May 2021 - Protests AGAIN!

Welcome back to the soap opera of teaching here in Mafikeng.  Student protests strike again!  Haha… catch that? 😊  Oh, well, perhaps it isn’t that funny.  Gotta laugh or cry though the way things have been going.  We started the academic year 2 weeks late due to Covid delays lingering from last year and now, due to the student protests and associated campus closure, we are a further 2 weeks behind.  Thankfully, there was no significant physical damage, although there was minor damage to the front gate of the university. 

This time, the students were protesting to allow students who have not paid all of last year’s university fees to be allowed to register for this year even if the debt is not cleared.  There were even calls for the university to erase all debts owed by students.  The protests are driven by various political groups on campus and were not supported by all students.  Unfortunately, all the students suffer from the campus closure.  Many were still trying to finish registering (federal student grant approvals have been delayed due to Covid) and are now even further behind with their courses. 

Since things seemed calm, I opted to stay in my house on campus rather than evacuate.  One of our witnessing students from last year even stayed with me one night until she could get off campus.  She was understandably concerned about staying in the dorm after students came around, knocking on doors, telling everyone they must go protest the next morning. The “or else...” was definitely implied.  When she tried to leave campus that night, security refused to open the gate, so she came to me.  We managed to sneak her out early the next morning before the protesting students came to force the gate to be locked at 7am.

Since the clinic was closed (no one allowed onto campus property) it was the perfect time to work on several lectures that I’m adding to/revamping for the final year companion animal course this year.  Two lectures on physical exams and two on applied pharmacology are finished and one on nursing care is almost done.  I even managed to write the multiple-choice test questions for those finished lectures and get the first test set. 

Please pray for us, that the university and our department would have no further delays. The current peace between the university and student political groups appears fragile and it would be awful for the majority of students if additional protests closed the university again. 

Now, for some very important news!  Christian Veterinary Mission (CVM), the agency I serve though, has long been a subsidiary of CRISTA Ministries, in Seattle, but has prayerfully decided to become their own independent non-profit.  This will occur at the end of the current fiscal year on June 30^th.  Because your contact details are officially held by CRISTA Ministries, you need to allow CRISTA Ministries to release your contact details to the “new” independent CVM.  Please go to www.cvm.org/optin to do so before June 15th if you want to continue to receive my pray letters and updates. 

For donations to my account, all will continue as usual until July 1^st.  After that date, you will be able to donate though the website (www.cvm.org) or send checks to Christian Veterinary Mission, 6817 208th St SW, Unit 5888, Lynnwood WA 98036-8777.  You can also call CVM at call (206)546-7574 for more information.  I will share further details for those with automatic monthly donations when I receive them. Thank you for your continued support!

With that said, please keep CVM in your prayers through this exciting, but stressful time.  I can’t even imagine all the logistics this change entails, but I look forward to what God has in store for CVM in this new era.