I always thought that it was who you knew around here that opened doors, but we discovered during the week that what you wear might play a role. We don’t get pulled over by the police often, but on our way to a Ranger meeting, a young officer made a big show with his whistle blowing and waved us off the road. We did not recognise him and assumed that he must have been new. When he came towards the Landrover from the back, he looked in at the driver’s side, suddenly jumped to attention, saluted and with what almost resembled a curtsy, waved us through.
Dries and I looked at each other as if to say, “What was that?” And then we both laughed as we realised that it was the Ranger uniform which prompted the special treatment.
We started the process for the boat registration two weeks ago and we still trust God for some ‘special treatment’ which will make it possible for us to get through this. We were told last week that the valuation will be done the coming week as the person who deals with that will arrive on Tuesday. The agent already told us that we can expect trouble as the evaluations so far have all been more than 45 000€. Calculate 5% on that and you can understand why I have been walking around feeling slightly hysterical. We set the valuation at 15 000€ which is what the boat is worth as it was in fact not a factory built boat. I write these amounts in Euro as converting it to ZAR or Malagasy Ariary makes me feel more hysterical and all the zeros make my head spin.
We will go to Ampamata on Thursday for the day with a rented boat. We want to try and fix the back wall of the school and see what else needs to be done. As I have reported before, we also have to sort out some issues with the teachers.
Please continue to pray for us to be able to stand strong in the faith.
Psalm 3:3
“But you Lord are a shield around me, my glory, the One who lifts my head high.”
What an encouraging verse! Our trust is in God who knows all things and orchestrates all things for His purposes.
Dries suggested that we wore our Ranger uniforms when we turn up for the boat evaluation. Add a couple of badges or homemade medals. What do you think? 
Have a blessed week.