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January 13, 2005

Mamadou's news

Mamadou came round to greet me this morning - he lives in a village called Bagadoumba a few miles outside of Djibo. He is from a marabout family and trained as a marabout himself, but over the past year or so he has been following Jesus. I last went to his village in March - to pray for his little brother Housseini, who had gone insane very suddenly. He had what they call pooli (literally 'birds') - having seen something which scared him out of his wits. He was not sleeping properly or eating or washing - just crouching in a corner of his mother's hut, gabbling to himself. We visited Bagadoumba over a period of two weeks to pray for Housseini, but in April I returned to England and had no news of how he was. Well, I asked after him today, and Mamadou says that he is fine now. That last time we had prayed for him was the day he recovered fully.

Mamadou also told stories about the locust invasion - that the trees in town turned pink (that was the colour of the insects) and that people ran out to their fields to flatten their crops in the hope that the locusts wouldn't land on flattened stalks. They landed anyway. My friend Mark was in Djibo when they arrived and he took a few photos which I will post here (with his permission) in the next few days. There is still time to contribute towards grain aid in Djibo, if you would like to.

I have begun to ask around about houses. Apparently there are houses for rent in the 'Hong Kong' area of town (so called because there are so many people there). It is a bustling Fulani neighbourhood near the market - the beating heart of Djibo. If I can find a house there I will be quite happy. There will not be running water, but there are pumps nearby. There would also be a chance of getting electricity there, as the power lines run close-by. I shall go up there tomorrow and start house-hunting.

Posted by sahelsteve at January 13, 2005 06:45 PM