Things are heating up-protesting and school closures

There has been a lot of protesting erupting around town this last week. This is in response to Burkina's long standing President, Blaise Compaore, who has been in power for the past 27 years, trying to change the Constitution to allow him to run for another five year term next year, even though the Constitution clearly states that a president can run for a maximum of two five year terms.

Compaore's presidency is set to expire in 2015, but if he is successful in changing the Constitution he has the potential to extend his time in office for yet another five years if re-elected.

There has been a large outcry in response to this maneuver. The Burkinabé have been expressing their disapproval over this action all week, by blocking roads, marching around town, burning tires and throwing rocks.

Here is the smoldering remains of tire remnants in the middle of an intersection down the street from our house.

On Friday evening I was passed by two trucks of gendarme in full riot gear heading down town to prepare for crowd control. 

This week the opposition parties have called for nation-wide protests against changing the Constitution with Tuesday being a day of "civil disobedience" planned in defiance of Compaore's desire to stay if office. There are a number of other demonstrations planned this week as well in their attempt to do everything in the people's power to dissuade from this course of action. 

In anticipation of this week's protests we received word last night that the county's Ministry of Education has canceled all schools in the country for the entire week. As a precaution. Which I think is wise. 

So we went shopping Saturday morning to make sure we had some extra food on hand in the event that it wasn't safe to travel around town. 

It appears things are heating up around here due to this political instability but prayerfully all the protests will remain peaceful and won't last past this week and eventually things will begin to run smoothly soon!