Road to Rwanda----Walking Home

 When we are living cross cultural, one spends a great deal of time trying to figure out just what to do in certain situation.  As I walk the mile home from school every day I see well over a 100 people on the road. (Rwanda is one of the most highly populated rural countries in the world, probably the highest in Africa.)  A few times a week, someone comes and walks with me for a ways.  Sometimes we talk in English, and sometimes in another something else....which I do not understand, but the exchange is nearly always pleasant.  Today though a little girl was sitting beside the road.  She was about 11 or so and had on a school uniform, although it was quite old and ragged.  (Rather unusual because Rwandas dress exceptionally nicely if they can.)  I would assume she is poor, but the country does take care of its citizens so I assume she was not starving and she did not look like she was.  She saw me as I passed and said, "Give me money," in English.  This is a phrase we hear fairly often.  We are told that the government, nor society at large wants us to give to beggars here and we are not to do it.  (Always a problem to know what to do about beggars. I mean a major problem all over the world.  Do we give? If so, is this a nickle-worthy beggar, or a dollar-worthy beggar? If we give to this one, what about the next one? Only in Muslim countries do we consistently give, because the religious ramifications of not giving is too overwhelming , as giving is one of the five pillars of the faith. I am not sure that is a truly Christian response, but it is where we end up.) So I am faced with this little girl begging. I looked at her sternly, and said,"No, don't say that," and walked on.  She hopped up and followed close behind me.  I was taken aback by this and I am not pleased with myself that my first thought was that she might reach out and try to take something out of my backpack. I repented of that suspiciousness, but still did not know what to do.  Finally, I reached over and took the little girl's hand and walked for about a quarter of a mile with her. I then asked, "Are you OK now?" I doubt she understood me, but she said, "OK," and we dropped hands.  However, she continued to follow me almost the rest of the way home.  When I turned off the main road to head to our apartment, I turned and said, "You go home now, Goodby" and waved.  She gave me a big smile, and stopped walking.  Should I have broken protocol and given her something?  Why did she do this?  What was she expecting?  To add to the burden of the walk home, there was a dead big dog in the middle of road.  All the cars, trucks, motorbikes, and bicycles were skirting around it.  It would have been a simple matter for someone to drag the dog to the side of the road, but with the multitude of people walking by, everyone just looked and kept on walking.  Should I have walked out and dragged the dog out of the road?  Since it was a dog, and not a body, I just left it.  (That has not always been my decision.  Twice in Taiwan I stood overtop of a human body (dead or alive?) while cars whizzed by, trying to get someone to help.) So I am left with just questions.  What was expected of me in these two situations this afternoon?  What would Christ have me do?  How do I separate my culture from what is appropriate here, and what even would have been appopriate in my own culture...where ever that is?