Radio Script about Difficulties
From SPARK
One-sentence summary
This is a drama in a non-western culture that helps the listener understand that difficulties and hardships are allowed by God. The dialogue would adapt very easily to many cultures. The last part of the drama incorporates the story of Job.
Description
Scene 1: Narrator, Bamori, Bakarijan, Sangare
Narrator: Our listeners, greetings from Sirat Al Mustakim’s theater group [“The Way of Righteousness"]. Our play today will talk about people who are going to be hit by difficulties. Sangare and Bakarijan and Bamori are traders, who sell in the big market. The end of the day has come at the market.
Sangare: You and the market.
Bakarijan: Yes, you and the market Sangare.
Sangare: God be praised, we are here little by little. So, has it come?
Bakarijan: Yes, the time has come to go home.
Sangare: All right. Um, Bakarijan, what have you done with your electrical wires like that?
Bakarijan: What are you talking about?
Sangare: Don’t you see? Look for yourself, your cords are strung together like a spider’s web, and some of their skins are cracked, and you’ve got a little plastic sack of drinking water right next to all that. Don’t you know that could start a fire?
Bakarijan: Start a fire? Huh, why are you bothering me, look at our neighbor Siriki – what he does is worse than what I do.
Bamori: Siriki who?
Bakarijan: Siriki the tailor. I tell you sometimes he goes home with the fire still in his iron, and sitting on his table! He’s already burned up part of his table.
Sangare: Are you joking?
Bakarijan: Nope, come on, have you known me to lie? I haven’t even told you the worst of it. You know that white woman who has the restaurant next to Adama’s store? Lots of days she doesn’t fully shut off the gas. One day she almost burned down her restaurant.
Bamori: That would have been awful for her. All of her customers would have fallen away like a ripe papaya.
Sangare: Really, we’ve all got to be more careful. Any of those things could burn down the whole market for all of us.
Bamori: No joke. The whole market.
Bakarijan: Come on, let’s stop talking about this stuff.
Sangare: Let’s bless each other so that God may save us from that.
Bamori: That’s right. May God save us from that because that would be a terrible despair.
Bakarijan: Come on, let’s go home.
Bamori: Let’s.
(Walking noises)
Sangare: Some people really have thick skulls. The place you get your food from, and people go and play around with that place?
Bamori: Really, your words are true; some people who finish smoking cigarettes, they throw the burning ends on the ground without paying any attention at all.
Bakarijan: You all talk too much. God is the one who delivers us.
Bamori: Yes, God is the one who delivers us, but people also should be careful in their actions. Otherwise the day we have a problem, we’re going to be sitting here moaning saying, “Oh, demons burned the market, or thieves did, or ghosts did." (All laugh)
Sangare: Well, that was good conversation, but shall we not part ways here?
Bakarijan: All right, I’m going to stop and greet a friend in this house.
Bamori: Well, may God give us a good evening. Greet your family from us.
Bakarijan: They will hear it.
Scene 2: Narrator, Korotumu, Bakarijan, Amidou, Awa, Musa, Two Passersby, Neighbor
Narrator: Well now, Bakarijan is coming home. His wife’s name is Korotumu, his daughter’s name is Awa, and his sons’ names are Musa and Amidou.
Amidou: Welcome home Papa.
Bakarijan: Yes, are you well?
Amidou: Yes.
Bakarijan: And Musa?
Amidou: He’s washing.
Korotumu: You and the market Old One (title of respect).
Bakarijan: Yes.
Korotumu: Hey Awa, give water to your father.
Awa: All right Mom.
Korotumu: Old One, how was the market?
Bakarijan: By the grace of God, the market is going very well indeed.
Awa: Papa, here is water.
Bakarijan: Thank you. May God grant you food/long life.
Awa: Amen.
Narrator: After dinner, the family hears noise in town, and people rushing about wildly.
Korotumu: Eh, Bakarijan, what is this noise in town?
(Crowd noise)
Passerby 1: The market is burning! Fire has taken the market!
Passerby 2: Let’s go, the market’s burning! Let’s go!
Korotumu: Did they say the market’s burning? Did I hear right?
Bakarijan: What? Don’t say that! Say “May God not allow it to be." The market burning?
Passerby 1: Hey, come out! The market is burning, fire has taken the market!
Korotumu: Hm! Bakarijan, it seems to be true!
