A Beautiful Day

Choir practice. Papa asked me to help the youth choir so Marcy and I start singing with them. We laugh so hard singing and messing up and getting over it and trying again. They’re going to be good. It's just going to take some time. They love it and I’m loving it too. This is going to be so cool in the end.

Marcy brought glowing stars down for the orphans, but she also decorated my bike with them. It’s awesome. I now have my license plate decorated with glow in the dark paint and glowing stars down the sides and front. 

There is a medical clinic at the house today and Claeme doesn’t have school so we decide to take her to the beach. Delice, Jacques, Mackenzy, Marcy, Claeme and I go. We have a blast. Sit-ups and push-ups on the beach, splashing, burying Delice in the sand to make him look like a mermaid. Claeme is loving this. I love this kid.

Fre Ejen sliced his finger. He shows up late to have me clean and bandage it. He is so kind. He is always working. Always around. He squats on the ground next to the chair in my room so I have a place to sit. 

Are you kidding me? I grump at him telling him he’s the wounded one and he better sit in the chair or I won’t bandage him up at all. 

Marcy laughs on her bed as she watches me. She tells me I should have finished nursing school and that it's not too late. Not a bad idea. Not a bad idea.

I received a call this morning to go pick up the little baby who’s mom is getting her leg cut off. Marcy and I have already visited Marie Claude, gone to the market, visited the orphanage, visited Judelin's mom, and met with one of the leaders. Driving down into a rough part of town. Dada (little girl with leg wound) lives right by one of the leaders and so Marcy and I walk over to where she is staying. She’s been taken out of the hospital now and is staying at her aunt's. The mom of the baby is in Port still. The baby has been taken to another part of town with some friend of the family. Poor little thing. So I guess I won’t get it today. We climb down some rock steps and into Dada's aunt's home. Dada is laying on a bed. A tarp hangs low above our heads and I have to hunch over so I don’t keep hitting it. 

I ask how her leg is doing and they say they don’t have anything to clean it with. Back home Marcy and I go on the moto to get my medical bag. We make the first curve up the mountain just fine and the second curve just fine, but just past the second curve there is a huge rock and my front tire catches it. Marcy stays relaxed thank goodness because that alone kept us from crashing. We didn’t fly off the cliff…just kind of took a detour. Entering their little home again I lay my little supplies on Dada's bed. Her eyes light up and a huge smile spreads across her face. A little squeal of excitement escapes her lips and she looks at me overjoyed. I don’t know about you, but I know this is the first time I’ve ever experienced a child this excited about their wound being cleaned. She is as happy about this as most children are to opening Christmas presents. I start to uncover Dada's bandage. The smell is rough. I’m glad I came when I did because this is infected.

Marcy holds her hand and I clean all around it and wipe most of the puss away. When I feel it is clean, I bandage it again. Her aunt comes in and has a wound on her ankle so I clean and bandage that as well. She dances in her new bandage and tells me, “it's so beautiful and so clean!” What a precious family. The children outside the home wrap their little arm around Marcy and call her grandma. I’ve never heard little kids call a blan grandma. I guess they are prophetic. Congratulations Courtney on bringing a new little wee into the world. I wish you and your studly man the very best! Marcy and I tell the family we will be back tomorrow to clean their wounds again. What a beautiful day.