Friday, June 23, 2006

Three...Four...Five...Seventeen?!?

Fourth time : 17??? I thought I was seeing a pattern here. Six was supposed to come next, not 17!!

This lady showed up, obviously in a lot of pain. She had it wrapped up with some old flowery piece of cloth. The only way I can describe un-wrapping these types of things, is like at your birthday, you know that one gift you're just dying to open because you have no idea what's inside. As you see below, this is the present I unwrapped.


She had some bad luck with ... my number 2 enemy (#1 being the machete) - the motosiklet or motorcycle for all you English speaking types. She was riding on the back of the motorcycle (another form of public transportation in Haiti) when she and her driver collided with another motorcycle. She was the only one hurt in the accident and the sweet man who was driving, brought her here and stayed the whole time.

This time around was better, my hands weren't shaky at all (Mesi Jezi!) and just the fact that God was with me the whole time ... close to 90 minutes of stitching. (I am very slow, I know that.)

(comments below each pic)
I prayed first, that helped! She came at sunset, so we sutured in the company of all the night bugs.

Sorry for all those who hate this stuff .... just stop scrolling now.

A little less than half way finished ... took a little break...

DONE & DONE!



She was not very happy when I wanted to do one more stitch at the end but somehow I convinced her that the openness of it wasn't all that cool. So 16 became 17. My mom did a great job helping me while the mosquitoes ate us for dinner.

This lady entertained us with all of her chatter, here are a few of the phrases she repeated over and over: (translated to English) "oh lord, oh god, oh father, oh jezi/jesus. I'm gonna die (used most frequently), I have a problem, do you hear me?, when are you coming? when am I done?"

We hope she was saying this more because of her cut than because of us ... hahaha ... but either way, we cannot really blame her! ;)

Maybe the word is out that someone here can kind of do stitches ... but the word must be out that they are free. ;) 17 was a large time investment at my slow speed ... so here's hoping that we don't ever top it.
~Britt