Bakarijan: A! I’m already frightened. Hold on, I’ll ask what’s going on. (Footsteps) Hey man, what’s going on in town?
Neighbor: Don’t you know? The market’s burning. Go on and sit here. If you’re a salesman and you don’t go quickly you’ve lost it all.
Bakarijan: Huh! Can it be true?
Neighbor: Hm! You’re not with it, don’t you see the smoke? Don’t you see everyone is rushing toward the market?
Bakarijan: Oh no! This is going to be terrible! All right, I’ll run look. Korotumu! Aren’t you there Korotumu?
Korotumu: Yes, what did they say?
Bakarijan: Oh, it’s terrible! It’s true, the market is burning.
Korotumu: Oh, our hope is dead!
Bakarijan: Amidou, Musa, come with me to the market!
Amidou, Musa: We have heard it father. (Okay.)
Scene 3: Narrator, Solo, Seku, Karimu
Seku: Eh, Karimu, look, the market’s burning!
Karimu: Hey, this is great!
Solo: Right on!/Really great!
Seku: Man, why don’t we get a move on?
Karimu: No problem. Get the axe.
Solo: What for, too much baggage. What’re we going to do with an axe?
Karimu: Really you’re not in the know, I say, the other year the market burned, Seku and I went with an axe and as soon as we got there we broke into stores.
Seku: Man, let’s get a move on, you’re going to let everyone else get the good stuff before us.
Solo: Where shall we start?
Karimu: Start wherever we get to first.
Seku: No way, with this sort of thing, you have to start where the expensive stuff is, the good stuff.
Karimu: Good idea. Well then, let’s start where they sell motorcycles. If we get even one, one of us can ride it home immediately.
Solo: What if we started where they sell televisions and radios?
Seku: Man, rather than talk about it, let’s hurry up and get it done.
Scene 4: Narrator, Bakarijan, Amidou, Musa, Crowd, Solo, Seku, Karimu
Crowd: (starts clearly audible then lower level mixed behind this whole scene) Hey, Mamadou, come help! Help me get my things out! Get water! What a disaster! Get buckets! Help! Awa, get over here! This is awful! How did this start? Who did this? Get water! Get water! Get out of here; you’re going to get killed! Move the buckets! Help! (etc. etc. etc.)
Musa: Papa, the fire is taking the whole market!
Amidou: Can we even try to get in there and get our stuff out at this point?
Bakarijan: Let’s get as close as we can and see what we can do. Let’s get our store open.
Bamori: Be careful Papa!
Bakarijan: Ouch! Musa take this, grab this box of pagnes (cloth) and get it over to the other side of the road.
Musa: Got it Papa.
Amidou: Papa there’s fire near your head!
Bakarijan: Grab a box and get it over to the other side of the road.
Amidou: Okay Papa.
Narrator: Bakarijan and his boys got some of their goods out, but not all.
Bakarijan: My hope is dead, what will I do? All my wealth burned up like that!
Musa: I’m sorry Papa. We got some of it out, we can live on that for a while.
Bakarijan: Get away, get away! Where’s our stuff?
Amidou: We put it right here Papa.
Musa: Where’s all the stuff we got out of the fire?
Bakarijan: Some people have no fear of God. Ah! My things are burned, the rest is stolen; someone has gone against God to do this.
Amidou: To steal the bit of things we rescued from the fire!
Bakarijan: I’ve lost everything! How shall we live? Death would be better than such dishonor.
Musa: Let’s go home Papa.
(Footsteps fade out. Crowd noise fades out)
Solo: Man, what a great day!
Seku: What luck!
Karimu: Hey, you know the proverb, “If someone’s goat doesn’t die, someone else doesn’t have good sauce to eat." (Solo, Seku, Karimu laugh)
Seku: That’s true. That old man made me laugh.
Karimu: How come?
Seku: You know, he and his kids were working so hard to get their stuff out on the road, man, they just finished and turned their backs to look at the fire, we got all their stuff. Hah!
Solo: Man you’re mean. We had great luck.
Karimu: Ah, we got happiness.
Scene 5: Narrator, Sangare, Jeneba, Fanta
Narrator: Sangare’s store got burned to the ground; he didn’t get a thing out. He’s about to arrive home.
Jeneba: Mom, where did Dad go? Why are you so upset?
Fanta: Oh, my daughter, I can’t even say it.
