Obama, President of America?

One evening I was sitting outside with a delivery guy, waiting for my landlord to show up so we could load the materials into his stock room. I started chatting with the delivery guy, and the conversation quickly took the inevitable turn towards football (soccer), in this case the Americas Cup. After asking me what my favorite team was, and realizing that I know basically nothing about football, he asked me an interesting question. This question led to a conversation that lasted probably 10 minutes. Here is the abridged version:

Delivery Guy: So Obama, he is the president of all of america, right?

Me: No, just the United States. The other countries have their own presidents.

Delivery Guy: Each state has it's own president, but Obama is over all of them, right?

Me: Well, first of all you have to realize that, whereas in french one third of the world is lumped into a continent called "'l'amerique," anglophones divide that land mass into two parts, North America and South America. And there's generally understood to be a third subdivision known as Central America.

[the guy gives me a completely blank look]

Me: Ok, think of the top half of "america." [faint glimmer of recognition] Okay, just in that part of "america," there are three independent countries. Canada, Mexico, and the United States. Obama is the president of the United States, Canada and Mexico each have their own presidents.

Delivery Guy: But Obama is in charge of the others?

Me: No, they are independent

Delivery Guy: But aren't there 52 states in america, and then Obama is in charge of them all?

Me: Well, the problem is that people from the United States call themselves "Americans" rather than "United Statesians," so it makes Obama sound like the president of more than he really is. The United States is divided into 50 states, which are like our "regions" here, and each one has it's own governor just like the regions here have governors. Obama is over all of them.

Delivery Guy: So in the americas cup, all of those teams are from different states?

Me: No, they are all different countries, most of them from the south half of "america"

Delivery Guy: And Obama is in charge of all of them?

Me: No, they are all independent.

Delivery Guy: Different states?

Me: No, different countries

etc. etc. etc.

At the end of the conversation I think he still was not quite convinced that Obama is not the president of the entire western hemisphere! He is so celebrated here that they imagine him to rule half the world, if not all of it.

One quirk that contributes to this misunderstanding is the fact that here the president is often referred to as the "Chief of the State." Instead of the national government being called "the Federal Government," It is called "The State."  It is natural then for people here to confuse "state" with "country" and assume that if Obama rules 50 countries, he must be pretty powerful.

Whoopsy

Remember the parable about building on sand? Jesus warned against building our lives on an unsure foundation, comparing it to a house built on sand.

We witnessed a dramatic illustration of that principle while we were in the capital city. Next to the driveway of the apartment where we were staying was a wall. It was on the edge of an embankment approximately 5 feet high which had been roughly reinforced with bricks. On the other side of the wall, a semi truck (lory) was being loaded up with several tons of used clothing, compressed and then wrapped into tight bales.

We aren't exactly sure what happened next, but one thing is sure. The wall, and much of the ground underneath it, gave way. The trailer rolled on it's side and fell the 5 feet unto the driveway below, taking the cab (tractor) with it. A car parked below the wall was instantly compacted to about 3 feet high under the weight of the tipped trailer. Fortunately no one was in it.

The driver was in the cab when it took the plummet. He amazingly walked away unharmed.

We praised God that no one was hurt, then started snapping pictures!

All-Night Concert

Last night we went to a worship concert put on by seven different local churches. It was supposed to start at 6 so we arrived at 6:30. It actually started at 8:25 (I checked the clock) with announcements. But by 8:35 we were on our way.

It was a really neat time of worship and praise. Most of it was in French but just before we quit the party (at 10:30) there were two songs in a local language and the crowd loved it. They had already been dancing, but when these songs started they basically formed a bouncing, churning mosh pit in front of the stage.

We left after the 4th church had presented, and there were still 3 to go. After that they were each supposed to come up a second time. So I'm assuming the concert ended sometime around sunrise, though I haven't seen anyone today who had been there. I would guess they're probably sleeping in!