We were also to include goals of what we would do or change regarding these issues. I'm happy to say that we have finished our reports a day early and will be able to have some free time tomorrow evening while others will be scrambling to get their reports in on time.

We did a Life Simulation today of a lockdown at a school where a military coupe by rebels had taken place. Each group was placed in a room and had about 15 people in it. We were allowed to take nothing into the room and had to place watches and cell phones in a bag that left the room.

With limited information that came through the door, we had to make decisions on who would be our spokesperson, who would go first in an evacuation if we got that possibility, how we would organize our room for the best protection, what we would do if rebels came into the room and a bunch of other things that came up. It became a serious game, one where different personalities really came out and different ideas arose.

Our group had three people who had been in lockdown situations before - a teacher from Portland who had to keep his students in the science lab for 24 hours since an armed gunman was in the school, a TCK who had been evacuated from a similar rebel sitaution in Africa and a dorm mom who lives with gunfire on the streets of the city where she lives. Their thoughts were invaluable most of the time but also became a detriment when they would say, "That's not what happened to me."

We were able to make contact with another group and eventually brought them into our room with us. An evacuation order came but only 3 out of 30 could go so a sick girl and two young moms went by concensus of the group.

We chose for our leader a strong choleric woman but then realized that the rebels would not talk to a woman so we chose a man for that eventuality. We turned out the lights and piled desks and table by the door. We sat against the wall farthest from the window and decided that if the rebels came, we would be complacent and not put up a struggle. We counted our money to use as a bribe if needed and took off all jewellery. One thing that was discussed at length in my group was whether or not to say we were Americans if caught. I, of course, could truly say I wasn't but some of the others were worried that being American could be a liability ina situation like that. We decided to say the city we were from and not the country.

It lasted for two and a half hours. During our debriefing time, we learned a lot about trust, communication, clearly defined roles, honesty, democracy and a whole host of other things. It really was a great learning opportunity.

Some teachers and staff from ICA in Cote d'Ivoire are here and they shared about the six day lockdown in September 2004 and the evacuation of 180 students by the French military. They told of how the communication they received from the American Embassy was sparse and contradictory at times. But since that was their only source of information, they continued to dialogue and that is what eventually led the French troops to their doorstep.

Sadly, those students had to leave with only backpacks and the school was looted by the rebels and no longer exists. The country is too unstable for any international school to open there.

(Another part of the ICA story is that on the morning of the coupe, a dorm dad died of a heart attack while jogging around the track. His body was taken to the morgue downtown in Bouake and then the coupe took place. Those students in lockdown needed a time of corporate grieving so a memorial took place while the gunfire went on outside. His wife and three kids were evacuated to Canada but his body was not. Some other missionaries, days later, retrieved his body and buried him. Just this past May, his family finally got to go back to see his grave and bring some closure to this chapter of their lives that ended so tragically.)

We are working through a theology of risk - one based on the fact that, while bad and tragic things happen, God is still God. Circumstances don't change that fact. This simulation today reminded us that we need to be prepared, think ahead to some possibilities and to put our trust in God's sovereignty regardless of what is going on around us.