WANTED: A Subabu

We are looking for a subabu for some new missionaries (tubabus or white people). It is a FULL time job with low earthly benefits. See job description below:
Applicant:
- Needs to be on call 24/7
- No holidays or vacation
- Needs to have good hearing and understanding to figure out what the white people are saying when they butcher the language.
- Needs to be patient with their lack of understanding of cultural issues
- Needs to control their smiles and laughing when the tubabu runs to get a paper to write a word down or uses the language inappropriately
- May need to explain the tubabus sometimes strange actions to the village and possibly smooth the ruffled feathers on either side
- Needs to be prepared to get constant requests by other Guineans for help in approaching the white people with a need or sick person
- Needs to realize there is no monetary pay here on earth……

Applicants can go to the tubabus house and apply in person.

I often wonder if our friends who are designated to be subabus for us have ANY idea what they are getting themselves into. God has provided wonderful people in each of our villages where we have missionaries to be people of peace for us. A subabu is a type of go-between for two parties. In Soulemania, they have Kelifah, the pastor there. Here in GKB, we have Sayon and Mordeca, our two young believers. Sayon especially was instrumental in getting us here into the village. Now they both have full time jobs keeping us here. It is nothing formal, mind you. They are just the 2 that we call when we need anything and everything. Here are some ways that they help us:

1. If we need a job done, they either do it for us or find someone who can.
2. If we are looking for something (a vegetable, meat, fruit, bike tire, someone to fix something) they can look for it and let us know.
3. If we are having a problem with kids misbehaving, (the kids in the village, not our kids :)) we call them.
4. If we need someone to accompany us some place, they come along.
5. If we need something from the village –or want to give something to the village- it all passes through them.
6. If I need someone to interpret for someone from another people group, we send for them.
7. When we go to CKY, they take turns spending the night and guarding our house.
8. If we take them to a big town, they help us shop and signal us if they think that someone is jacking up the price because of our white skin.

Of course, the pressure does not just come from our side. Knowing the way of life here, people know who has the closest relationship to us here in the village – so the nationals come at them from the other side. This happens especially with sick people. Every week, sometimes daily, they get requests to bring a sick person to our door, asking for help. People search them out at their houses or farms and they have to leave what they are doing to come. This usually applies to people from out of town, people who are coming when I am not working, or adults who are usually fairly ill. People with sick kids from GKB already know they will be treated with no problems. People from other towns who are unfamiliar with my rules or adults who are sick (since I only am allowed to treat adults who have been treated somewhere else – this as an incentive to get the clinic finished here in town) or people who come in the morning when I am not working usually will show up with one of the guys. If they do come here first without them, and I turn them away, it is not unusual for them to return later with either Sayon or Mordeca.

I can usually tell if the guys think I will deny the request because they look kind of sheepish. I will look right at them and they smile with a "Just give me a chance to explain" kind of smile. I know the pressure is high for them. And both of them, Mordeca especially, seem to have the gift of compassion. If they bring me a sick child who is from far away, and it is morning when we are doing school, they know they have a big fight ahead of them, because I will usually deny the request until the evening. But they also know there is a small chance, if I see the child and see he is REALLY sick, that I will help right away. Mordeca will often say to me – Gulunga, its fever is SO high, just put your hand on it and see.

Of course, there are some benefits to being the subabu. We pay well for work done at our house and we pay in full. And if you work for us, and you end up with a sore back, you get Tylenol along with the pay. No one else in town does that! If we have stuff to give away, we hand it to them. The guys usually come and have coffee with Jim in the mornings – and get lots of sugar to make it sweet. They enjoy the trips into Faranah to accompany us – hey, it’s a free ride! They both got to go to Mamou, where they had never been before, several weeks ago with Jim. They can be fairly certain that their family will get good medical care. And we employ both of their wives, which helps to provide for the family as well.

When they guard for us on Conakry trips, they make a boatload of money (about $1.50 a night) while we are gone. And we always bring back some kind of gift – a can of instant coffee or clothes or something small. And you get an up close and personal look into another culture. You get to hang out at the tubabus house and try their food and see their gadgets – since we have a gadget for nearly everything.

While we often make light of the fact that the guys are overworked, we truly do not know what we would do without them. We pray for them and love them and hope that the pressure put on them and the things they do for us will be rewarded in heaven – since we can never repay them here on earth.