Jeneba: What happened? Has something happened to father?
Fanta: The market burned, and your father has gone to try to get our things out of the store.
Jeneba: Oh mom, that’s terrible! Look, Papa’s coming!
Sangare: (fade in approaching cries) Oh, oh, my hope is dead! Oh!
Fanta: What’s wrong? Is it all gone?
Sangare: Get away from me!
Fanta: What have I done?
Sangare: You have a thick head! Ever since I married you everything has been difficult! Your luck is bad for me! Bad-luck-woman!
Fanta: So you think I burned the market down?
Jeneba: I’m sorry Papa.
Sangare: I’ve lost all my wealth!
Fanta: You think you’re the only one whose things burned?
Sangare: Even if I’m not the only one whose merchandise burned, my own loss is the one I know. (Sobs) I’m going to kill myself. There’s no reason for my existence anymore!
Fanta: Hey, please don’t talk like that. Do you think death is sweet? Death wouldn’t make things any better.
Sangare: I don’t care!
Jeneba: Papa, please don’t kill yourself!
Fanta: If you kill yourself, who is going to care for your child?
Sangare: I’ll kill you too and we’ll all die together!
Fanta: Kill us? Let’s get out of here Jeneba.
Narrator: When Sangare’s family left him alone, he took a rope and tied it to a mango tree.
Sangare talking to himself: Hum, I’m going to kill myself. Death before dishonor. Who can live without five CFA (cents)? All my wealth is gone. I’m going to put my neck in this rope and get it over with… (cry, noise of branch breaking and Sangare falling on the ground, coughs)
Jeneba: What was that noise?
Fanta: Where’s your father?
Jeneba: I don’t see him.
Fanta: I’ll look.
Sangare: (coughs)
Fanta: Sangare, what on earth are you doing? Did you really try to hang yourself?
Jeneba: Mama, please go get Old Man Konate.
Fanta: That’s right. If not, your father is trying to make problems for us.
Narrator: Bakarijan hasn’t wanted to talk to anyone except himself since he lost everything in the fire.
Bakarijan: Two million six hundred. No, two million two hundred. All burned! I’d just gotten a new shipment. Just unloaded the car. And all that money in the safe.
Korotumu: Bakarijan, please won’t you get up and stop talking to yourself and eat?
Bakarijan: I don’t want to eat. I’m too upset.
Korotumu: Leave it to God, He is great.
Bakarijan: Leave it to God? What’s God going to give me? Will I get my wealth back? Get away from me with your God talk. Is there a God? If God liked me why did He let me lose my wealth?
Korotumu: Look, don’t talk like that. I’m sorry. Still even now put your trust in God.
Bakarijan: I’m going to get away from you. You know nothing. Do you know how important wealth is? My money! My money!
Korotumu: Still your heart, it’s not worth yelling about.
Bakarijan: I’m going to my friend Sangare’s house.
Korotumu: Don’t kill yourself, watch the road, don’t let a car hit you.
Scene 6: Narrator, Sangare, Bakarijan, Old Man Konate, Fanta, Jeneba
Narrator: Well, Old Man Konate was Sangare’s neighbor. Nothing about Sangare escaped Old Man Konate’s notice. Since Sangare tried to kill himself, but the rope broke, his wife ran and got Old Man Konate.
Old Man Konate: So where is he?
Fanta: Under the mango tree behind the house. (Walking sound)
Old Man Konate: What do you think you were doing? You think money is worth killing yourself over?
Sangare: Get off my property. How can you say money isn’t important? Didn’t you take a loan out from me the other year for your wife’s medical care? If money wasn’t important, would your wife have lived?
Fanta: How can you speak to Old Man Konate like that?
Old Man Konate: Calm down. I know it’s hard. I didn’t say money wasn’t important. I said it isn’t worth your life. Don’t kill yourself over money. Please don’t talk like that.
Sangare: Don’t talk like what? Huh? Did you earn my money for me? Let me kill myself.
Bakarijan: Hi there.
Fanta: Welcome Bakarijan. Please sit down. Your friend wants to kill himself.
Old Man Konate: Stop chatting. Please sit down Sangare.
Sangare: Bakarijan, did you get any of your merchandise out of the fire?
Bakarijan: I can’t even tell about it. I’m walking but I don’t know if up or down.
Sangare: And what about our friend Bamori?
