Yesterday was a beautiful thing. It didn’t start out so well, the night before my body decided to start exploding from both ends. Between that, the fever, aches, mosquitoes, and weird dreams, it made for one long night. But as usual, God takes something not so great and teaches me through it as well as turns it into something incredible. So therefore, I can do nothing but thank the Lord for when my body revolts against me because I know there is something to be gained from it. So on with the story, I wake up yesterday morning, and needless to say am not feeling my best. So I make a call to Tia, asking her and Julie to take care of the things needed that morning for school. They happily pick up my slack and take care of all the needs of the school, allowing me to rest and recover. Thank you to you both for all your hard work, everyday that you put in! Ok, it just keeps getting better and better- as I am writing this a few of my students have come upstairs to tell me that they have been praying for me to get better. (I sat out most of today too, what a pansy!) Ok, and now they just prayed for me on the porch. They are so incredible!! Of course they didn’t listen to me and are Still on my porch instead of going downstairs, but , what can I say, they are a rowdy bunch!! Oh, they make my heart so happy. They are now sticking their faces under my door to tell me they love me and that they did good work today! Yes this is a ploy not to have to go downstairs, but still. . .
So back to yesterday. I am laying down in the clinic, being kind of pitiful, and some of the Mamas and Grandmamas that I work with stick their heads in and check on me. Shelove’s Grandmama tells me it breaks her heart to see me sick. She asks if there is anything she can do and tells me that someone needs to bathe me and put me in clean clothes. I assure her that I am ok, so she doesn’t come back until later to offer to bathe me herself! (which I politely decline) At least three others come to tell me what I should eat and drink and do to feel better, all trying to offer whatever they can to lessen my “suffering”. At some point in the day I hear “ don’t worry, I don’t think she is going to die.”(still not sure what to make of that part) I finally move upstairs to rest some more, the explosions having stopped for a while, and then I wake up that afternoon to find at least 4 women on my porch, washing my clothes and dishes, sweeping my porch, cleaning anything and everything they can get their hands on. After the disorientation wears off, I realize what is happening, and my heart just wants to burst. They love me. They care about me. We are a family. We fight and fuss and love and protect and serve and do life together. Emmanuella, Dieunide, Meloo, Jil, these are four of my sisters, four of my sisters that I take for granted more often than I appreciate them. But these past two days, they have loved on me like I have never wronged them. They loved on me as they would their own sick child. I am still processing this, and seeing all the beauty in it, but one thing I know is that its official, getting sick has restored my faith in the adult population. So often I get frustrated and jaded by adults, offering them little or no grace, even though with children it comes out almost freely(to a point!) I know that mostly it is my own sin that doesn’t see the good in adults, only the flaws. But times like these, when I am forced/allowed/able to see the good, the love, the compassion of the adults, it restores what I so quickly disregard and reminds me that it is me that needs a change in attitude. Mr. Watson came and checked on me today. I am harder on him than any person I know here, and he still came and checked on me. I know that nothing about this life is about me, but God sure does use personal things to show me who He is and the beauty of His children.
