I woke up today and took Samba to get blood work. It sounds simple enough and we had gone to a clinic yesterday that said come back in the morning at 8 before she has anything to eat or drink to get blood work done. We arrive, wait in line to pay and then as we are walking over to the lab a patient says that they ran out of syringes and may not have any tomorrow either. Right, how does a lab run out of syringes? So I decide to go to the downtown hospital and the taxi drops us off in front of the lab building and we go in and grab a number, #351, and they are in the low 300s. After waiting for an hour or so, our number comes up and I go to give them the information and the lady tells me I need to pay first. Oh. I should have known that there was some other building like at the other clinic but it just was not that clear to me. She says I can go and pay and then come right back. I go to the other building and find out that the blood work will cost almost four times as much as the previous clinic and I don't have that amount with me and their credit machine does not work. I go get Samba and we end up going to a private clinic right near my house, that my team leader had mentioned to me when were waiting in line. They are a little cheaper and let me go home to get the money while Samba waits.
In the afternoon, Rhadijah, my neighbor girl below me comes up to help me water my garden and stays the afternoon to keep Samba company. She helps Samba communicate with me and explains things like she doesn't like how I cook eggs, etc. I'm finding it challenging knowing what to find for her to eat and have decided tonight to give up on trying to make things for her. A friend is coming tomorrow morning and is going to prepare food with Samba that she likes and let me know what to buy. It's a challenge taking care of someone from a different culture, who is not able to fully communicate with you. She is very sweet but I don't feel like I know how to love her and take care of her as I would like to. She likes writing, copying paragraphs out of books so I wrote out Psalm 23 for her to copy in French and then showed her other passages in the Bible. She wants to learn more about the Bible and I need to spend more time helping her learn. I realize I am used to people who have a basic grasp of the Bible and the stories. What does it mean to show someone the Bible and explain it to them for the first time? I feel ill prepared. Maybe tomorrow we will look at Genesis and creation.
I'm tired and want my freedom back, just to work without taking care of someone else. I thought she might be able to stay with family for the weekend, but they will be out of town. I know she is suppose to be with me. I need God's grace to get me through.
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3 comments:
Thanks for posting this update, Anna. I'll be praying for you and Samba and our group will pray tomorrow night, as well. You're tired now but am sure you won't regret your perseverance when this is over. Romans 5 says that perseverance produces experience and experience, hope. "And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us."
I'll be praying for you as you take care of Samba. This is hard I feel the difficulty you are going through. We love you and are praying.
I'm so encouraged by how you are a living and tangible example of Christ's love to Samba. I'll stop and pray for you now and will have the staff pray for you too. I pray God will pour his grace out on you and strengthen and refresh you by his Spirit.
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