Bakarijan: Hm, it’s a great loss of hope for everyone, I don’t really know his details.
Old Man Konate: Please come on and sit down. I’ve got some good news for you.
Bakarijan: So are you going to give me some money?
Old Man Konate: Just sit down please.
Sangare: Out of respect for you I will sit but I don’t have patience for many words right now.
Old Man Konate: Thank you. Please receive my sympathies. May God save us from any other such problem.
Sangare: Amen.
Bakarijan: Why bother giving blessings at this point? All our wealth is already burned up.
Old Man Konate: Hum, don’t you see, you aren’t the only ones to have suffered so, and you aren’t the first to have suffered so.
Sangare: Our own suffering is enough to know about.
Old Man Konate: Good enough, but others’ experience can help you.
Bakarijan: Old man, let’s not kid each other. In our days nothing is so important as money. Why not tell the truth? If you don’t have money, you have no reason to live.
Old Man Konate: If you accept, I’d like to tell you about another man who was rich and who lost his wealth.
Sangare: What happened to him?
Old Man Konate: This man’s story is found in the holy book of God. This man lived in a land called Uz and his name was Ayuba, whom some also call Job. This man was a good man of God. He was a just man. He feared God. He was afraid to sin against God. He was blameless. He had seven sons and three daughters.
Bakarijan: Hum, what a lot of kids, ten!
Old Man Konate: Yes. He was very wealthy, wealthier than anyone else in that country. He had seven thousand sheep and three thousand camels.
Sangare: Wow!
Old Man Konate: Yes. And a thousand oxen and five hundred donkeys and lots of servants.
Bakarijan: Hold on, is it possible that anyone could be so rich?
Sangare: Even if you had only the thousand oxen or the seven thousand sheep you’d be incredibly wealthy.
Old Man Konate: Yes, you’ve understood well, he was very wealthy.
Bakarijan: Wealthier than anyone else.
Old Man Konate: And so one day Satan asked God to let woe fall on him.
Sangare: What? To let woe come to such a good man? No, God won’t accept that woe should come to this man who fears Him.
Old Man Konate: It was just because of his fear of God that Satan was seeking to trouble him. Satan said to God, “Ayuba worships you, is it for nothing? You have kept care of him, and watched over his family, and blessed his work, and blessed his beasts and made them multiply and fill up all the country, so why shouldn’t Ayuba worship you? But I’m telling you, if you touch any of his possessions, you’ll see what he’ll say to you."
Bakarijan: Well, so what did God say about that?
Old Man Konate: God told Satan that wasn’t the case, but that Satan could test him to find out. God let Satan at Ayuba.
Bakarijan: Han? No way! Would God do that?
Old Man Konate: It is said to us that one day when Ayuba’s oxen were plowing, and the donkeys were eating beside them, that some of the descendants of Saba came and fell upon the servants and killed them and took all the oxen and donkeys and left. Only one servant escaped to come tell Ayuba about this.
Sangare: Hum? Took all that wealth like that? Ah, that was the ultimate loss of hope.
Old Man Konate: Wait, it’s not over yet. It is said to us again that when that servant was still speaking to bring that news to Ayuba, that another servant arrived running and told him that lightning struck the sheep and the servants and burned them all up, and only that servant escaped.
Bakarijan: Eeeeh! That’s terrible.
Old Man Konate: Yes, you think that was terrible, but there is worse still. It is said to us that another servant ran up and said: "The people of Kalde prepared three fighting groups and came and fell upon your servants, and killed them, and took all your camels and left; I only escaped to tell it to you."
Sangare: Can all this be true?
Old Man Konate: Would an old man like me deceive you? It’s all written in the holy Word of God itself. Wait, there’s more.
Bakarijan: Still more?
Old Man Konate: Yes, it is said to us again that while that servant was still speaking, another servant ran up and said: your sons and daughters were eating together in their oldest brothers house, and a great wind suddenly rose up against the house and crushed your children and killed them all. I only escaped.
Sangare: All of his ten children killed at once! Really, he has lost all his hope.
Bakarijan: Huh! His loss of hope was worse than ours. Satan really killed his hope. That man ceased to be a man.
Sangare: Did he kill himself? Because there would be no purpose to live any more.
Old Man Konate: Kill himself? Not at all. He praised God.
Sangare, Bakarijan: What?
