12/14/2023 Bikepacking Mauritania Day 128 : Fishing With Ręd Wãne

Maybe you guys remember Ręd Wāne from Episode 96:



He was the tall majestic looking peripatetic teen I met walking in the desert studying poetry. He had a perfect olive complexion, tight curly hair, and a big smile. I liked him, but maybe put him on a pedestal because here was this guy studying poetry - right on the boot heels of kids throwing rocks at me.

We have remained in touch and he messages me every three days or so with “Hello my friend, how are you?” Frankly, our conversations seem a little vapid if you consider where we started. Intrigued, I ask about his studies, and once he told me how the poets used their poetry as a weapon. I had been wishing he would have elaborated on this, but so far he hasn’t.

Yesterday he wrote me and asked if I could buy him a computer. I wrote back and said, “How can I buy a new computer? I am in Mauretania now.”

He wrote back, “Send me money.”

I wrote asking “How much do you need?”

“1500 dirham” (which is US$150).

I informed him that, I was unable to send money to myself (and I have been trying all day) let alone being able to send money to him. But I will think about it. It is probably possible if I have time to do more research; Morocco may be easier to send money to than Mauritania.

I thought long and hard about what I should do. My first reaction was to unfriend him and block him. But that didn’t seem right; I do respect this guy because he SEEMS like he cares about educating himself.

At the same time, I’m adamantly against just giving “hand outs”. So, I wrote back to him telling him that I appreciated our friendship and I hope that we can still remain friends - but I did not think that this was the best thing to do. Then I sent the Christian parable “If you give a man a fish you fed him for a day; if you teach a man to fish, you have fed him for life.”

I checked online, and it doesn’t look like Islam has that parable, most of what I found asked whether or not fishing is Haram or Halal. Haram means “prohibited” in Islam; Halal foods are ones that are allowed. Easy to remember because “Haram” sounds like “harm”.

Anyway, we are now in talks. I mentioned “fiverr” to him as a way to make money (my brother-in-law uses that to send people birthday cards) - people perform various services online in exchange for money. $5 USD goes further in Morocco than it does in the US. Ręd Wāne was not amused: “I don’t have time for that; I need to do my studies.”

He says he needs a computer to study because his teachers are on strike. I suggested he use his phone, but he said that the memory is full.

We did a lot of back and forth. How can I help this guy - but without “just” giving him money? I’m happy to spend money to enrich lives, but worried it will not go to the right place.

Also, now I have a challenge to live up to: You can’t just rattle off an apothegm, “teach a man to fish” but not actually teach anything. I’ve been trying to offer suggestions on how to earn money online, mostly because that is what I know, and it seems like it could be lucrative in Morocco.

I also want to see him demonstrate some sort of his own initiative…

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In other news, I saw a post on Facebook from my niece Amber about her son Connor. He was faced with the question, “Show 2 strategies to prove that 9 x 8 = 72. I have included a screenshot of his clever answer. I believe this is the type of “thinking outside the box” that we need to give Ręd Wāne…

Also, Connor read through some of my Strava posts, and that somehow inspired the poignant question, “Do people in Africa know how to play rock, paper, scissors?”

I decided to do a test. Without any words, I went up to one of the kids surrounding me and went bump-bump-bump-scissors. Yup; they knew exactly what it was and started joining in!

Thank you, Connor, for your inquisitiveness. Your good question made me have a fun day, and now we also know that kids in Africa play !