Happy Birthday!

So, instead of reaching in and actually trying to recap or relive the last month- because there is so much, I think I am going to just pull out the most fun day and save the hard stuff for the book( Rachel Greene doesn't know it yet but I have decided since she is a real writer she should tell all those stories while I just get to put in IVs and run around in boots in stormy weather). Those that have been around me anytime lately may have noticed I have been contemplating the idea of righteous anger. Well, actually I have just been getting angry so then it has made me contemplate if it is righteous or not! When I see things that I know hurt God's heart it makes me think to Jesus flipping the tables and putting people in their place! This morning didn't start out like that, it actually started out taking it easy because we had just had a wave of cholera patients and I was actually feeling a little sick. But I was called out onto the porch by two of my friends to see Alberto holding his wife down on the ground with his foot while seemingly trying to rip her arm from her body. Please know there has already been two instances with this man injuring his wife( one just days after she had given birth to his son). So needless to say I already have a particular dislike for this man's behavior- and he is very aware of it. I am learning that in Haitian Culture- or really I only know of Jubilee culture- interfering in "personal" business is not something that people jump into. It is not for lack of concern but what seems to be a feeling of lack of power to change anything. I on the other hand, seem to stick my nose into EVERYTHING so of course I tear out running across the mud flats. By the time I get to him he now has their two month old baby in his hands, Kenzie, who is covered in mud. I take the baby from him and send Emmanuella off with him to bathe and check on him. So by now they are split apart, and he is yelling about her trying to kill his baby. I ask around enough to get the story that basically he had pushed her with the baby in her arms and both had fallen into the trench of mud around their house. So then he attacks her for "trying to kill his baby." He works himself up enough to try and come after her again while I am standing there. Here comes the table flipping- but remember, this has been a reoccurring problem that I haven't quite known what I could do about it. He was already kind of flailing about, obviously weak from trying to kill her just moments before. So when he came back at her, without thinking really, I reached my arm out and grabbed him by the throat and threw him to the ground.

I can't lie to you- I am not a believer in violence usually(Shelby doesn't count) but that was probably the best birthday present ever. Because I have watched the fear in that woman's eyes, and the hurt in her face since I have been here. And getting the chance to put him in his place, to protect her, even just for a moment, was incredible. As he was on the ground I started screaming in his face (in english) that he better stay away from her, I may have said more but I don't actually remember. Anyway,after that I sent him off with one of my guy friends and sent her off with some ladies hoping we could calm down the situation, because having a crowd there, things were just getting revved up even more. Walking back, mud all over me and carrying a machete (after he got back up, a few minutes later he had a machete-don't think he was going to do anything with it, but I took it just in case)I am sure I looked like a crazy person. But I went and checked out the baby, and made sure that it was Alberto that had made the baby fall, not her before giving him back to her. Thankfully this time was serious enough that he moved out and let her stay in the house. I don't know how long it will last, but I was just glad to have the chance to stand up for her, and hopefully let her know that she matters.

For those of you that think I did wrong, yes, I did struggle with it afterwards- had I just made things worse? and how was my reacting in violence any different than his? but the next day, when he showed up bleeding from working outside, and I bandaged his wound, I think he and the community saw that the heart behind it is coming from a very different place. It's not easy to know how to show love here always, I mess it up all the time, but righteous anger I believe sometimes is a part of it. And it may be bad, but I was so thankful to God that He let things happen the way they did. No person should have to live in fear of the ones who are supposed to be loving and caring for them. And having the opportunity to stand up against that really was a great birthday present!