Old Man Konate: Yes, it is said to us that when all these things happened to Ayuba, he ripped his outer garment, and shaved his head, and fell on the earth, and worshipped God like this, saying: I naked was born into the world, I naked will also leave and go to the grave. God has given, God has taken also. May God’s name be praised.
Sangare: I don’t think he had any brains. Maybe he went mad and didn’t know what he was saying. Otherwise there is no way anyone in this world could suffer so much loss and still praise God. Losing all your wealth and all your children!
Old Man Konate: One could think that, but he was not a fool. In the midst of all these difficulties, Ayuba did not accept to speak badly about God or to curse Him. God gave a good testimony about Ayuba and said: Ayuba is a righteous man, blameless. But Satan came again to God and said, Don’t say that! Yes, all his possessions are gone, but I tell you, if you touch his own body, he will curse you.
Sangare: What’s going to happen to this man now?
Old Man Konate: God let Satan at Ayuba again. Satan gave Ayuba a bad sickness all over his body. Fluid was coming out of his skin and itching everywhere. He was sitting among ashes all day long and scratching himself with pebbles/rocks – (is this admissible – complicated to say precisely potsherd)
Bakarijan: Pitiful! I would kill myself rather than accept such disgrace.
Old Man Konate: So what would you get out of it if you killed yourself? Nothing. Better to trust God like Ayuba did. It is said to us that even in his sickness Ayuba thanked God. He did not accept to blaspheme the name of God. So all of this shows us that Ayuba really loved God more than anything else. If we love money, money is our God, but if we love God even in difficult times, then really God is our wealth; because it is written in the Gospel Word of God that: I Timothy 6:6
Bakarijan: But I say, what is Ayuba going to do for the rest of his life?
Old Man Konate: God does not forget those who love him, because it is said to us in the Book of God that in the end, God blessed Ayuba more than before.
Sangare: Did he establish himself again?
Old Man Konate: Very much so. God healed him and blessed his possessions. He got fourteen thousand sheep and six thousand camels and two thousand oxen and a thousand donkeys. And he had seven more sons and three more daughters.
Sangare: Really, God is king.
Bakarijan: But I say, if God was pleased with Ayuba, why did God accept that all this trouble found him?
Old Man Konate: Truly God was pleased with Ayuba, but if you have seen that God allowed him to be handed over to Satan, that is because God gave witness to Satan that Ayuba was a just man, good more than any of his time, and also that he had great faith, but Satan disputed that with God, saying that Ayuba worshipped God only for the wealth and peace he could get out of it.
Sangare: I don’t believe that was all there was to it. He must have sinned and been punished for it.
Old Man Konate: People of that day thought so too, but God’s word says to us very clearly that Ayuba was blameless.
Bakarijan: Ah, this word of yours has changed my mind. I was going to kill myself, but when I felt the cord around my neck I started to change my mind. I was lucky the branch broke. But I don’t know what I’m going to do now.
Old Man Konate: Don’t you see God is showing you that he doesn’t like people to kill themselves? Be careful when you have thoughts of suicide because Satan is trying to push you to harm yourself. Rather try to have faith in God like Ayuba did.
Bakarijan: Ah, that is the truth. But I say, Old Man Konate, how do you find such faith?
Old Man Konate: God’s Word says to us that when we listen to the Good News that is where faith comes from, and that Good News comes from Christ. Romans 10:17
Sangare: Who is Christ?
Old Man Konate: Christ is Jesus, whom some call also Nabila Isa. Now if you want to have faith, you should listen to the Gospel Word of God and accept it.
Sangare: Thank you Old Man Konate.
Bakarijan: Thank you Old Man Konate. I think we will be patient and trust God.
Old Man Konate: If you have understood that, that is good. Even now may God bless us.
Sangare, Bakarijan: Amen.
Bakarijan: Truly, Old Man Konate, thank you.
Narrator:
Brothers and sisters/friends, we thank you for your good listening. So we should understand that difficult times will come to us sometimes, but in those times we must not stop having hope in God, we must not sin, we must not kill ourselves or blaspheme God, but we should do as Nabila Ayuba who remained faithful to God in difficulties and placed his hope in God. God can help us like he helped Ayuba. Because the Gospel Word of God says to us:
- Don’t give yourselves to the desire for money. Be content with what you have because God himself says to us: I will take care of you all the time; I will not leave you alone. Hebrews 13:5 Thank you.
Until next week at this same time.
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